Reply to No separate AAP student track in FCPS high schools, right?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]10:17 Florida is considering a program to allow kids who are bullied to move to private school. Bullying continues at a much higher rate than snobbery over gifted education in the US and it's been proven that schools are not good at dealing with it well. We are at a school that mixes with general ed students except for two subjects, so I see your point that all kids need to learn to get along with each other, however it is important to make sure kids can find like peers as well and I believe this program really has allowed kids who have an interest in academics do work at their level and find peers who are more like them. It's not like AAP is the first gifted program in the US. Gifted programs and magnet schools have been around now for decades. And it's not like LLIV is even the only gifted program in FCPS. There are 3 levels of gifted programs in FCPS. Level 3 and 2 for some reason are never mentioned. APS has ATS, a gifted program that I've heard starts in kindergarten, and HB Woodlawn as well as TJ. Most school districts have some form of gifted education.

[b]The poster who was "delighted" even mentions that her own kids don't care about the level of their friend's interest in academics while at the same time saying she's heard smug AAP kids brag. Is it both or just one observation?[/b] Based on her own post and my observations, I find it hard to believe that year after year AAP kids are bragging to other kids in school when she herself doesn't see that in her own kids and says it doesn't matter to anyone they know. It's all overblown on DCUM compared to the real world. The importance of AAP being talked about and the amount of smugness or bullying that goes on over AAP. There just aren't that many discussions on AAP in real life.
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That was me. It's both. I'm not sure why it would seem hard to imagine both being true. It's because my kids are not smug about AAP and don't care if their friends are into academics or not that it irritates and embarrasses them when they hear their classmates brag to gen ed kids.  [b]They hear kids on the bus say things like, "Oh, you're lucky you don't get much homework in your class. It must be so easy compared to mine. They want us to learn soooo much more in AAP because they know we're smart." Yes, this was actually said on a bus to a field trip where I was a chaperone. My ds told me this kid says things like that all the time and is not well liked because of it, but that he's certainly not the only one. 
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And I never said it delighted me that gen ed kids surpass AAP kids in high school. I want good things for all kids. I'm simply saying that it makes me glad to see that the kids who weren't identified as advanced or "smart" can find success later on and get into a great school.  I'm glad the door to academic success doesn't close at age 8. [/quote]

Yes.  These comments are commonplace at the center school my kids attend.  The AAP kids, for the most part, are extremely sure of themselves and often refer to Gen Ed as "the dumb classes."  Nice, right?  Especially since the vast majority of Gen Ed and AAP kids are pretty much identical.  The administration has had various counseling sessions for the students, to make them more aware of how awful they sound, but frankly, FCPS has created this monster.  They've elected to separate very similar kids into two groups, with very distinct labels.  The kids are well aware of who is in what class.  The parents are very aware also.  As another poster said, there is an undercurrent of tension.  Of course, someone will chime in and say, "Not at our school!  The kids don't care about such things!"  But they're seeing it from the point of view of their own AAP kids.  If their kids were in the group that certain kids call, "the dumb classes," they would be singing a much different tune.

And the sad part is that all of this could have been prevented if FCPS had continued with very small GT classes for kids who *actually* need gifted instruction (which AAP is not), and kept all of the other kids in Gen Ed.  [/quote]

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