Reply to Gifted kid - APS, FCPS, or Nysmith?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What I have learned from seeing my highly intelligent kid faltering in AAP is that, at least in this case, maturity, concentration and work ethics are more important than intelligence.  AAP may work better for kids that are more mature, self-driven and less distracted.  Highly intelligent or not is less relevant.[/quote]

This is precisely what happens when gifted programs are turned into high achiever programs.  [/quote]

Thanks, PP.  So where should my highly intelligent but less mature, easily distracted kid go?  [/quote]

The whole point of a gifted program is to help really bright kids who don't fit in in a regular classroom, the very kids who might be less mature and easily distracted. It is unfortunate that FCPS has moved away from this model, because it worked well for many years.

Not sure what to tell you to do to help your child, except to stay in communication with his/her teacher and hope you get a good teacher who knows how to work with bright kids like yours. 
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The current thinking is that you want to push bright/gifted kids when they're young, teach them that it's okay to fail, and teach them to work.  Otherwise, when they get to the hard stuff in high school, college, grad school or beyond, they'll crash and burn, give up, and be doomed.

It seems you disagree.  [/quote]

Hmm, not sure what I wrote that makes you think that. I made no reference to the specifics of how gifted kids should be taught, just that they should be taught by teachers that understand their needs. Their needs surely do include needing to be pushed, having the opportunity to fail, and learning how to work and I never said otherwise. I was not discussing how gifted kids should be taught, but instead the idea that they need teachers who understand how they can best learn, ideally in a program set up to meet their needs.

If you have worked with gifted children, been a parent to one, or been one yourself, you will understand how the needs of gifted children are different from those of above average kids who "work hard."

[/quote]

I disagree with the idea that gifted kids need to be pushed when young, need to learn to fail, or they're doomed to crash and burn later on in their academic and/or professional career.  But that is what I understand the current thinking to be.

I was in a gifted program as a child and my kids are in AAP.  If gifted kids are faltering in AAP, I would look more at the particular teacher or the grade/school rather than at AAP in general.  I don't think AAP has changed, become a worse GT program than it used to be.  That's only my opinion, though.[/quote]

So, it isn't clear from your post. Do you think it is good for FCPS to include above-average intelligence kids in an expansive AAP or do you think it would be better for FCPS to have available a program focused on the top percentile of kids whose needs cannot be met in the regular classroom?
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