Reply to Surprise top-down changes to AAP center this fall . . .

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm both an AAP and a Gen Ed parent (both at a center) and here are my thoughts, for whatever they're worth.  I feel that my AAP child, though somewhat academically advanced in some subjects, is not in the gifted category.  By now (he's in 5th grade) I know his classmates and can pretty confidentally say that very, very few of them fit into the "highly gifted" category.  With a few exceptions, they would all do great in a Gen Ed classroom.  My daughter, in 4th grade Gen Ed, has had her classroom depleted of kids who are are no more advanced than she and who would be doing fine in her classroom.  This year, several of her Gen Ed classmates have left for private school to get away from this silliness, and I can't say I blame them.  It makes so much more sense to keep most of the kids together in Gen Ed, especially those whose needs would be met just fine there.  I agree that the Gen Ed curriculum needs to be improved, but the AAP curriculum is really not much more advanced and I find it curious that so many parents are under the impression that it is.  If I had a "highly gifted" child, I wouldn't find AAP nearly enough for them.   [/quote]

With all due respect to your very valid point of view for your family, it is tiresome for this conversation to be dominated by:  1) parents who seem perfectly happy with the GE program, or 2) parents like yourself who admit their child is not really gifted and don't see or understand the need for a true GT program!  Believe it or not, your own anecdotal observations aside, [b]there is a sizable community of gifted students whose parents do believe that both the GE and currently implemented AAP programs fail to challenge and appropriately educate their kids.  Your reasoning is flawed -- well, it suits my kid and if I had a highly gifted child it wouldn't be enough, but leave it as is?!   That's the whole point of those arguing against further watering down -- we would like the program to go back in the other direction![/b]  Yes, we realize that many just slightly advanced kids are now included in the program, and yes, we realize that the program is very diluted now, to the point that its opponents are happily pointing out how it's barely different.  But if everyone who is unhappy with the direction of FCPS schools just goes private -- whether GE or AAP program students, our school system is weakened.  Not to mention that for many families private is not an option. We owe it to our own and everyone else's kids who may not have advocates to try to improve these programs across the board -- both GE and AAP, and it does not have to be mutually exclusive.[/quote]

I think we are arguing for the same thing, though perhaps it didn't come across in my post.  I absolutely DO think AAP and GE [u]both[/u] need to be improved!  I must not have emphasized it enough, but I did say that the Gen Ed curriculum needs to be improved.  I never said to "leave it as it is".  I said that my child, like many others, is not highly gifted and would do fine in a Gen Ed classroom, but what I should have added is a Gen Ed classroom that has been improved to be more challenging.  And as far as taking AAP back in the other direction, that's exactly what I think needs to happen.  I believe it should return to being a program for the highly gifted, and the above average students should go back to a GE class that has been (hopefully) revamped.[/quote]

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