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

Ah, that one would be funnier, if it weren't codified into state law in our state! (The law actually says that you're required to accommodate kids who can meet that hurdle, which the schools interpret as a prohibition on accommodating kids who don't meet it.)

What's a GAP year?
LoL, 10-4 ignoring the fact that families are mixed-aged, but they can't be in class with older kids. Lmao

It is the same in my state. My twice exceptional son, who tested around the time he turned 6, almost made that 90% necessary to skip first grade and go on to second. At the same time the kindergarten teacher recommended holding him back in a transitional first grade (a year in between Kindergarten and first grade) so he could learn to color better even through he has a disability that affects visual motor integration and the school would not offer OT or PT because he was academically advanced and OT and PT is only for kids who are failing. He was the second youngest in the kindergaraten class, but the only kid who could read well (at a 5th grade level) and do mental math. We were told to homeschool or put him in private school which we couldn't afford.

When I talked to people in the gifted ed and special ed departments of our state department of ed, they said there was nothing they could do because of the laws in our state. There is no law requiring an appropriate education for twice exceptional kids in our state.

At 12, my son is taller and seems older than the four kids in his musical theater class that are close to his age--they are actually slightly older than he is, but they all thought he was a few years older. An adult in the optometrist's office last year thought he was a smart 14 year old. I think it might have worked out well if the school had grade skipped him with a few accommodations, but they didn't have to and they wouldn't so we had to homeschool. We even asked for an IEP meeting after we homeschooled for a year and had him tested so we had proof that he was academically advanced, but had a disability, but we never got that meeting. We were ignored. It is a small town. My dad didn't want us to fight it because he thought homeschooling would be best and I gave up so here we are and although my son is doing well academically he now says he is lonely and wishes he could be around kids that are more like him. There was no perfect solution for us.

I still think the perfect solution for us would have been part time school but there is nothing I can do.

DS's school was actually quite open to a skip and didn't throw the usual arguments at us. I had read the arguments here and had gone in well prepared with tons of research, Nation Deceived and the Iowa manual.

One we heard this year that I hadn't heard before:

We can't skip him because we'll lose class size reduction funding.
Me: How much is that?
Principal: I don't know. A lot.
Me: I'll calculate it and pay the bill.
Principal: It's a lot... like $900.

Apparently $900 is the price for educational happiness and success.

Turned out to be more like $200. And yeah... we paid it. And all lived happily ever after... until I have to approach them again for subject acceleration this year.

Can't skip him because he doesn't know the basics (i.e. he is bored witless of doing "1 + 1" type maths) - from a teacher who was proud to know zilch about Kepler)

We can't skip her because she has already received accommodations in the past.

We can't skip her because we think she has Aspergers even if OT, neuropsych and developmental ped do not.

We can't skip her because there are "mean" kids in the next grade up.

We can't skip her because it will upset the other parents and indicate that our program is not as rigorous and differentiated as we claim it is.

Oh, and she hasn't learned cursive yet!

And, We clearly don't NEED to skip her because we are already having her:
- travel to another classroom for math
- receive 1 on 1 instruction in composition/reading
- expecting her parents come up with her spelling list so that it is hard enough
- expecting an 8 year old to practice strings in a room alone during music
- having her learn "socialization"/boredom management skills in the classroom during reading group time when they are reading books she read 4+ years ago and probably has memorized.
- being told her needs and science and technology will not be able to be met within the elementary school environment.

Clearly being singled out and kept alone is better socialization and easier for the school logistically than bumping her up.

Rant over.

Thanks for this thread! awesome!

Thanks for great responses, everyone!

And lest we forget the real reason for why grade skips just can't happen: it's because the world --- nay, the entire solar system --- will come to a fiery cataclysmic end if a five-year-old is allowed to enter first grade. We're talking an event that will make the Permian extinction look, you know, like the loss of a minor toe fungus. We're talking about the sun swelling to several times its normal size and swallowing up Venus in the process. From here, our sun would be a giant red mass filling the sky --- that is, if there was anyone left to look at it. All because of a pushy parent.

And I think you are all very selfish for even suggesting that giving your child a more appropriate learning environment is more important than the continued existences of Mercury and Venus.

I am, I am Superman, and I know what's happening...



Val

A gap year means taking a year off between high school and college to travel, volunteer, intern, start a nonprofit or for-profit business, etc. It's one possible way to allow a kid to be accelerated and not go away to college quite so early.

Man, we are selfish!

Really, though, this thread is awesome! Val, great posts!