What difference is there at school for a gifted child?

Question

I just discovered a paper from my 7 yr old's daughters school saying she was going to be screened for the "Gifted Child" program. I'm excited for her but also what can I expect to happen now. I have never heard of this program, has anyone been thru this? Is there a special class she will have to attend. Thanks.

Answer 1

RELAX, THIS IS A GOOD THING! THIS CLASS WILL HAVE A LOT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR HER. IT WILL HOLD HER ATTENTION BETTER, SHE WILL NOT GET BORED WITH THE ASSIGNMENTS GIVEN TO HER. THEY WILL TEACH HER AT HER PACE.....NOT WHAT THE CRITERIA SAYS.... SHE WILL EXCEL IN THIS PROGRAM. SMILE MOM.

Answer 2

It probably depends on your school district - they probably have a website than can give you some names and numbers of contacts that can explain in greater detail what the "gifted child" program means in your area.

As for my personal experience, I have two daughters in our local school district's gifted program. They did have to go to a "special" school that is a little farther away from home than the one they would normally attend because the program is not taught at every school - just a few. And, we have to provide transportation (the district will only bus to their "home" school). There is more homework, and it is more complex, because on average, they are doing the work of the next grade level above (i.e., they are in 5th grade this year and are largely following the curriculum of the 6th grade while remaining with kids at their same social/chronological age and development). Also, they tend to do more "hands on" kinds of projects and explorations, etc., when working on the concepts that are being taught. For example, we have made puppet shows, held an Invention Convention, made a topographical map of our state out of cookie dough, etc. They also take Spanish twice a week and have a Personal Interest class they are allowed to take once a week if all their other work is done.

However, even though it has been more work for us as the parents in terms of helping them, volunteering with the program itself, arranging transportation, etc., I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. I think the extra intellectual stimulation has kept them interested in school where they may have otherwise become bored, and most of their friends from school have a similar emphasis on academics so they are not singled out as being "the nerdy one" or "the science geek" or whatever. Every year I ask them if they want to continue in the program or go back to a "normal" class, and they always choose to continue - we are in our third year this year, so I guess they like it, too. They seem to be normal, healthy, happy, well-adjusted little girls, for the most part.

So I say, by all means, have your daughter tested. You don't have to decide to send her or not until you are sure she has been accepted, so nothing ventured, nothing gained. I hope you give it a try, though - it's been wonderful for our family and I hope it will be for yours, too.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The gifted program is for especially talented children. The children are usually bored at normal levels of education, and the program strives to provide for children who would be more happy with more challenging and creative assignments. This keeps the children from having their true intellectual potential held back by other students who aren't learning as quickly.

Your daughter is obviously very smart and you should be proud of her. The program is an excellent opportunity to expand her development.

Answer 4

Depends on the school. Sometimes her entire schedule may be fixed around other "gifted" people, or sometimes there is just one class in the day that the "gifted" congregate.

Congratulations, and welcome to the land of the intelligent.

Answer 5

There is no such thing as a gifted Child. The mind is the most powerful, natural weapon that man has today..and has always had. 'giften children' have simply mastered using it to there advantage. Everybody has power in that they all have a mind and everyone can be gifted once they learn how to control it and use it to there advantage. 'gifted children' may seem to find things a little easier...but this is due to there ability to control there mind, thoughts and opinions. If we all managed this...we would all be seen as gifted...and so there would be no such thing.

Answer 6

Yes, I have been though this nightmare.

My son was three years old when his rural preschool teacher said that he was two years ahead of the other kids, that he was ready for kindergarten and that he should travel to the city for an I.Q. test. I did what she recommended and the tester said that we needed to move to the metro area because my son required gifted education.

His father, who had never paid child support, sued me the week of our move and so far I've spent three years in court.

The tester thought he should be placed in a full-time gifted ed school. Her second choice was a full-time gifted ed program in a normal school and her last choice was a gifted-ed pull out program.

I went for the public school full-time gifted ed program. After filling out all of the paper work, my son qualified but was rejected because there were 700 applicants for 100 spots. When they rejected him, they didn't tell me that they had a waiting list. I found out when they called me in August after I had moved to the school district next door and paid $8000 down for a private gifted education. Their requirement was that we live within the district. I heard that this district did not challenge the gifted students and did not give them above grade level work. They just gave them more work.

The private gifted school was marvelous the first year and really good the second year. The teacher taught one or two grade levels ahead of the public school. Unfortunately a new director arrived the first year and it soon enough appeared that she didn't care about the gifted nature of the private school, but she wanted the school to be a rich private school. She jacked up tuition 36% over her first three years and claimed that it was due to teachers' salaries and benefits. I found out that the teachers only got a 2% per year increase. The director was unwilling to tell us where our money went or to show us any financial statements. 33% of the student body left the school after the second year and was replaced with whoever applied. She didn't come across as truthful. There were all kinds of soap opera things going on at this school as well. A man took pictures of his genitalia on the kindergarten teacher's camera while he was standing in the room next to my son's classroom. Three couples decided to switch partners among themselves and many of the kids were in the same class. It didn't end there. It went on and on and on.

Then I switched my son to another private school that called itself a gifted school. Both schools seemed to contain large populations of students who were dysfunctional in other ways and could not function in a public school setting. While looking at various schools, I always came across parents were unhappy about the education their children were receiving at the various private gifted schools. Many of them don't pay well and don't attract good teachers. My child's achievement test scores dropped 10% after three years at this new school. The school at times did not teach language arts. After driving for years, I pulled him out and taught him at home so that he could catch up in language arts. I left my daughter in the school, but the introductory letter written by her teacher contained 22 errors and weaknesses. I sat down with her to discuss this matter and the director was none too happy with me. This teacher was supposed to teach my daughter capitalization and punctuation but she was weak in those skills. I gave her website addresses so she could brush up on her skills, but she did not seem appreciative of this. I pulled my daughter at the end of the school year and she is now homeschooled. Incidentally, there are two gifted education programs at two colleges in our state and none of the teachers at either private school had attended either of these two programs or any other gifted ed programs.

This year I went to enroll my son in the public school gifted program which becomes adequate in my district in about the seventh grade. He was ready for honors geometry which required that the school district bus him between the high school and the middle school. The school was not big on him taking geometry and they did not tell me about the qualifying test that he was required to take. Fortunately I found out when I walked into the high school in the process of checking out the school. That the high school bothered to give me a copy of the study guide was a bonus. They just called the other day to say that there are some issues with his schedule next year because Algebra II is taught midday, so he may need to go to another school within district or one outside of our district. Two days ago I met a gifted student who had six grade math in her fifth grade class and this same middle school placed her in sixth grade math for a second year. So, beware that schools within a district do not match up their programs.

This public school teaches gifted English and science and they advance the children one or more grade levels in math. In this school it appears that the gifted classes are simply more challenging. I don't think the teachers have taken classes in how to teach gifted students, but I will have to check on this. In talking with teachers from various school districts, they have merely been assigned to teach these classes without special training, so the class content may not be perfectly appropriate. The advantage of this program is that my son is in with highly motivated and bright students who will all attend college. To be in this program, a student must not only be bright but be motivated. They would not accept kids with discipline problems. The public school has been better than the private school because there are more students so he can pick his friends. Also this school has standards which it must follow so it will teach all subjects. The students in this program are allowed to enter the honors and AP courses in high school. The high school gives more cumm. points for these courses, so my son has more of a chance of graduating at the top of his class and going to a better college and of getting scholarship money.

Now I am trying to get my daughter enrolled in a public school program, but the programs for her age group are weak. There is a math pull-out but not much more. She is two or more grade levels ahead of her grade in all subjects. So now I am trying to enroll her two grade levels ahead. The school needs her to take a test that can only be administered by the district which said she needs to be enrolled to take the test. That means I have to enroll her for a few days in public school this year in order to take the test, if the district will let me. The school I have to enroll her in is a school where she was peed on while visiting the playground, so I'm not very thrilled about that. The police got involved and the pee kid had to go to court.

As far as your daughter is concerned, there are several things public schools do in the primary grades. One thing is that they conduct pull-out programs in math and language arts. They will take your daughter out of her classroom and give her special instruction along with the other gifted children. Another thing is that they ability group within the classroom or within the school. In this case, your daughter's class or group will be given more advanced work. A third thing is that they assign the children to magnet schools for gifted instruction. If you elect to do this, you may end up carpooling with other families as the school sometimes does not provide transportation. It is better if the children occupy the entire school as there can be playground problems between the gifted and non-gifted students.

Whatever you do, you do not want to move if your child is obtaining a gifted education because the programs will never match up and this can greatly affect the child. As just one example, my friends' daughter was about three years ahead of a regular school. When they moved to a new city, the gifted school had a several year waiting list and the public school put the girl in kindergarten because she was born a few days after the cutoff for first grade. She was supposed to be doing third grade work.

There are three levels of gifted students, gifted, highly gifted and profoundly gifted. Most students are simply gifted students. There is a lot of information on the Internet for parents of gifted children. Many gifted children have a visual-spatial learning style which is out of sync with public education instruction methods. Mass testing often doesn't determine a correct I.Q. because children top out on these tests in one or more areas.