Experience with "Gifted" curriculum at schools

[TVRodriguez]

So today I have a funny appointment--the school district called last week and set up an appointment for me to visit their "gifted team" to discuss my oldest son's gifted evaluation and "placement." But our kids go to a charter school that does not have a gifted program, and I'm not really interested in moving him, so I'm not sure what I'm going for, other than to get a copy of the report. He's doing well in this charter school, and I like what he comes home discussing from class. He's got a great music teacher, for example, and he'll listen to some classical music I have on and try to figure out which instruments are playing. I love that. His reading and math are above grade level, and they give him credit for reading lots of books--he even got an award for it at the end of the school year. And he's made friends there (last year was his first year there--in 2nd grade) and found other kids who are interested in school, which I love. He's learning a lot, and I don't know whether a 'gifted' class would be better or worse.

I know that I'm biased--I was in "gifted" classed in elementary school and found them to be a fun diversion that got me out of 'real' classes, but otherwise they were essentially worthless. Worse, they made some of us feel like we were somehow better than the kids who didn't get pulled out of class. And since they weren't graded, there was no need to work. It was as if 'being smart' was enough. It took me a long time to learn that smart is overrated and that hard work and persistence, along with other things unrelated to intelligence, such as social skills, are what really make a difference in life.

Well, I guess I'm wondering if anyone has had good experiences with gifted classes (for themselves or their kids/grandkids). I'm trying to keep an open mind and not show up with an obnoxious attitude.

[Kestra]

My experience was similar to yours. I would have been better off learning about social skills and many real-world skills. I was completely naive coming out of high school.
I took (and passed easily) all the highest level AP stuff, that allows you to bypass a couple first year university courses, then I never used them as I didn't understand student loans, and the benefits of higher education, or really anything about what to do after high school.

[Chicken lady]

Sounds like he's already in a gifted program.

What I needed in school was a remedial gym class called "basic physical activity and why it's important - for kids who really hate sports". What I got was the gifted program - my favorite part was when we got pulled out on gym day!

I would go find out what they have to offer him. It might be cool. It might be outside of school hours.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Maybe it's not needed if the school is ok and things are going well. Since the schools I went to were so horrible, I guess gifted classes allowed me to learn something instead of nothing. So that's a plus for them. I mean the regular classes were bad bad bad and learning hard work from taking them? What a joke, NOONE did their homework in the regular classes!!! I did a little docent volunteering through the gifted program, that's a good memory as well. It happened outside of school, and unlike school was one of the few real things I did as a kid, I really docented real people, even adults, taught them what I had learned. Cool.

I'm not sure why anyone would assume you learn more social skills in regular classes, since they aren't really taught there either. Your learn social skills I guess at home and from being in an environment that fits, like it sounds like your son is. Not from gifted or non-gifted classes. And to learn the value of a college degree, you learn that from spending a decade or more in the work force!!! Nothing you can tell kids can teach like that can, besides it's not like there's some universal consensus that a college degree is good among the adults they might learn from, so they might end up listening to some other adult mentor rather than the 'rents. And I can't recall gifted or non-gifted classes getting much instruction about what to do after high school, oh we maybe talked about careers briefly and unseriously in one class (and never if they were practical). I think anyone who got that got it from parents not school.

I don't think gifted classes are necessary if the school is decent, just my schools were such a complete and total wasteland, I can't personally diss them much, they were *something* in a vast educational wasteland of *nothing*. One thing I regret is they put me in physics rather than a general physical science program like those in the non-gifted program. I wasn't at all ready for physics and would have enjoyed learning general physical science principles rather than hard math about things I didn't understand.

[Chicken lady]

Don't get me wrong, I loved the gifted program. I Loved the activities, I loved the teachers, I loved being around other kids who understood all the words I used and didn't beat me up when I answered a question they got wrong in class, I loved missing gym, and it was good for me to be in a group of kids who were mostly smarter than me - otherwise I would have added "insufferable" to "antisocial fat kid who knows a ton of stuff and can't run or do a push up".

[CathyA]

My DD was in the gifted program in grade school. I think they went mostly on I.Q. (What the heck is I.Q. anyhow??)

She enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it offered much more than a few cool field trips. I think it's good to not bring down the level of expectations in a "normal" classroom to the slowest child's abilities, but at the same time it's sort of strange to say some kids are gifted and some aren't.

My DD has a high I.Q. My son struggled in school and was a real handful when he was little. He seemed to have trouble learning and with focus, and he had an average IQ. But............DD is a wonderful woman with lots of talents now, but DS, IMHO, is a genius. He is so talented in a number of areas, so mature, so insightful, so perceptive, so artistic. This has taught me that you just can't go by some school's idea of "gifted" or by an I.Q. This was a real eye-opener for me.....and now, no matter how crazy, un-focused, out-of-control, or "average" a child is, I always hope they are being treated like they are "gifted".......because they probably are, in some way that just isn't nurtured or visible right now..

[bae]

When I lived in Ohio, in middle school, they were really into IQ tests and other such tests in my school district. After the first battery of tests, they pulled me out of class for several days, and ran me through a whole pile of additional tests. There were hushed meetings, and my parents were consulted. I thought I'd failed the tests, and clearly my classmates thought something was up.

After that, they pulled me out of classes for about 1/2 the week every week, and I had "special classes" with the school's counselor. I was pretty sure I was in some sort of trouble. It didn't help that during this time I also had to wear leg braces because I had Osgood-schlatter and some other issues because of my unnaturally-fast growth rate (I reached nearly my adult height by the time I was 12).

As it turned out, I was "special" in the sense that I tested extremely well, and they had no idea what to do with me in classes, as the school didn't have a "gifted" program yet. The upshot was that I became even more introverted, and because of the taunts from the other kids at being "different" had even more motivation to continue with my judo and wrestling hobbies...

When I moved to California for grades 7/8/9, I was slotted right into an existing quite-decent gifted program, which occupied most of my class hours - math, science, history/English all had gifted tracks, of the same small handful of people. On a very large gang-infested campus troubled with violence, drug use, racial tension, and the whole array of stereotype cliques. We were a feeder middle school for the high school that was lampooned in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High". It was pretty much hell, except when I was in class, because all of the "gifted" kids were targets for almost every single clique and gang out there, and because of our special classes it was very easy to identify us.

[TVRodriguez]

Thanks for your perspectives, guys. I appreciate hearing the different experiences. Sounds like a variety here, based in some part on the difference between the 'gifted' classes and the 'regular' classes and whether there was an established gifted program or not.

Well, I just got back from the meeting. What. a Waste. Of. Time.

They actually read to me, out loud, the written report of the school psychologist. Then they told me that he qualifies to enroll in a gifted class and that they didn't know if our local assigned 'home' school has a gifted program or not. They told me I'd have to do some research. They told me that our charter school does not have a gifted program (which I knew). The one useful bit of information was that our school has a "good number" of 'gifted' kids and that might encourage our administration to add a gifted class. Then they had me sign several forms and that was it.

I asked them (there were four of them--great use of resources!) whether in their experience they would recommend enrolling a child in a gifted program if he qualifies. They said (to a person) "it depends on the child." Thanks for the insight, gifted professionals. I think we'll be leaving him where he is.

[CathyA]

I also think that what your dinner conversations, etc., are about, can really treat them like gifted people. DH and I and the kids had so many intelligent conversations about so many different things. They have since said that their friends thought it was weird.....how we did things at our house.....But I think it really expanded my kids' interests and minds.

[bae]

I also think that what your dinner conversations, etc., are about, can really treat them like gifted people. DH and I and the kids had so many intelligent conversations about so many different things. They have since said that their friends thought it was weird.....how we did things at our house.....But I think it really expanded my kids' interests and minds.

Exactly. That was basically the "gifted program" for my daughter, and it turned out well.