Dear AAP Parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are private travel teams anything like a publicly funded school system?

It responds to most of the "reasons" that people state as to why AAP centers are not necessary. They make other kids feel bad, they provide a curriculum that should be provided to all, etc. It's not an exact comparison, so let's compare it to sports at a HS with JV and Varsity. Why shouldn't all of the kids just play on one big team and not be separated by ability?

Do you expect the special needs kids on the lower end of the spectrum to not receive accommodations geared toward their needs? Do you tell their parents they don't really need it, to just suck it up and sit in a classroom all day using a curriculum that is clearly not matched to their educational needs. Kids on the higher end should receive the same accommodations. If they get rid of centers they need to provide something else for these kids (not all current AAP but for the ones that are highly gifted).

Very much this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are private travel teams anything like a publicly funded school system?

It responds to most of the "reasons" that people state as to why AAP centers are not necessary. They make other kids feel bad, they provide a curriculum that should be provided to all, etc. It's not an exact comparison, so let's compare it to sports at a HS with JV and Varsity. Why shouldn't all of the kids just play on one big team and not be separated by ability?

Do you expect the special needs kids on the lower end of the spectrum to not receive accommodations geared toward their needs? Do you tell their parents they don't really need it, to just suck it up and sit in a classroom all day using a curriculum that is clearly not matched to their educational needs. Kids on the higher end should receive the same accommodations. If they get rid of centers they need to provide something else for these kids (not all current AAP but for the ones that are highly gifted).

Very much this.

+2

My 2e kid tried LLIV at our base school and it did not work at all. He switched to the Center in January of 3rd grade. It's been a tremendous difference for him. (He's now in 6th grade.)

[Anonymous]

My highly gifted does not have any "issues". DC is well-behaved; iq is 150+, 16 GBRS. I feel many hyper kids are not properly trained on how to act and/or should be medicated. Disruptive students do not belong in aap or gen Ed. They belong at a school for kids with "issues"
Please stop insinuating that GT /AAP is for kids who are smart and hyper. 2e does not mean adhd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2e does not mean adhd.

And ADHD does not mean "gifted."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2e does not mean adhd.

And ADHD does not mean "gifted."

Not the point of this thread - either point.

[Anonymous]

"Fairness doesn't mean giving every child the same thing, it means giving them what they need." Rick Lavoie

I don't really think it's "fair" for my kid to sit in class twiddling her thumbs because she's figured out how to solve for the unknown in algebra while the rest of the class is still working on adding 3 digit numbers.

Honestly, I can't figure out why the non-AAP parents are so jealous. From my experience with my DC, AAP has meant math a year ahead and getting additional work on the other subjects with a little CML thrown in. Although I think non- AAP students are also given the opportunity to do CML. I regret sticking with LLIV, because my kid is still bored and twiddling her thumbs in class.

I'm totally mystified why other parents think it's unreasonable for me to expect the schools to meet my child's educational needs and provide instruction that challenges her and allows her to learn.

And, seriously, kids who learn quickly and easily should suffer through being bored and ignored in class unless their parents can afford $30,000+ in tuition for private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Fairness doesn't mean giving every child the same thing, it means giving them what they need." Rick Lavoie

I don't really think it's "fair" for my kid to sit in class twiddling her thumbs because she's figured out how to solve for the unknown in algebra while the rest of the class is still working on adding 3 digit numbers.

Honestly, I can't figure out why the non-AAP parents are so jealous. From my experience with my DC, AAP has meant math a year ahead and getting additional work on the other subjects with a little CML thrown in. Although I think non- AAP students are also given the opportunity to do CML. I regret sticking with LLIV, because my kid is still bored and twiddling her thumbs in class.

I'm totally mystified why other parents think it's unreasonable for me to expect the schools to meet my child's educational needs and provide instruction that challenges her and allows her to learn.

And, seriously, kids who learn quickly and easily should suffer through being bored and ignored in class unless their parents can afford $30,000+ in tuition for private school?

+1

No one would dare say that a SNs kid on the lower end of the spectrum doesn't deserve a different curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Instead of asap, let kids skip a grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of asap, let kids skip a grade

Good luck, the bureaucrats really don't like that.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Music, art, etc are experienced by all the children. Just like P.E.

As far as Special Needs, gifted children should be treated similar to children with special needs since it is a special need according to their 'lobbying' group.

They should get pull outs from class, enrichment, access to the AART teacher at the school, that sort of thing. Not a multiple separate centers, separate classrooms (unless they are severely disabled of course), separate curriculums, etc. They get enrichment to access the curriculum that everyone else has maybe in a more meaningful way suited to them. They are mainstreamed as much as possible.

What about kids who need more full time support, whether it is for enrichment or remediation?

Seriously?? Full time support for enrichment. Do you even know the definition of enrichment??

There are kids in my child's school with full on disabilities, cannot walk without assistance, cannot form complete sentences, wheelchair bound. These students NEED full time support.

Please tell me why Ceasar's English and Worldly Wise and cute colorful agendas require full time support?

+1,000
Honestly, are AAP parents really this obtuse? Clearly, they are unable to distinguish between kids who have actual learning difficulties, and kids who simply enjoy extra enrichment. The two are not even remotely linked and FCPS needs to stop buying into this fiction that AAP kids, as a whole, "need" anything more than all other mainstream kids. As for extra enrichment, it would be wonderful if ALL classes were given this enrichment. That's the direction FCPS needs to take. Full-time support should be reserved only for kids at both ends of the spectrum who cannot learn in a regular classroom. I imagine that would be a tiny percentage of those currently crowded into AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is simply enrichment or extensions of core instruction.

Not at my kids AAP Centers. Perhaps this is the case at your AAP Center.

Oh, please. The principal at our center has clearly stated that AAP is the exact same curriculum that all the other kids get, but with more extensions. By now, all parents are aware of this. But you go ahead and pretend otherwise; kind of feeds into the whole segregation aspect that so many AAP parents thrive on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the highest votes for budget cuts is elimination of aap centers. Hopefully this happens the tax payer public has voted.

https://fcps.uservoice.com/forums/302115-what-are-your-ideas-for-balancing-the-potential-1/filters/top

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Not the PP, but I can't imagine what you find funny about this. Voters are trying to tell the school board what matters to them. AAP is not one of those things for most people.

That is extremely narrow-minded view. In that case, let's just cut special needs, music, arts, etc. since none of that matter to a lot of people as well.

Special-needs programs are for kids with special needs. AAP doesn't qualify. It is simply an enrichment program, which could easily be implemented in all classes. Music and art benefit all kids - not just a certain contingent.

If the enrichment offered by our public school system doesn't meet with your approval, there's always private school or homeschooling.

This simply isn't true. Special needs covers both the upper and lower bounds of kids intellectual and educational needs.

For kids that are highly gifted, they need something different than what is provided in the general classroom. If they chose to do away with the centers, I'd be fine with that as long as the base schools have teachers and curriculums to support kids that are truly gifted.

The problem IMO is that they don't have enough kids in each school to support having them pulled out for every academic class for special instruction. This would isolate them even more socially.

Having these kids together provides an opportunity to see that there are other kids like them which provides a social acceptance and acknowledgement of their abilities that they don't receive otherwise. They have plenty of other time in their day to socialize with kids of different abilities outside of the academic instruction time.

If you have a kid that excels in a sport and plays on a travel team, do you feel the same way about the travel team as you do AAP? If my kid isn't as good as your kid why should your kid get higher level instruction and mine does not. My kid could learn more skills by being around you kid - that's not fair. Your kid should be forced to play that sport with kids of much lower ability during the whole season and never be allowed to play on a team with kids of their high skill level because you'll make my kid feel bad.

If my kid excels intellectually (very high IQ; 1:10,000 kids) why don't they need a different curriculum outside of the gen ed curriculum? Your highly skilled sports kid would get bored and quit their sport if forced to play with kids that were of average skill.

Please have some sympathy for parents with kids like mine (which I know are not ALL kids in APP). The truly gifted kids know who the other highly gifted kids are and who the high achiever kids are in AAP right away, but this doesn't mean they don't want to play or work with any other kids. They just know who to go to when they want to talk about subjects that their other classmates won't be interested in or understand. Adults are the same way, so you can't judge gifted kids for this behavior.

This is exactly the point. The vast majority of kids in AAP are NOT highly gifted, and this is no secret. The point is that segregating kids who are virtually identical to most other kids in Gen Ed - i.e. the lower end of kids in AAP and the higher end in Gen Ed - is destructive. It teachers those in Gen Ed that they are somehow inferior to their counterparts who are in AAP, when they clearly are not. No one, to my knowledge, has suggested doing away with gifted instruction for those who are actually unable to function in a Gen Ed classroom. But the idea of admitting huge numbers of basically average kids into a segregated program like AAP, while keeping others in Gen Ed who are perfectly able to do AAP work, is moronic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are private travel teams anything like a publicly funded school system?

Exactly. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are private travel teams anything like a publicly funded school system?

It responds to most of the "reasons" that people state as to why AAP centers are not necessary. They make other kids feel bad, they provide a curriculum that should be provided to all, etc. It's not an exact comparison, so let's compare it to sports at a HS with JV and Varsity. Why shouldn't all of the kids just play on one big team and not be separated by ability?

Do you expect the special needs kids on the lower end of the spectrum to not receive accommodations geared toward their needs? Do you tell their parents they don't really need it, to just suck it up and sit in a classroom all day using a curriculum that is clearly not matched to their educational needs. Kids on the higher end should receive the same accommodations. If they get rid of centers they need to provide something else for these kids (not all current AAP but for the ones that are highly gifted).

Not the PP, but of course not. No one is even remotely suggesting doing away with SN education, at both ends of the spectrum. But those who actually have "special needs" at the higher end of the spectrum are a tiny minority of kids currently in AAP. Therefore, taxpayers shouldn't be expected to fund a curriculum that could benefit all kids, but isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Fairness doesn't mean giving every child the same thing, it means giving them what they need." Rick Lavoie

I don't really think it's "fair" for my kid to sit in class twiddling her thumbs because she's figured out how to solve for the unknown in algebra while the rest of the class is still working on adding 3 digit numbers.

Honestly, I can't figure out why the non-AAP parents are so jealous. From my experience with my DC, AAP has meant math a year ahead and getting additional work on the other subjects with a little CML thrown in. Although I think non- AAP students are also given the opportunity to do CML. I regret sticking with LLIV, because my kid is still bored and twiddling her thumbs in class.

I'm totally mystified why other parents think it's unreasonable for me to expect the schools to meet my child's educational needs and provide instruction that challenges her and allows her to learn.

And, seriously, kids who learn quickly and easily should suffer through being bored and ignored in class unless their parents can afford $30,000+ in tuition for private school?

And I'm totally mystified as to why parents think it's unreasonable to open AAP up to any student capable of doing the work. This has nothing to do with jealousy, and everything to do with a public school system spending more money, time, and attention on some kids than on others. It's an issue of inequity.

There is no reason to do away with advanced academics; they should simply be open and available to anyone interested and able. This goes for language arts, science, and social studies, as thankfully qualified Gen Ed kids are already included in AAP math. It's really not a stretch to then open up the other subjects as well. Not all AAP kids are actually advanced in all subjects either, by the way. Making AAP accessible to all would allow everyone to cycle into and out of the appropriate class, as needed. This is not a difficult concept.