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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]

Anonymous wrote:
This year - there has been a lot of work - up to 2 hours of homework/night and many angst-filled parent meetings about it. Yes, some fun projects. A lot of writing and reading. An above grade novel about every 3 week with a literary essay (higher expectations than your usual book report) expected after every book.

These are exactly the type of kids that should not be pushed into a CES program. Kids that belong in a CES program are the ones that thrive on intensive writing assignments and love doing them. The kids that belong in the CES program are the ones who would be reading for hours whether it was required homework or not. There are plenty of smart kids that do not thrive on this or want to spend lots of extra time doing academic work. There is nothing wrong with this and for these kids the home school is the best place. Later on the kids may decide that they are more passionate about an academic subject than playing ball and still end up in a magnet.

Too many parents see the CES as a way to get away from the lower performing kids and there is too much pressure on the kids to expand the CES program in certain schools to appease these parental demands. These parents then turn around and complain that the workload is too intensive. If the program reduces the workload and waters down the program to appease them then[b] it really isn't a gifted center anymore.[/b]

You know, as a parent of a high energy child who had basically checked out due to lack of interest in class, I would have to disagree with you on this. He does read a lot, way more than any kid at his home school, but he is coming from a school that gave him almost no work at all and the adjustment to a heavier load was pretty rough. Many of the CES kids are very, very high energy and after a long day of working hard in class they really benefit from some time to run around and move. They are only 8! And not all CES kids love the structure of the projects and writing assignments...they would rather be inventing their own projects. Some kind of reasonable balance needs to exist so that they do get enrichment and rigorous assignments at school (which I really love that he gets and he is so much happier and more engaged), but also recognizes that many of these aren’t kids who are bored at home, looking for something to do... they have a long list of things they like to invent and play and figure out. [b]Being bright and needing school enrichment[/b] shouldn’t also mean needing to sit on the couch for two hours every night after school at this age.[/quote]

You're actually making the case that there should be more enrichment in your home school not that your kid should be in a CES program. I agree that MCPS misses the boat on providing an engaging and challenging age appropriate curriculum in the home schools. This doesn't mean though that those kids should be pushed into a GT center and then not enjoy doing the work. If 2.0 wasn't so bad, many parents wouldn't be pushing to get kids into a CES when that isn't the right place for that child. [/quote]

NP here - it really seems the "HG" part is gone as a defining aspect of the CES.  Yes some are there, but really it's now 2/3 of the way towards FCPS AAP.[/quote]

Parent of high energy child here. Perhaps. Or perhaps some would like it to be a program only for children of parents who feel that kids should do piles of enrichment all day long and weekends, too. You do you. There are clearly some kids who LOVE the homework assignments. I feel we might be hijacking the PBES because he is at a regional center, but the homework issue really is a universal CES issue. But HGC or CES, I suspect he would have been eligible. He was more than off the charts and clearly alone at his home school in ability.  Don’t misunderstand. He loves the CES program and enjoys the class and challenges. And can sit well and behave for class. But in my opinion, that is enough. And he is not the only one. Many gifted/bright/whatever you want to call them children are particularly high in energy. That is part of the package. And when they are young, they need time to play and run and be free kids as well as learn a lot at school. The homework has sometimes felt like overkill, and I don’t see why he needs to be doing middle school levels of homework at this age, but overall, we would do CES again in a heartbeat. [/quote]

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