Sally Reis on Gifted Education

mathmom
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:02:24 +0000

My son had accelerated in math via EPGY. (One year he had a teacher who sent him up two grades, but subsequent teachers weren’t interested and eventually we ran out of grades anyway.) In 4th and 5th grade the classroom math was a little more interesting (lots of projects), but in 6th grade I insisted on subject acceleration. The school was reluctant since he’d manage not to ace the end of the year standardized test for the first time, but eventually we persuaded the school to give him a 7th grade final exam. When he did very well on it they were willing to concede that perhaps I knew what I was talking about. Even more so when he got the second highest grade in school on the AMC-8 as a 6th grader.

I agree that you have to work both on changing things within the schools and providing outside enrichment. Eventually my kid provided his own enrichment when he started teaching himself computer programming.

Even with his best teachers he read a lot in school. He read so fast it was hard to keep up. He read a 400 page book in two days in 3rd grade and that was with one of his best teachers for meeting his needs. I remember another teacher commenting at a conference that she knew he was reading under his desk a lot, but he always seemed to be able to multitask as he always seemed to know where the discussion was when addressed directly. Even in AP bio his teacher remarked that rather than do extra credit (if you are already getting an A who needs it?) he would have a book with him.