Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Responding to anti-GT remarks

I think it's just the thinking that if you are gifted then learning will be easy for you and therefore the quality of teacher is irrelevant.

You're right--that's a more accurate way of describing the thinking, most likely.

Sad to say that this is just part of life when you have a kid in one of these programs. Most people don't have any reason to get educated about issues associated with the gifted population. You could confront her with, do you think that my child doesn't deserve a good teacher? This probably won't get you very far. If anything, it just reinforces people's stereotypes about gt parents.

To a certain extent, you need to develop a thick skin. You will get these comments throughout your child's tenure in the program. If you know the person well and feel that she might be open to learning about gifted ed, you could try to enlighten her. You could talk to her about your experiences (if you have them) in a traditional classroom and how it didn't work. I reserve this for true friends.

We have had similar issues come up in our school-within-a-school program. Recently, it has been in the context of class size increases due to budget cuts. For the most part, gt classes are slightly smaller than the traditional classes. At a school meeting, a parent asked why the gt kids get the benefit of smaller class sizes when they already have an educational advantage over kids in the traditional school. Here, one of the non-gt teachers stood up and told the parent that her comments weren't justified. The teacher explained that gt kids do not have it easier and that it truly is a special needs population. The teacher then relayed an experience that she had as a student teacher in a gt classroom. It was very powerful coming from one of the teachers who taught in the traditional school.

This is tough on many levels. We have the same situation for middle school. We are not at the middle school yet. I hear similar things about the teachers being better. For me it is more about DD being with her peers. I think it is tough for teachers to teach many different levels in a classroom. The magnet essentially groups the kids making it easier for the teachers to shine. There are many good teachers at all the schools they just have a lot to deal with IMHO with so many varying ability grouping. These same teachers at the magnet school may not relate to the regular classes.

We have enough kids that will go to the magnet that we meet lots of people that are in the same program. Sometimes I need to remember that it's not everyone so maybe I shouldn't talk about education issues.

My last thought was that as I initially researched GT kids I came to realize that NCLB makes it really difficult for the "bright" unidentified kids to get a challenge since teachers are forced by districts to teach the test and get scores. I wish more could be done for those kids - but I know the "GT" limits are set by funding issues. I wonder if it is these parents who "see the light" but get no help. They may externalize it by offhand comments not necessarily jealousy but frustration. At least even in the normal middle schools, I think most places have advanced tracks open to not only GT but high achievers or GT kids that don't test as well.

Our gifted program doesn't start until fourth grade- we are just waiting until it starts for our third grader. There is alot of snottiness in our school district and competitiveness to "get a spot" in it.
I don't know if the teachers in the full-time gifted program will be better. I'm hoping that one bonus will be that the kids who don't do any work at all will be somewhat weeded out. I was volunteering in his class this week- their public school is ranked in the top 10% of California. They spent the whole week reviewing adding quarters, dimes, etc. For real! A number of kids thought a quarter was worth 15 cents...
My son is bored right now. He's capable of moving alot faster. I don't think alot of kids/parents would necessarily WANT to move faster or do alot more work. I don't think many parents whose kids aren't in a gifted program really realize that.

I don't know if I've mentioned this here before, but I've had conversations with educators and have seen what I call gifted and talented contempt up close.

We were talking about a research study that had "closed the achievement gap." Summary: the bright students in the class tested at exactly the same level of proficiency as they had on the pre-test on the first day of school. The scores of the worst students in the class improved, and this outcome was seen as being a worthy, positive one because the achievement gap had been narrowed. When I pointed out that the talented students hadn't learned a thing, the reply was, "But they were ALREADY.