Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Waldorf Schools?

hey all
just to let you know i passed on Waldorf- there were things i just loved and things that just seemed too abstract and hard to grasp about it. And bottom line i can't entertain spending 16K a year for it- i would have to be wowed by all aspects to consider that type of sacrifice.

The "school for the gifted" was too regimented and "work-booky" for lack of a better word.

So we are going to give the public school a try and see how it goes. We're in a huge district which seems to have a large GT population...I feel like i am partially homeschooling my older child now (creating my own homework, etc.) so that will probably be how it will go with her too.

WHY are "schools for the gifted" so work-booky????

Almost all schools are work-booky, from what I've seen. I guess the pervasiveness of workbooks gives them a lot of inertia.

Along those lines, has anyone else thought that the passages in reading workbooks and textbooks can be dreadfully dull? Many of them strike me as having been purpose-built to include a group of pre-selected words.


Val

i always liked work books when i was a kid- but my two kids are rote learning haters and won't touch them. I guess it has to do with learning styles. I think they are so pervasive in the gifted school i visisted because it makes it easy for the kids to work ahead. but no excuse.. they are ok in moderation but not as the primary activity.
irene

Just to add something: Waldorf schools tend to have a high percentage of unvaccinated kids. If this is a concern for you (emm, it should be) watch out for them.

Example: Waldorf School in Santa Clara county tops local vaccine exemption list


You can check you own district (in California) here:

California schools, including vaccination exemptions

Val

that is interesting about the vaccine issue. I am confused about that one as my DS7 was originally diagnosed with autism before we realized this year that he was mis-diagnosed and is actually HG with a still-unidentifed LD.. but not autism.

So culturally we've been in the autism community for the last 5 years and a lot of our friends have unvaccinated kids. Its just such a confusing issue as I see a HUGE genetic component. While others see a huge "vaccination" link.

Not to get too off track, but I am starting to think that environmental factors (including vaccinations) may have started some type of genetic mutation (not sure if thats the right word, i'm not medical) that is causing the autism... SO both sides are right, possibly. I feel that a big break is coming in autism research, and hope that it settles this once and for all..

Back to "work-booky" schools. I think it imperative that schools for GT get over this method! These kids are at a higher risk for dropping out of school and giving them more of the same instead of something different does nothing to prevent this.

My DH teaches honors and AP courses and is constantly discouraged by the teachers that think "honors" means giving more vocabulary worksheets instead of fewer. The honors kids need to move on to the deeper kinds of learning and skip some of the vocabulary sheets - stick to the words that are really new to them.

Okay this is a rant that probably belongs in a different forum, but there is all kinds of research out there to support this and it sounds so whiney, arrogant, and overprotective to say my child is needs something different - especially if he is proving the teacher right by not doing the assigned work! (probably not the teacher's problem )

Mmm...a number of researchers looked into the autism-vaccines link a number of times and no one ever found any kind of correlation, let alone causation.

val

val
maybe you didn't mean to do so, but my quote was taken out of context. Though there are many who still blame vaccines and only vaccines for autism, the other "side" i was referencing (vs. Genetic) is "environmental" and that includes air, water, vaccines, medications of mother, lifestyle, diet changes, blah blah blah. I don't think any research study at this point could target one thing or this would have been settled up already. in tracking the argument over the past five years i feel that there is a shift toward a middle ground. And this is occurring in other illness/research camps as well. For example, i believe they recently targeted a breast cancer gene/mutation that caused an increased risk of the disease occurring. however environmental factors such as smoking influenced whether the cancer actually occurred. I feel ultimately we will find a similar thing is happening with autism. I do not think any study ever will find an absolute and direct link with the vaccines.

I agree that it's likely that autism is multi-factorial. However, if vaccines were even a part of the story - more precisely, if being vaccinated made one more likely to develop autism, even though only slightly and even though lots of other factors were also involved - then there would be a correlation between being vaccinated and developing autism. There isn't, as far as we know - and it's a very well-studied question by now, so by ordinary scientific standards, we do know.

I suppose that if there were some way that the prevalence of vaccination in the population could make the population as a whole more likely to develop autism, without the actual individuals being vaccinated being at extra risk compared to others in the population who were not vaccinated, then that isn't ruled out. E.g., if somehow the manufacturing of vaccines were producing an air pollutant to which everyone is exposed, that would do it. Seems far-fetched, though.