<p>My child was accelerated in math and science at the beginning of middle school based upon 4th grade test scores. However, he avoided reading like the plague and did not turn in homework and refused to write. However, he actively participated in class, was well-mannered, and scraped by on his tests by listening. He was described by his teachers as “it’s because he’s a boy”, “he’s gifted but lazy, gifted but unmotivated”. These reasons were given to “let him fail”. He didn’t fail, he just kept scraping by, while everyone said he’d “grow up”. I feel like they just let him sit at the desk and took the tuition money. None of this really made sense, since he seemed to like to go to school and was well-behaved in general, although emotionally immature. The school was threatened with closure, and so we began investigating other schools. At one school, he took 2 tests. One was an academic ability test (like IQ), another was a “content knowledge” test. They told me that although my son was well within the range of their accepted students on the ability test, his content knowledge of math and english was only 33rd percentile. They said they’d accept him based on IQ, but did question his grades and content knowledge. He took an Otis Lennon test at another school, and it said his non-verbal ability was 94th percentile with academic ability index of 123, but verbal was about 75%. They also accepted him.</p>
<p>So we believed the “gifted but lazy” label and moved him to a non-Regents progressive school that promised continuation into their high school. The middle schoolers were reading material that was at about 10th grade level. Once at the progressive school, his refusal to read quickly caught up with him, and I was bombarded daily with complaints about his failure to turn in assignments and refusal to write anything. I did think the work was unreasonably difficult for any child, but I also did not see him trying at all. At that point I thought he had some form of dyslexia or dysgraphia. So at age 13, I took him to a dyslexia tutor who gave him a reading test. She said that he had the word decoding ability of grade level 16.9 and his vocabulary understanding and reading comprehension level was around 7th grade. She said he was very cooperative, that he did not have dyslexia, and that given his decoding ability, there was some other cause for him to resist reading. I really didn’t know what to do at that point.</p>
<p>One day, I forced him to read his book to me aloud because I didn’t believe he read it. He was skipping lines all over the place. At that point, it was January, and I took him to a behavioral optometrist who said he had severe convergence insufficiency in both eyes and needed 20 weeks of vision therapy that would last into the summer. 2 weeks after I informed the school, the middle school head put him on academic probation and stated they didn’t have to accomodate him. I went over their head and he was allowed to stay. When he asked his history teacher a direct question for help, he’d be directed “there’s books over there”. His English teacher was particularly brutal to him, brought up his disability in front of the class. I complained about her. She then made up bellwork whereby children had to fill in the blanks of a story with the proper words. In one story, she said my son wasn’t doing his work, and kids came to his defense, and everyone got detention. In another story, my son was to be hung for treason, a student from Mainland China came to his defense saying there was a surplus of rice, and the military said my son was now going to be the “designated puppy killer”. Prior to this, my son didn’t bring his papers home. But this, he did. There were 16 terms, and she gave my son a 12/15. My son actually got every word correctly on the paper, and she didn’t mark any wrong. I reported it to the head of school, but she was the only English teacher, and he could not just go somewhere else at that point of the year. </p>
<p>When he got to the progressive school, they had put him in Algebra although he never had pre-algebra. At the conclusion of that year, although he struggled, he did pass the Algebra course in 6/13 at the non-Regents progressive school. He excelled at computers with a 93, passed science with an 84, Algebra with a 74. But he only passed English by a point (would have failed without my help, which I rendered due to the abusive teacher), and he failed history by a point. He had to write a lengthy paper over the summer to pass history. It got done, but not without extensive help on my part. He simply was never taught any library or research skills, and his avoidance of reading was still a problem. </p>
<p>Had he stayed at the progressive school, he was entitled to move into Geometry. However, although the head of school would have allowed him to stay, that teacher was never fired, he could get her again, and we hated the school at that point. They also would have forced him forward to 9th grade, which we felt would be a mistake given his age, he was still in vision therapy, and he had such a bad 8th grade year. Helping him through a difficult time was one thing, but practically doing the thinking and work through high school wasn’t going to happen. We could have moved him back to the failing public school, but they also would have forced him into the 9th grade because they only care if you pass. I also feel they should have known of his eye disorder by 5th grade, before this got out of hand. </p>
<p>He needed time to recover/learn to adjust to his visual issues and to mature. Looking back, he had been a weak/sickly baby and I should have delayed his entrance to kindergarten by a year. After he was accelerated and struggled, I should have listened to my instincts and what I knew of my son, not teachers who spoke of stereotypes. After much consultation, a compromise was made. Since he was young for grade, we found a private Catholic school that offered different tracks and would accept him as an 8th grader, where nobody knew him. The plan was to remediate him in his weak areas, let him go forward in his strong ones. They broke up English into separate ELA and Literature classes and had a separate special ed teacher to help struggling students. He was allowed to move ahead in science to take 9th grade Biology. The school did not offer Geometry. However, we felt he’d been overly accelerated, and could have done better in Algebra. All incoming 9th graders to Regents high schools have to pass the Algebra Regents before 9th grade or they will have to repeat Algebra. So plan was for him to sit through Algebra again as an “8th grader” and take the exam in June. He would then enter 9th grade with Algebra complete and start with Geometry. In actuality, he would have started 9th grade appearing to still be an accelerated student and have the benefits of reaching his full potential by senior year. The principal was on board with all of this.</p>
<p>To be continued </p>