ANY NAIL THAT STICKS UP GETS HAMMERED DOWN. HARD!

To this day, I cannot function at ANYTHING creative unless I am totally, psychologically alone.

Having been one of those students, I know that most of them would do the same quality of work no matter who was standing in front of them. I think that is one of the reasons G/T students get overlooked, because they don’t seem to need extra help.

The schools I was in never heard of gifted students, but we were tracked, which was almost as good, I guess. The book I read in high school that made the biggest impact on my life and my schooling was Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert Heinlein. The lesson I learned from that was that I had to take responsibility for my own learning. Because of that book, I took six years of math, mostly as independent study.

If you as a parent are not satisfied with your child’s education, DO SOMETHING. Yes, it may not be fair that you have to do extra work, but at the end of the day, your child is your responsibility. You know your child much better than the teacher, who either can’t or won’t accomodate each students’ starting point, background knowledge, and learning style.

I agree parents need to be advocates all the same….if your child isn’t being challenged, get out and organize!

I, too, was no genius, but was a reader. I LOVED to read. I always read ahead in all of my classes, and had the entire text book finished when it was early in the year. I’d get in trouble for reading ahead, but what else was there to do when I’d finished all of my classwork and wasn’t allowed outside books?

They told me in third grade that I was reading at a twelfth grade level. and even then, I thought, “Isn’t 12th the highest grade? So what next?” What next, indeed. Sit down and suppress all of your intelligence for the next 9 years, that’s what. Get all your work done and then sit in class, bored to tears, finishing all of your homework for that night before you even leave school. Let your brain rot while not ever being challenged, ever, because the class has to cater to the middle – not the slowest and not the fastest, but to the average.

A lot of kids get left behind in that scenario.

You’re my heroine for bringing this to the forefront more and more. One thing aspiring teachers should remember is that more of the same work is not sufficient for G/T students: They need more advanced work in a similar vein to keep their minds stimulated. I only had one teacher in all my elementary and secondary school years who actually understood this, and he will always be remembered fondly for his understanding of what I needed in class to be successful. He didn’t give me more work on top of what everyone else was doing; he gave me more advanced work than everyone else was doing to keep me interested and attuned to what he was teaching us. (Still on topic, of course, with what he was teaching. He was an amazing teacher.)

My seven-year-old self and your seven-year-old self would have been good friends. We could have commiserated about the terrible teachers and how misunderstood we were.

I am not allowed to see my high school kids (schedule problems), I occasionally get to see my Middle School kids, and am not allowed to make accommodations for the elementary kids. I can only have them for “pull-out”. Believe me, we work hard and fast and furious during that time! And they love it! And want more.

So how, exactly, has the learning experience for these kids been improved since we were kids? How can NCLB truly “improve academic achievement” for them?

As a student teacher, I am continually amazed as I observe in different classrooms at how teachers handle advanced or gifted students. Some follow the take away recess method and others foster the love for knowledge. I think it is something all teachers really should pay more attention to. Over and over again we are reminded as education students to make sure not to leave anyone behind, but sometimes it is at the cost of leaving a love for reading or knowledge behind, which I think many forget. As a Spanish teacher, I am continually on the look out for effect ways of reaching out to those students who want to learn more, but it really it tough. Hopefully I get better with it in the future.

People wonder why I rarely go back home.

WF

I started in Kindergarten with the level-based program, reading stories while the other kids were still learning their ABC’s. My very kind K teacher explained to me that she was sorry that I had to sit through those lessons since she knew I already knew how to read, but I would have to be patient while the other kids learned and I waited for my reading lesson.

In second grade, I was the only kid in the grade reading at the level I was, so to have me be in a reading group with someone else, I got skipped up a level to be with the third grader who was the highest level reader in her grade.

In third grade, I was forced back YEARS of reading experience when the program was changed to one where the whole class read the same book at the same time, and I had to sit there, bored to tears, while other kids struggled through books that I’d read years before. This continued throughout high school, even, since I was reading the books that my two-years-older brother brought home from his English classes.

Our talented and gifted program (diluted, by the time I got in, in fourth grade, by lowering the bar to allow more kids in, which diluted the amount of attention we got and what we were able to do) was cut when I was in eighth grade. My mom fought for years to get it back, and the town finally agreed. Too late to be of any more use to me, but great for the kids who can still benefit from it.