Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments We can't let the kid skip be-cauuse....

Hi all,

This is a new thread that I've created out of a segue from the NASA thread.


Here's what I've been told or heard about:

1. We can't skip him because of concerns about socialization.

Eight-year-olds can't mix with nine-year-olds because that would be Damaging. Well, except when they're on the playground at recess, when older siblings exist, or when a redshirted nine-year-old is in a class with eight-year-olds. These situations are either extremely rare or extremely ignored for purposes of the conversation.

This argument also has something to do with the soul destruction that occurs when one's classmates get driver's licenses in 2017 when one still has to wait until 2018. The horror! The horror!

2. We can't skip her because there's no such thing as giftedness anyway.

Unless she's a gifted athlete, in which case we will gush with praise to the point where she'll want to hide under a rock to escape it. Athletic-type giftedness definitely exists. It is great!

For purposes of this argument, the damage wrought by mixing with older children does not exist. We can ignore any damage wrought by making little pitchers throw the ball until they injure themselves, etc. etc. This is because sports injuries aren't damage --- they Build Character (tm).


3. We won't skip him because you're just a pushy parent.

Corollary: "You need to let him be a normal kid."

These statements are universally true. Therefore, it follows logically that there's no need to test the child or listen to the parents. Why bother?

(Abandoning my tongue-in-cheek approach here.) Educators aren't used to seeing highly gifted kids. If they aren't highly gifted themselves or if they haven't done any background reading, it can be easy to believe that it's impossible to figure out what division is by yourself before you start school.


4. We don't need to skip her because our teachers are Masters and Mistresses of Differentiation!

There's a big pile of worksheets on the table near the window. She can do them any time after she finishes her hundred addition problems, gets them all right, and finishes tutoring the two kids assigned to her! Never mind that the worksheets repeat the same stuff she just did. If she was really gifted, she'd want to do them all. But she doesn't, and this is how we know she isn't gifted. :-P

5. We can't skip him because he didn't get 90% in every subject on the tests you made us administer because you're such a pushy parent.

That last 12% of second grade language arts is the good stuff, and he needs to spend all of next year learning it.

For purposes of this argument, we will ignore the very rare occurrence of other children passing to the next grade on the strength of Bs, Cs, Ds, or Fs.


HTH,

Val

Bravo Val ... great post.

You go!!! I love it!

6. We can't skip him because he may not pass the FCAT (Florida's standardized test). We have seen gifted kids fail it.

7. We can't skip him because he needs to learn to do unchallenging work. This from the school psychologist who said there's a lot of drudgery in her job.

Oh, and thank you so much for "working" with him at home pushy parent.

Oh my. Sounds like someone needs a career change.

Thanks for the kind words, all.

Val

((hugs)) Val -

My least favorite one: We can't skip him because we skipped a boy like him 10 years ago, and the parents said it was the worst mistake they ever made.

My retorts:
1) maybe you didn't skip him enough? Any kid that you noticed was ahead enough to need a skip, may well have needed subject accelerations as well, or radical acceleration.
2) maybe this kid would be miserable in formal school no matter what - lets check in with him in 10 more years, ok?
3) I promise to never blame you for any bad effect of this skip - and I'll put it in writing. I'm the parent.

8. Grade skipping migh work for now but you'll see later if he has to start college early. Kids who do that "crash and burn" and end up messed up in their 20s.

No wonder we love 'GAP years' so much!

Oh wow thanks for the laugh! That was great!

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7. We can't skip him because he needs to learn to do unchallenging work. This from the school psychologist who said there's a lot of drudgery in her job.


[/quote]

LOVE THIS ONE!!! We were actually told something similar to this at a meeting last month with our local zoned school. We were told that he needed to learn how to "deal with it" because everyone will be bored at some point in their life and he needs to learn how to deal with being bored