Reply to If you are one who does NOT want to create a sense of superiority in your AAP accepted child

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Reply to "If you are one who does NOT want to create a sense of superiority in your AAP accepted child"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow.  After reading this thread, it seems there is NO RIGHT WAY to explain to my child why he is in AAP without offending someone.  For those offended, it appears that you are simply offended that AAP exist at all (at least the way that FCPS is currently administering the program.)  I concede that there are parents who are just obnoxious about it, but even the parents who try to downplay it or explain it in a fair, sensible way, someone finds the wording offensive.

Soon after DC was found AAP eligible, he tried out for travel soccer and didn't make it when half his team did - the reason given was that he "wasn't quite ready yet."  I think he was proud to have been found eligible for AAP and I think he was disappointed not to have made travel soccer - but neither made him feel superior or inferior to his friends.  He knows everyone has strengths and weaknesses and we should celebrate our differences and not feel competitive or threatened about them.  AND he understands that being in AAP does NOT mean he is smarter that the awesome friends he still has that remained at the base school and he knows that not making the travel team has not doomed him to a life of being an inferior athlete.  He gets that these things are fluid and do not define him, his friends or his future opportunities.  [/quote]

Wow, your son is an amazing kid.  Mine has much more typical emotions and if she didn't make travel soccer when half her team did, she WOULD feel inferior to those that made it.  Mine also doesn't feel "proud" to have been eligible for AAP because I didn't convey it as a "prideful" event.  I'm the OP and the one struggling with the way to relay to my child that this is uneventful, and I see the battle I'm facing when her soon-to-be AAP classmates have, in large part, been told, or told in a way so it seems that it is, eventful, big, etc.  Sigh.  [/quote]

I get it, OP.  I didn't convey it as a "prideful" event or event at all really.  But, that said, my kid changed schools for a program called the "Advanced Academic Program". Kind of hard to keep it from him that it had to do with the fact that he was identified as a student who could do well in with a full time advanced curriculum.  So maybe "proud" is a strong word- but I think he enjoyed the fact that he was selected for this opportunity.  I can't tell him that being chosen has absolutely nothing to do with his academic abilities, no more than I can tell him that the selection for travel soccer had nothing to do with playing abilities.  What I tell him is that everyone has their own, unique set of strengths and these are not set in stone, especially at the age of 8. I tell him that there will always be someone smarter, faster, richer, stronger - whatever--- but that he should do his best at all he does, work hard, take advantage of opportunities and celebrate his strengths while recognizing/appreciating the talents of others.  [/quote]

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