I had probably the most exciting discussion
ever yesterday with a school administrator. As a teacher, I have had more discussions with administrators than I can count, but this one was by far the best one ever, so I had to share.
DH and I decided about 3 months ago now that we will be homeschooling DD8.5 starting in the fall. This is a major decision for us, but after multiple attempts to get various schools to try and meet her needs and having had no success we've finally come to the conclusion, that there is no other option in our present location. About the same time as making this decision, I was talking to a colleague, who happens to teach the gifted language arts classes at my school for grades 6-8 (the only gt classes we have in a K-12 school) trying to get some resources for DD, to make a long story short after talking to her I had what I thought was a crazy idea
- we should try to get my school to allow DD8.5 to be radically accelerated into grade 6 for language arts and art classes so that she could have this woman for a teacher, as well as the art teacher whom would also be great for DD.
DH and I discussed the idea and had DD take the WISC IV a couple of weeks ago to get more evidence that she would be a great candidate for radical acceleration. I also approached my head of school with the idea, she was intrigued with the idea, but did not commit one way or the other.
Fast forward to yesterday...
I was at school doing various stuff and the elementary/middle school principal saw me and called me into his office to discuss my idea, that he had heard from the head of school. He wanted to know more about DD, so I again told her story, before I could get to the part about her new test scores he said, "we can have her re-tested to get a more accurate indication of her level". (she'd been tested 2 yrs ago) I then told him that her recent score put her FSIQ at 149. He had the typical reaction of "WOW, that's great, amazing impressive." But it was what he said next that was so exciting: he stopped talking for a minute and said, "wow, this will be a great challenge for the school. It is not so much that she will know more than her classmates to begin with, but it is the rate at which she will learn and process the information that will make educating her a tough job. There is no way that a single teacher will be able to do this, it will take a group of us getting together probably once a month to monitor her progress and make sure that we are keeping up with things and doing a good job. I think this could be a great opportunity for us all to learn how to truly meet the needs of a gifted kid. We'd have to take into account her social and emotional needs as well, but X, Y and Z are around that grade and they are very smart, not at her level, but they would be good kids to introduce her to, and they would take care of her."
He went on for about 10 minutes sort of thinking aloud all of the points that we as parents have been discussing about what would be needed for this to work! He was so excited at the prospect, not only for DD but also for the teachers involved in it as a learning experience for all.
I left the discussion feeling like I'd come out of an alternate universe - I have never had an administrator, or gifted teacher understand all of the different parts and concerns involved in getting my daughter an education. We are waiting for the ed. psych person to come back from vacation before a decision can be made about this, but just to have a discussion where we were on the same page as the school was amazing!
I will let you know what happens next week when the ed psych's vacation is over.
Sorry this is so long, I can never seem to make things short and sweet.
