About a week and a half after school started this year, my son's teacher informed me that she was recommending him for the gifted program. While I haven't been thrilled with their 30 minutes a week, at least he seems like it's making him think, and he's enjoying it. Last night I took a tour of a magnet school where I am considering sending him, and spoke to the gifted teacher there. She told me that in this county, they don't recognize anyone as "gifted" until third grade. Instead, they have a "nurturing" program where kids whose teachers think they may be gifted see a separate teacher who isn't even trained to work with gifted students. Then at the end of second grade, they are tested for the gifted program. Okay, I know that every school system has different policies, and if my son can't be in the gifted program until third grade, so be it. I don't expect the whole district to change their policies just for one kid. But I admit I'm a little miffed that the teacher and administrators just flat-out lied to me. Probably to get me to shut up about the fact that my son wasn't learning anything in their school.
That's the system they have in our district. It has the same name, the only difference is that they're not "formally identified" until third or fourth or whenever. That's apparently because some parents get annoyed if their child has a label and then loses it (probably the parents who are over-invested in the label to start with). Does it matter what it's called when you knew exactly what the program entailed, that is, 30 minutes a week of non-curricular pullout?
