great news....and little bit of a pain in the ass to go with it

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Holy fucking shit. I needed this one
Well, all year the evil drones at my kids school trying to force my kid into special ed. Unbeknowst to me. The special ed person has been fighting them all year, because he in no way needs to be. He is very quiet, and doesnt do much work in class (this year, last year he was on the honor roll). He also has ADD. Finally, We gave in and let him be tested for special ed because the claimed that they couldnt make any kind of accomadations for his ADD problems unless we did.

Just got a call today.
The lady doing the testing(the special ed lady) said that my child is the most gifted child she has ever tested in her entire career

I’m stunned.

His IQ is in top 2% of the population

His accademic scores were all way over what they should be, some on a college leve, some on a high school level, and one only two or three grades above where he is at(the tester said that he was tired, and bored with the testing by the time he did that test). He’s in 4th grade.

I’m even more stunned that his asshat teacher/priciple/counselor are still trying to stuff him in a low functioning class. The lady doing the testing said that after talking to him, observing him in class and testing him her finding is that he is bored to tears and not being challenged. She said that gifted children like him have to be taught differantly, that they need to be given a reason when they are asked to do something, not just told to do it. She tried to help out his teacher and was banned from working with him.

When told how gifted he was, the priciple just got snotty and said “well, why doesnt he do anything in class”. She told the principle “Because he is not being challenged.”

The Counselor told everybody up there that he was dangerous because he is quiet and plays video games. AAAARRRRGGGHH. He’s 10. Thats what 10 year old do is play video games.

The lady today suggested that we insist he be put in gifted classes next year, and that we dont take no for an answer. She even said that although she is retiring and moving out of state, she will come back here to be his advocate if we need her to, but he has to be in gifted classes.

This is really cool, even with the problems. I will deal with the asshats at the school… my kids gifted…WOOHOOO!!

2

Man, that’s awesome! You should be proud.

3

That’s great news! Shows what they knew, I guess. Speaks wonders for his teacher as well.

4

1st year teacher, had no idea what she was doing. All she knew to do was yell at him, so and then try to get him shoved off into special ed because she couldnt get anything out of him. The lady who called me said she tried to get him moved into another class months ago but they refused.

5

You’d think the first-year teachers would be the ones who are more patient with the kids, who try to find out why they’re not learning - or don’t appear to be - rather than yelling at them.

6

If you have any options to get him out of that school, such as private or parochial, using a relative’s address to establish residency for a different public school, you should look into that.

The teachers he has now don’t seem to really care about developing a student. Perhaps a change of environment could be helpful.

7

Listen to the special ed lady. Some friends of ours have TWO extremely gifted sons. This fall the younger one (5) will be joining his brother (10) in the gifted school that the older one has been attending for several years (after getting much the same treatment as your child in a mainstream school). I am told that extremely gifted kids need special attention in all aspects of their development; for example, you want a doctor who specializes in these kids and understands how they function. In some cases being “normal” in one aspect (say, motor development) can actually be a hindrance, rather than just “Oh, I guess he’s just like the other kids in that one area.” Wish I could recall some of the examples my friend gave. Her kids are truly a handful, much as a child on the “other end” might be. And the school is expensive – but they found a group that helps with expenses as well as counseling, parent support groups, etc.

Good luck with your new challenge. Get on the Internet and start boning up on all the GT stuff you’ll need to know!

Scarlett, former “gifted child” (but not THAT gifted! Skipping a grade was enough for me)

8

I think they tell all kids that. Supposed to help with self esteem and all that.

9

This is exactly what happened to me in school. I had great writing skills and no one knew why I kep failing English. Then I went to summer school, where instead of doing pointless busywork for eight months, every assignment had a clear purpose and explicitly focused on a skill. In other words, it was all relevant.

As for Quintas, that was a moronic thing to say.

Keep advocating for your child, bdgr. Even if you can’t afford some of the options, it doesn’t mean you can’t afford any of them. From what you are saying, it will take persistence (since all the “professionals” are asshats), but it will pay off in the end. Besides, you don’t need me to tell you this, but your kid is worth it.

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Wish I could find the “Were you academically gifted?” thread, but I think it must have been a casualty of the Winter of Our Missed Content. :frowning: That thread made me cry – I had never heard from so many people who genuinely understood what it was like.

Quintas: Yeah, right. I was reading at 3, doing long division at 5, routinely tested in the 99th percentile on standardized tests (after skipping, mind you), got the highest-ever PSAT score in my high school, and more than qualified for Mensa. They just TOLD me I was smart so I’d feel good about myself. :rolleyes: Actually, my self-esteem was in the toilet for most of my school years. But thanks so much for that ignorant remark.

Giftedness is its own area of special education, with its own rules and its own problems. It’s not a matter of just piling on more work or reading, or even grade advancement. Gifted kids’ brains are wired differently. They process information differently. (God I wish that thread weren’t gone.) And they often need a lot of help with social skills. Being gifted is not the same as “being smart.” It’s a whole nuther ball game. And it’s not all roses. Just ask my friends with the gifted sons.

Kudos to bdgr for being an involved parent.

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Complete and total coolness, bdgr. I am so happy for you and your son. You must be ready to split a seam. I can hear you grinning all the way from here. Way to go, daddy-o!!! Get your son hooked on a copy of Myst and go from there. He sounds like a great kid.

12

Thanks guys. Yeah, I am both proud, estatic, and pissed off all at the same time…kind of wierd. Yeah we have myst, he plays it sometime. He was also reading a book on relativity at 10 years old, and the other day he corrected me when I said we are three dimensional…He told me that if we were three dimensional, we wouldnt age. Were four dimensional. I never thought of it like that, but he’s right. Pretty abstract for a 10 year old.

I’ll be sure and let everybody know what happens when we have our meeting on monday.

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bdgr, what test did the special ed lady use? You need to find out what she used and if you possibly can, what ceilings were hit.

Did she really say 98th percentile? Now, please take this in the spirit in which it is meant which is nothing but goodwill OK :)? 98th percentile is about 130. 130 while high is NOT an extreme score. If she did the WISC III, you need to know what ceilings and in what subtests he scored the ceilings to get a sense of what degree of giftedness you are dealing with. It sounds like his achievement testing is way out there which is a Good Thing and should help with advocating for him.

How much do you actually know about what the special ed class offers? Is it truly a class for kids who are very low functioning or is it a class for kids with extra needs? I know of kids who score over the 99.9th percentile who are in special ed because of associated LDs or Aspergers or ADD. I’d look carefully to see if there is anything of value in the special ed stream.

Accommodations do depend on the degree of giftedness that is present. At the 98th percentile, you’re dealing with what Hollingsworth described as optimal giftedness. These kids tend to cope academically and socially without having the major dramas faced by more extreme kids.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.com

is an excellent resource site for parents of gifted kids.

14

Bdgr,

Have you considered seeing if you could get him a scholarship into Country Day?

I believe that is relatively near your home.

15

Well, the ladys title was Education Diagnostician Supervisor…her job was to figure out where kids belonged. And she said that special ed would be a disaster…that he would be put in with the low functioning kids.
She’s been doing this for 35 years(she retires this year), and she said he was the most gifted student that she had ever tested

Anyway, I believe one of the tests was the WISC 3, and the score was 142…I will look at it in detail on monday.
But he took several differant tests…she read off a bunch of numbers to me. I will get all of the results on monday…she was just trying to get me an idea of how he did over the phone.

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Maybe I will check into that…Thanks.

17

Country day, Trinity Valley or All Saints are all schools you should consider.

The first two are big into academics and I am sure would love to have a resident genius! :slight_smile:

Also, does your son have any hobbies? They may help alleviate some of the boredom.

Ridglea Music center offers classes for about $17.00 a session. There is also drum foundation locally. I can get more info on them if you’d like.

The modern has art camp in the summer. I volunteer for them and can find out about scholarships there, if you think it would be something he’d like.

18

OK :). One thing – 142 is not the 98th percentile, it’s higher and combined with those achievement scores, you’re in interesting territory.

I hear ya on the special ed thing. Some school districts are fine with dual exceptionalities and others are not.

19

Up a little late arent we?

Yeah, he takes Aikido, and he takes piano lessons from my mom. She is a semi retired graduate school music theory proff…and has a doctorate in musice education. (I come from a family of over-achievers).

He’s also into skating, and reads inccesantly. (and speells better than his dad). He went throught the entire samuraii cat series in about a week(I wouldnt let him read samuraii cat goes to hell though…that one was a bit over the top).

The art camp thing might be cool…He usually goes to a science camp, but may not this year…

He wants to be an NSA spook when he grows up…kids today.

20

Yeah, according to the mensa site he qualifies off of those scores…which if he joins will have the added advantage of not having to worry about him getting some girl pregnant in high school.