anyone hear-- there's a GT forum for MoCo

[Anonymous]

Yeah, use people to push your agenda. When my kid got a letter from MCPS I took it to his school and they were willing to do things. Granted, I had the support of a teacher. You don't need the label thing the posters seem to want. My neighbor is in on the group and she told me the GTA president does not have GT kids!! She tells me the VP or secretary doesn't even send her children to school in Maryland. It is a very weird group of folks. If you really want to express your opinion to Starr send him an email. That way you are sure you will be heard--not some twist put on your opinion by the Lake Wobegon group.

[Anonymous]

I'm new to this but I'm lost. I guess I don't know all the "inside baseball" about the GT/curriculum/MCPS issues. Just trying to understand the system and it is becoming difficult here.

[Anonymous]

"It seems like the forum has a few people wanting to hang on to the belief of above grade in reading and math means gifted. "

I totally agree that truly gifted kids are very few and far between and are kids who are just head and shoulders above their peers - even in a "good" school zone like in CC or Bethesda. I think many parents concerned about these GT labels are not deluded to think their DC is a budding Einstein or a one in a million genius (well, some do I guess, but not all). But the problem is that if you live in parts of the eastern side of the county, the vast majority of the school population is not even at grade level. So a kid who is even just above average needs appropriate teaching too - teaching that doesn't seem likely to happen if most of her class/school is at a lower learning level. Now if they would simply group those above grade level kids together so they could proceed at their own pace, that would satisfy me - whatever you want to call that. But that doesn't sound like what is happening - and in fact it seems like STar wants to push further in the direction of believing that it doesn't matter how wide the learning spreads are in a room, teachers can adequately juggle them. My mom was a teacher but frnkly that seems like a very tall order when a large part of the class starts school not even knowing English very well and/or not knowing some of the fundamentals taught to most middle class kids in preschool or at home before they even get to kindergarden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree "above grade level in reading and math" means "above average, not "gifted." It seems there are some parents who gang up on anyone who disagree with their Lake Wobegon mentality. They seem to be anonymously posting on various email lists trying to get a crowd to join them in confronting Starr. They seem to have a thing against the Super because he just recognizes gifted the way most people think of it.

I found wading through the emails really useful. It kinds gave me an idea about the MoCo mindset.

The GTA or whatever people seem to be really nasty. Are the kids that way too?

Any opinion will be welcome. We are thinking of moving.

Here is my outsider openion. I am not a GTA member, but I will tell you something. When the budget is tight and there are competing thoughts, the group who shows numbers is who is listend to. The GTA group might not be perfect but it is the only group that is working to keep acceleration in home schools alive. Do not listen to anyone and judge for yourself by reading and learning. If GTA folks are anonymously posting, you are doing the same. Whatever you think of them, go to the meeting and you can voice your opinion too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, use people to push your agenda. When my kid got a letter from MCPS I took it to his school and they were willing to do things. Granted, I had the support of a teacher. You don't need the label thing the posters seem to want. My neighbor is in on the group and she told me the GTA president does not have GT kids!! She tells me the VP or secretary doesn't even send her children to school in Maryland. It is a very weird group of folks. If you really want to express your opinion to Starr send him an email. That way you are sure you will be heard--not some twist put on your opinion by the Lake Wobegon group.

I do not have an agenda. I am not part of the GTA. I am neither a friend of the GTA president, VP or secretary. So what I speak, I speak from my experience. Yes the letter would work only if your school principal agrees to provide service for your child. If not, you do not have anything to count on. Label is just an identification mechanism that is recognized by the MCPS policy. If tomorrow MCPS makes a policy that all students above xyz scores in abc subjects, will be provided services beyond what is avialable in regular curriculum, then there would not be any issue with abolishing the label. It is an incorrect id, but that is only id available in MCPS for all students who require above grade level acceleration. In the absense of this Id each parents will be at the mercy of the school principal, since there is no guideline as to whether students at 65%tile or 97%tile would be provided accelerated service. Do you really want to be put in that situation?

So what if the GTA president does not have any GT kids (I do not know whether she/he has any GT kids), and VP and secretary do not send their kids to schools in MD, if they can advocate for our kids it is better. If you want to send email to Dr. Starr directly, by all means do so. However, there is nothing wrong in providing the same opinion in public website or meeting, not unless you want opnion expressed in a secret manner.

BTW, the meeting is arranged by MCPS, and GTA. GTA is only encouraging parents interested in having ability grouping, and aceeleration available in MCPS home school to support the cause. If do not want to be associated with GTA, you still can go to the meeting as a MCPS parents and learn the issues first hand. Do not get swayed by gossips.

[Anonymous]

BTW, somebody posted this meeting notice on the private school forum. Now there are parents there claiming it's part of some nefarious plot to shut down private schools and move everybody to public.

For the future, maybe keep this sort of stuff away from the nuts on the private school forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, use people to push your agenda. When my kid got a letter from MCPS I took it to his school and they were willing to do things. Granted, I had the support of a teacher. You don't need the label thing the posters seem to want. My neighbor is in on the group and she told me the GTA president does not have GT kids!! She tells me the VP or secretary doesn't even send her children to school in Maryland. It is a very weird group of folks. If you really want to express your opinion to Starr send him an email. That way you are sure you will be heard--not some twist put on your opinion by the Lake Wobegon group.

So what if the GTA president does not have any GT kids (I do not know whether she/he has any GT kids), and VP and secretary do not send their kids to schools in MD, if they can advocate for our kids it is better. If you want to send email to Dr. Starr directly, by all means do so. However, there is nothing wrong in providing the same opinion in public website or meeting, not unless you want opnion expressed in a secret manner.

For the one who said the GTA president does not have GT kids, have you checked whether Dr. Starr and BOE members (who establish policies for GT kids) have GT kids on not? Do you at least know what their views are for accelerated education for academically advanced kids?

Do not spread gossips about people you do not know. If GTA folks are championing a cause, find fault with their message if there is any. read what they write and point the mistakes, talk to them and understand what the group is doing in stead of spreading second hand hearsay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW, somebody posted this meeting notice on the private school forum. Now there are parents there claiming it's part of some nefarious plot to shut down private schools and move everybody to public.

For the future, maybe keep this sort of stuff away from the nuts on the private school forum?

Oh please. That is a dramatic overreading of the thread on that forum. For every nut of the kind you speak of, there's another claiming that there is absolutely no more testing in public school than in private. But I agree there is no reason to post this topic over there. MCPS quite likely has no interest in why parents choose private over public. I'm quite sure they know the reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW, somebody posted this meeting notice on the private school forum. Now there are parents there claiming it's part of some nefarious plot to shut down private schools and move everybody to public.

For the future, maybe keep this sort of stuff away from the nuts on the private school forum?

Oh please. That is a dramatic overreading of the thread on that forum. For every nut of the kind you speak of, there's another claiming that there is absolutely no more testing in public school than in private. But I agree there is no reason to post this topic over there. MCPS quite likely has no interest in why parents choose private over public. I'm quite sure they know the reasons.

I agree. And, in addition, who cares really? Are we supposed to imagine that gathering information from people without a vested interest in the public school (private school parents) is the way to improve those public schools. It just doesn't make sense. For example, one parent might say that they chose religious school over MCPS b/c they wanted "god in the classroom" another might say they wanted single sex education Fine, but what is MCPS supposed to do, add a variety of religious lessons in school or split the schools into single sex just because some people want those things. Yes, I'm using outlandish examples to point out how silly the concept is.

[Anonymous]

The only real nuts are those who believe families in this county either have kids in public or private school and none with kids in both!

[Anonymous]

BTW, somebody posted this meeting notice on the private school forum. Now there are parents there claiming it's part of some nefarious plot to shut down private schools and move everybody to public.

For the future, maybe keep this sort of stuff away from the nuts on the private school forum?

BTW did it ever dawn on you some private school parents also have kids in public school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

BTW, somebody posted this meeting notice on the private school forum. Now there are parents there claiming it's part of some nefarious plot to shut down private schools and move everybody to public.

For the future, maybe keep this sort of stuff away from the nuts on the private school forum?

BTW did it ever dawn on you some private school parents also have kids in public school?

You're responding to me, and in fact I have kids in both private and public schools. And are you this rude in person?

You must have missed the post claiming the GTA forum is part of a nefarious plot to shut down private schools. Somebody did actually post that.

Are you the poster who is posting about this darn meeting everywhere? I just don't see why anybody feels they have to post something about MoCo GTA meetings in every gosh darn thread. I'm not OP, but I'm sick of it too. Re your snark above, the posters with kids in private and public (like you and me!) will see it here and don't need two notices. You and I, with kids in public and private schools, already saw this here, and obviously we're completely reasonable about these issues (although you seem to be having a bad day today).

[Anonymous]

I'm a new poster to this thread.

I think it is possible that some people have chosen private schools because they had a child in need of accelerated instructino and didn't feel he or she was getting it at their local private school. these parents might very much be interested in a forum on gifted education in their local public schools.

Homeschoolers might be a second group that would be interested but not currently have a child in public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"It seems like the forum has a few people wanting to hang on to the belief of above grade in reading and math means gifted. "

I totally agree that truly gifted kids are very few and far between and are kids who are just head and shoulders above their peers - even in a "good" school zone like in CC or Bethesda. I think many parents concerned about these GT labels are not deluded to think their DC is a budding Einstein or a one in a million genius (well, some do I guess, but not all). But the problem is that if you live in parts of the eastern side of the county, the vast majority of the school population is not even at grade level. So a kid who is even just above average needs appropriate teaching too - teaching that doesn't seem likely to happen if most of her class/school is at a lower learning level. Now if they would simply group those above grade level kids together so they could proceed at their own pace, that would satisfy me - whatever you want to call that. But that doesn't sound like what is happening - and in fact it seems like STar wants to push further in the direction of believing that it doesn't matter how wide the learning spreads are in a room, teachers can adequately juggle them. My mom was a teacher but frnkly that seems like a very tall order when a large part of the class starts school not even knowing English very well and/or not knowing some of the fundamentals taught to most middle class kids in preschool or at home before they even get to kindergarden.

+1

Thank you from the eastern side.

[Anonymous]

You're responding to me, and in fact I have kids in both private and public schools. And are you this rude in person?

You must have missed the post claiming the GTA forum is part of a nefarious plot to shut down private schools. Somebody did actually post that.

Are you the poster who is posting about this darn meeting everywhere? I just don't see why anybody feels they have to post something about MoCo GTA meetings in every gosh darn thread. I'm not OP, but I'm sick of it too. Re your snark above, the posters with kids in private and public (like you and me!) will see it here and don't need two notices. You and I, with kids in public and private schools, already saw this here, and obviously we're completely reasonable about these issues (although you seem to be having a bad day today).

Whoopi! Did it ever occur to you do not need to read the post twice in different places? You may choose not to read it and shut your trap.