Norwood for student working several grade-leves ahead?

[Anonymous]

I would agree with this, and add that the ability to make connections, through experience, between traditional academic and non-academic pursuits ([b]seeing the geometry of soccer or sailing, or the patterns in music) is building analytic skills which can be the building blocks of success[/b].

This strikes a vision of ole lady Pythagorus setting sail on the high seas and ultimately dying of starvation while playing her violin because she didn't know how to catch any fish to cook and eat.

[Anonymous]

0:54/1:12/1:31 -- are you not reading my posts? I NEVER said that teaching the basics is unimportant. One of my kids is in the TPMS magnet, and another of my kids is in another MoCo magnet.

You are completely, intentionally, distorting my position. What kind of person are you?

[Anonymous]

0:54/1:12/1:31 --

I have no desire to talk to somebody who has stopped up her ears and is saying "nanny nanny boo boo." How old are you, 10? You are apparently determined not to entertain any points of view besides your own hamster wheel of self-righteousness/victimization/entitlement. When confronted with authentic experiences that differ from your own, your response has been to (a) completely DISTORT the argument and (b) INSULT the arguer ("old and tired").

You will probably whine on other threads that this is another example of people victimizing HG kids.

Let me be very clear. The problem is YOU, your my-way-or-the-highway approach, and your immature response to people who disagree with it.

Good by.

[Anonymous]

Abstractly, I think that people who rejected a particular path aren't the best tour guides to the road not taken. A number of us with highly gifted kids in local privates are as satisified that the education our kids are getting is challenging and useful as are the parents of similar kids in public magnet programs.

So the challenge for a parent of a highly gifted preschooler is to find the best fit among the options available. There's not one right answer here -- wrt school, what constitutes a good education, what education, how education shapes life-chances, etc. Much depends on context, personality, and values and these things differ from family to family and among kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Abstractly, I think that people who rejected a particular path aren't the best tour guides to the road not taken. A number of us with highly gifted kids in local privates are as satisified that the education our kids are getting is challenging and useful as are the parents of similar kids in public magnet programs.

So the challenge for a parent of a highly gifted preschooler is to find the best fit among the options available. There's not one right answer here -- wrt school, what constitutes a good education, what education, how education shapes life-chances, etc. Much depends on context, personality, and values and these things differ from family to family and among kids.

I agree. The goal of these discussions on DCUM should be for parents to exchange information about options and opportunities, so that each family can find the best situation for its own children. The exchange always falls apart when someone turns it into a contest where posters are expected to argue that one solution is the winner and others are lesser. The contest approach not only creates a competition, but also turns people defensive because it suggests that some parents are not providing the best situation for their children.

I'd really recommend that people start their comments with something like this: "Here's what seems to work well for my child and my family ...."

[Anonymous]

New poster, I'm enjoying your pov.

As for the nutcases, let's try to ignore them. Every time we respond to them, we're giving them what they came here for. I suspect that they are mostly teenagers delighting in upsetting adults.

[Anonymous]

I'm 9:20 and I think that the "here's what works for my child" approach works best when you can say more about your child and why the approach works for this this type of kid.

e.g. "private school works for my family/kid" gets us nowhere. vs. "I've got a kid who craves depth rather than speed and DC has been much happier in environments with long-term projects that give students a lot of room to define the parameters of what they're studying." Or "my kid works better when left alone vs. in environments where competition is used as a motivator, so..."

[Anonymous]

Good morning, all of you! I'm "new poster," and to be clear, this means I was new to this particular thread at the moment when I wrote "new poster here," not new to DCUM.

I heartily agree with what's been said in the last few hours. Kids are different, and the right answer will depend on the kid. There are lots of other dimensions that get ignored when somebody paints everything in terms of a dichotomy between hyperacceleration and homeschooling. Like whether the kid is self-motivated, or needs structure. This was, in fact, the point I was trying to say with my "new" post before it got twisted.

Some HG/PG kids will thrive in a private school environment, particularly one that is enriched with extra curriculars. A subset of HG/PG kids may need homeschooling. My own kids have been happy, productive, learning individuals in both private school and magnets.

In addition, the hyperacceleration poster is basing her arguments on three assumptions I disagree with:
(a) hyperacceleration is good for every kid.
(b) hyperacceleration is a goal in itself. See the posts from me and someone else about how physical activity contributes to higher math skills. I don't for a second regret that my kid in private got A+ even in the most advanced of 3 math choices, instead of being in hyperaccelerated math programs, even though both DCs are doing hyperaccelerated magnets now.
(c) all HG/PG kids who fail to get hyperacceleration will be miserable. Maybe for a subset of HG/PG kids, but not for all.
(d) homeschooling is the only solution, if differentiation/hyperacceleration are not available.

[Anonymous]

,ew poster has just defined an old sock puppet.

[Anonymous]

In some cases (and specifically wrt one recurrent poster here), I think that the fixation on hyperacceleration can be the mark of a non-gifted parent's approach to gifted kids. It's a really limited way of understanding intelligence (and education, for that matter) and not an insider's POV.

[Anonymous]

Quite frankly, there's a poster on DCUM who's MO is to bait people, purely and simply. See the "Supporting Your MoCo Gifted Child" thread and how that all ended. Truly the best course is to ignore her.

Instead, talking about what works for your gifted child will probably be very helpful to others here. As long as you don't think that one size fits all children, and your course of action is the only possible course of action!

[Anonymous]

whose = who's. Hate spellcheck! Or maybe I should just proofread more....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In some cases (and specifically wrt one recurrent poster here), I think that the fixation on hyperacceleration can be the mark of a non-gifted parent's approach to gifted kids. It's a really limited way of understanding intelligence (and education, for that matter) and not an insider's POV.

I think this is possible, especially given how she describes her child's skill set compared to hers.

[Anonymous]

Her approach may also be typical of somebody who's a little over-invested in her child's uniqueness and exceptionalism, whether it's IQ or sports. This particular poster reminds me of the few hyper parents that plague every travel soccer team, telling the rest of us that we have to do certain drills, attend certain tournaments, and kick the less stellar kids off the team immediately.

Lots of parents fail to realize that it's about the individual kid, and kids are very different. It's not about the parents and their very personal views on soccer drills or homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

Are you the new poster, the private school booster and the sock puppet?

You are all over the board. Retirement must be hearty. We eagerly await more of your cut and paste jobs.