Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy are you a gifted ed evangelical?

I have heard that the 'worst' school districts can be the best for a child who needs more accommodations. The 'good' districts are so sure of their excellence that they refuse to see a need for anything other than what they provide, whereas the 'bad' districts are used having work things out. I met someone a couple of weeks ago whose child is in one of the 'worst' districts, and he had glowing praise for their gifted program.

(scare quote usage fully intentional)

Having taken the full trip with DS 19 and nearly the full trip with DS 15 I'm of the same mindset as HowlerKarma. My original mindset was that all it would take to sway people was to educate them, I quickly learned (and should have already known) that you can only educate those willing to be educated. What I've found is that there are too many who don't know what they don't know but assume they do. There are also many that assume that since little or no time was spent on gifted education and it's special needs in their college education, that anything you have to say or show them isn't going to be helpful or change their mind.

I've taken the mindset of educating those who will listen and avoiding those who won't. You can only justify wasting so much time on those who already have their mind made up, time that can be better spent seeking other options. I know I've wasted more time being bull headed trying to educate those who don't want to be than I'd like to admit.

I haven't ever been involved in the private school trail, only public school option. There, unfortunately I've learned a couple of things generally speaking, of course not in ALL cases...

1. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, not always but if it's not squeaking it has no chance.
2. Public schools are deathly afraid of any parental confrontation be it entirely civil, factual, and with intent to solve problems or otherwise.
3. If the public school even has the slightest thought pattern that something will cost more money they dismiss it immediately without so much as discussion.
4. You're not going to win over an entire system, if you can find one person who "gets" your kid and the concept, then do everything you can to make the most of it.
5. Expect to supplement your child's education outside of school and expect to need to go to great lengths to do so.

Again, these aren't true in ALL scenarios, they're just more often true than not.

To answer the question--I do not evangelize. I have some ambivalence about the net community effect of the gifted magnet my child attends. It's much better than her first school, but still probably not enough. It will be interesting to see how things progress as my second child enters the system and as the years pass.

I can imagine an ideal school for my children, but I can't imagine it being implemented. I am highly aware of the multiple obstacles that exist to this school ever being created. I really don't want to homeschool my kids, either. I feel pretty done with full-time parenting (as an introvert with two extrovert children, I find it hard!), I think they benefit from being with other adults and other children, and I have a job that I love. We supplement at home with a lot of interesting stuff. However, I am not afterschooling DD because she has too much homework to make this sustainable.

I am sort of beaten down at this point, but DD is maintaining and doing okay, so we will take it. The irony is that neither of my children are 2E in the educational sense and both of them SHOULD be extremely fun to teach in most ways. I'm still waiting for just one of them to get a teacher who really loves him/her and gives him/her wings.

Old Dad, I think your summary is really on target.

We've had fewer problems and frustrations with private schools and more in only one year of a public school than all other years combined, but the school was a very bad fit for our son.

But we've still met people at the private schools who really don't get giftedness at all.