Independent School Teacher Pet Peeve Thread
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Anonymous
The hostility is toward a particular poster who claims to be the mother of a PG kid, whose kid apparently never went to a private, and whose MO is to insist that sending a gifted kid to a private school is to doom said kid to a life of intellectual mediocrity. Lots of the hostility she has faced has been from posters who have gifted kids in privates and who point out that their kids are getting excellent educations. At which point her response is some variant on the your gifted kid must not be nearly so gifted as mine. Since the poster herself is belligerent and doesn't seem to be particularly well-educated or knowledgeable, and since a number of other parents of gifted kids are, themselves, former gifted kids and can speak from personal as well as parental experience, she gets a lot of pushback. At which point her spin is, see, pg kids are victimized. When, in fact, the debate is typically over whether there's one right answer (isolation/acceleration on the MoCo magnet model) to the question of how gifted kids should be educated or whether other models (e.g. progressive approach, small class size) work better for some highly gifted kids. This thread has replayed some of those dynamics (and spun off two more that do almost nothing but). Sometimes other posters (e.g. who just want to know how private school teachers deal with a gifted kid when they encounter one) get caught in the crossfire (or inadvertently start are conversation that jumps the shark once she dives in). And she sock-puppets, IIRC from other threads, which amplifies the BS and drowns out more reasoned discussion. At any rate, I think most of what we're seeing here isn't about attitudes toward gifted kids or profoundly gifted kids -- or even about parents who advocate for their kids. It's about a particular style of "advocacy" especially online. |
Anonymous
| Sorry but I don't recall such posts.... |
Anonymous
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I could have written 6:15, in fact I wrote 10:27 on the previous page. 6:15 is right, the pushback is not against PG kids, it's against a particular style of online advocacy that's predictable and manipulative and frustrating all at the same time.
I'd only add one point, which is the teacher pet peeve was about parents of fairly average kids who insist the school give special treatment to their snowflake they think is gifted. This is a VERY different issue from the question about whether PG kids can or should be educated in private schools. But, the PP in question hijacked the thread to steer it in the second direction, all the while accusing teachers of not caring. (And I think it's this "victim" mentality that makes me think the letter is so manipulative, but that's another subject.) |
Anonymous
| PG = what? Profoundly Gifted? |
Anonymous
The hostility is not to the kids at all; it is to those parents of PG kids that seem to take being PG way way too seriously. I was a PG kid. Sure, I was teased a lot. Sure, I was isolated. But the kind of advocacy that the parents of PG kids in this thread seem to advocate (see the sappy letter, for example) would have made things much much worse. First, let me just say that teachers always always recognized me for what I was and were just great. I knew that, eventually, the teacher would hand back to me a test or some work, and they would have a smile on their face that said, very kindly, "my my! What do we have here!". The reason I had problems with my peers was not at all my intelligence. It was my emotional immaturity. I could have done with some lessons on how to interact better with others. I could have done with some lessons on how to laugh more and take life less seriously. I certainly didn't need my parents to annoy my teachers with letters explaining "my secret" (it was no secret to them anyway. How could it possibly be? Teachers live for bright students). And intervention with the principal? Come on! Kids hate PITAs more than teachers do. Teachers would love to give supplemental work to your kid. That is the icing on their cake. But, they have to also look after kids who have real problems. Kids whose parents are going through a divorce. Kids who parents are being arrested (happens even in the best of schools. Think of the senators and House members who are going through very public embarrassment due to scandals). Kids with severe learning disabilities. Kids whose parents refuse to admit they need glasses. So, while it is important to advocate and help your gifted child, please be at least a little embarrassed that you have "problems" of this sort instead of the other sort. Show a little humility. Do it in a way that doesn't look privileged and boastful. And recognize that what you really want to do is encourage the teachers to be a little selfish and indulge in what they really want to do: have a great time working with kids that love to learn. Maybe tell them that it really isn't that wrong to give some thought on how to help these very fun students. And be careful about advocating too much. The best thing is to teach your kid how to look after themselves. That is a skill that will benefit them all their life. |
Anonymous
To be fair, she seems to think very little of magnets, either. She said the local blog on a PG kid in the Takoma magnet gave a good idea of what PG kids face in MoCo. I was the poster who said my magnet kid liked the teachers who were trashed in the blog, plus I wouldn't have a problem with the science teacher telling my kid not to read novels in class, or with another teacher marking my kid down for forgetting to bring in an assignment, and I certainly wouldn't convene a meeting with said teachers and the magnet director over it, like the blogger did. But my point is, if PP likes this blog, then she must share at least some of the blog's really negative attitude toward magnets. |
Anonymous
and I always thought it meant Prince Georges. |
Anonymous
Yes. You will see different definitions, but it's 160+. |
Anonymous
This sort of knee-jerk victim mindset illustrates why parents of PG kids have an image problem.... |
Anonymous
Ain't that the truth! In my experience (in wildly different school districts in terms of region/demographics/policy), teachers were always the people you could count on. And self-advocacy sent me in directions that were much more interesting than parental advocacy ever would have. And my parents were a lot more sane/educationally savvy than this particular PG-mom-from-hell poster. |
Anonymous
I wrote the post you are referencing. I have to correct you here. I absolutely love the MCPS magnet programs and I'm a product of it myself! I enjoyed the blog because she kept close tabs on the political climate in the county as it related to educational issues. I don't recall too many posts disparaging actual teachers but honestly if they were there I probably just skimmed past it because I wasn't interested. Usually I would check in to the blog to see what was happening with the "challenge every child" movement and other such things. Not to sound mean but I couldn't really care less about what her children where doing in chemistry class. Also, to address some of the other posts I have to say I have a great deal of respect for the Independent schools in this area. I've never disparaged them or called them mediocre. In fact I have clarified that fact a number of times. I have to say that the strong emotional response to my posts by some folks is a little bewildering. People read into them far too much and make many assumptions. Can we just have differing opinions without it escalating? I've made a point in these threads not to engage in drama. Unfortunately it didn't prevent some people from getting worked up about perceived slights from way back to who knows when that some anonymous poster made which may or may not have been me. |
Anonymous
| I'm 6:15 and I don't think I was responding to any of 13:34's posts. AFAICT, she's one of the legit posters that I think has been caught in the crossfire. (And I thought that back when she posted re the blog.) Anonymity and sockpuppeting make it hard to tell who is speaking to whom. |
Anonymous
| I'm another poster who has exchanged comments on other threads with the PG-advocate that 6:15 is describing. She is very frustrating because she makes blanket (and inaccurate) assertions about what's supposedly best for all gifted students. If you challenge her claims, she first asserts that no one but her is qualified to comment. Then she will simply shift her position, and never acknowledge that she's changing. And yes, she also routinely plays the victim card, accusing other posters of being biased against gifted students and jealous of their parents. It's very frustrating to try to communicate with her. |
Anonymous
I think you might be referring to me (I started the "independent schools are not filled with gifted kids thread"). I have not in any of these threads done any of what you are referring to. You all are perceiving slights that are non-existent or reading far too much into what I've said. Why can't we just share our opinions without getting all worked up? I think some of you (not necessarily the poster that I'm quoting) need to examine why these boards and this issue in particular cause you such a strong emotional reaction. |
Anonymous
Here are a few other threads where I've seen the same sort of PG-crusader attitude. Did you contribute to these too? If you did, then I am referring to you. http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/30453.page http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120/118293.page http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/118293.page http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/60/69197.page |