Is my child gifted? In Arlington magazine this month

[Anonymous]

http://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/September-October-2016/Is-My-Child-Gifted/

This article was great.

Yep. Many Arlington elementary schools (some are the worst offenders) mark the biggest loudmouth's kids in Kindergarten and they fill up the pull-out space for the next 6 years at the school so truly deserving kids can't get in. Asking for parental recommendations/requests into the Gifted Program in Kindergarten is the utmost ridiculous way to run a gifted program. Yes-- my 5 year old starting shitting on the toilet at 8 months old--he's a virtual Einstein. Unfortunately, these baby Einsteins are put in the program in K and remain there for the next 6 years, even when they turn out to be truly average or even below. Meanwhile, kids that have objective information and teacher recommendations to warrant their entry are denied entry due to space capacity.

Appalling. Truly appalling.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm....two of the parents quoted that were unhappy with the program were ASF parents.

[Anonymous]

Eh, verbal ability is a huge component in intelligence. It's heavily weighted -- no wonder talkative kindergartners are more likely to be identified as gifted than quiet children.

Sounds like your kids didn't make the cut and you're bitter, OP. I get that, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

[Anonymous]

I work in gifted program in another County.

I agree with OP.

A chatty Kathy is not a solid indicator of giftedness.

I can't believe it's a parent-led process at 5.

Are kids ever removed down the road --say at 9, 10, 11, etc. or does that dubious label made prior to a chronological time when this can be truly assessed remain with them through High School?

I am interested because our school system does not label them that young.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, verbal ability is a huge component in intelligence. It's heavily weighted -- no wonder talkative kindergartners are more likely to be identified as gifted than quiet children.

Sounds like your kids didn't make the cut and you're bitter, OP. I get that, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

Spoken like a true Snowflake lobbyist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in gifted program in another County.

I agree with OP.

A chatty Kathy is not a solid indicator of giftedness.

I can't believe it's a parent-led process at 5.

Are kids ever removed down the road --say at 9, 10, 11, etc. or does that dubious label made prior to a chronological time when this can be truly assessed remain with them through High School?

I am interested because our school system does not label them that young.

From what I gather it sticks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in gifted program in another County.

I agree with OP.

A chatty Kathy is not a solid indicator of giftedness.

I can't believe it's a parent-led process at 5.

Are kids ever removed down the road --say at 9, 10, 11, etc. or does that dubious label made prior to a chronological time when this can be truly assessed remain with them through High School?

I am interested because our school system does not label them that young.

You are either a troll, or you are an administrative assistant or the like with no understanding of what methodology is used to identify gifted/talented students.

I hope you can attend a few non-gifted classes in your downtime so that you can learn basic English grammar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, verbal ability is a huge component in intelligence. It's heavily weighted -- no wonder talkative kindergartners are more likely to be identified as gifted than quiet children.

Sounds like your kids didn't make the cut and you're bitter, OP. I get that, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

Spoken like a true Snowflake lobbyist.

Ah, OP, so very butthurt. If only your butthurt could get your kids into the gifted program! Why, the teachers would be amazed at how very hurt your butt was and they would put little laconic Larla right in the group!

[Anonymous]

The article was well-written. At an APS school not mentioned and our GT selection process is very different.

Some of the responses on here are cray-cray. I think I'd be glad my kids weren't in a class with kids that come from parents like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in gifted program in another County.

I agree with OP.

A chatty Kathy is not a solid indicator of giftedness.

I can't believe it's a parent-led process at 5.

Are kids ever removed down the road --say at 9, 10, 11, etc. or does that dubious label made prior to a chronological time when this can be truly assessed remain with them through High School?

I am interested because our school system does not label them that young.

You are either a troll, or you are an administrative assistant or the like with no understanding of what methodology is used to identify gifted/talented students.

I hope you can attend a few non-gifted classes in your downtime so that you can learn basic English grammar.

Your grammar is impeccable

You should join the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, verbal ability is a huge component in intelligence. It's heavily weighted -- no wonder talkative kindergartners are more likely to be identified as gifted than quiet children.

Sounds like your kids didn't make the cut and you're bitter, OP. I get that, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

I read the article last week and some of the parents featured made me want to vomit.

My kid is in the gifted program at his school, so no bitterness here.

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent who had to fill out the Arlington form; the process was initiated by our K and 1st grade teachers. Honestly, I had no idea what to say. I think she's smart and other people are always saying how smart she is, but it was hard to put into concrete words.

I grew up in a time when gifted kids were teased and stigmatized, so I wasn't too thrilled with the label. So I had mixed feelings about my daughter following suit. That said, I liked the stuff we did in the program - we did a deeper dive into many subjects than in my regular or honors classes, which was worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, verbal ability is a huge component in intelligence. It's heavily weighted -- no wonder talkative kindergartners are more likely to be identified as gifted than quiet children.

Sounds like your kids didn't make the cut and you're bitter, OP. I get that, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

I read the article last week and some of the parents featured made me want to vomit.

My kid is in the gifted program at his school, so no bitterness here.

+1 We never advocated for our kid. Test scores warranted an evaluation. However, we had several teachers advise not subjecting our kid to the program.

They had several valid reasons on why the GT pull-out is not necessarily the best route to go and how we'd be much better off with at-home supplementation than going the formal route at school.

Top that off there were a lot of serious behavior issues in the pull-out group that would not have been conducive to a good learning environment. A lot of these kids have a grandiose amount of self-worth given to them from self-entitled parents like the 'butt-hurt' commenter in the prior posts. Discipline apparently isn't needed when your bad behavior is solely because you are bored 24/7.

However, I am sure the program varies greatly from school to school and whether it's worth it really depends on the individual child. Even if it's recommended, it's not always the best route for a particular child. At the more competitive schools, it's all about parental bragging rights which is ludicrous. Let's see how everyone is doing at 25 years old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, verbal ability is a huge component in intelligence. It's heavily weighted -- no wonder talkative kindergartners are more likely to be identified as gifted than quiet children.

Sounds like your kids didn't make the cut and you're bitter, OP. I get that, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

I read the article last week and some of the parents featured made me want to vomit.

My kid is in the gifted program at his school, so no bitterness here.

+1 We never advocated for our kid. Test scores warranted an evaluation. However, we had several teachers advise not subjecting our kid to the program.

They had several valid reasons on why the GT pull-out is not necessarily the best route to go and how we'd be much better off with at-home supplementation than going the formal route at school.

Top that off there were a lot of serious behavior issues in the pull-out group that would not have been conducive to a good learning environment. A lot of these kids have a grandiose amount of self-worth given to them from self-entitled parents like the 'butt-hurt' commenter in the prior posts. Discipline apparently isn't needed when your bad behavior is solely because you are bored 24/7.

However, I am sure the program varies greatly from school to school and whether it's worth it really depends on the individual child. Even if it's recommended, it's not always the best route for a particular child. At the more competitive schools, it's all about parental bragging rights which is ludicrous. Let's see how everyone is doing at 25 years old.

3 of our school suspensions last year came out of the gifted pool. You might be onto something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent who had to fill out the Arlington form; the process was initiated by our K and 1st grade teachers. Honestly, I had no idea what to say. I think she's smart and other people are always saying how smart she is, but it was hard to put into concrete words.

I grew up in a time when gifted kids were teased and stigmatized, so I wasn't too thrilled with the label. So I had mixed feelings about my daughter following suit. That said, I liked the stuff we did in the program - we did a deeper dive into many subjects than in my regular or honors classes, which was worthwhile.

Same here, with both kids ID'd as gifted. DS I'd say is bright but I wouldn't say he's gifted. He is strong in math - the only area the school ID'd him as "gifted" -- so was pulled out into the highest math group throughout school. DD does seem to me more fitting the definition of "gifted' - she's ID by the school as gifted in all subjects they asked about and does seem to have a more unique and creative way of thinking. But, I don't see that her school's gifted teacher added much to her ES experience. She was challenged well via her classroom teachers' differentiation.