Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

You didn't even have to apply this year. The selection process changed radically AFTER people had already started submitting applications. On March 9th, my child's teacher told me that this was the first year that teachers were not asked to provide recommendations. Without applying, I have a child on the wait list. It's bizarre.

THis happened with my friend's kid! Her daughter doesn't do great with change so she did not even want to have her apply. Ends up it's at a school where they test all kids this year. Kid is on the wait list.

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

Anonymous wrote:Please remember teacher recommendations are important. If a teacher thinks your child's needs are being met, and will continue to be met, in the home school they won't recommend a move. It isn't always about being the smartest.Home schools can handle smart. HGC is about thinking differently too. It is not for everyone. Congrats to those families that got in and sorry to those that are disappointed.

There is more to it. Per definition the program is for EXCEPTIONALLY and HIGHLY gifted children.
It is not for HIGH ACHIEVERS. Those are just smart students. MCPS is filled with them
to the brim due to the profile of the families that are in the county. There is at least 30% very good students
per class and in some areas even 50% and more. Not every child is gifted.

If your child is not gifted and for some reasons you will manage "to beat the system" and have a kid
in the gifted program, you are hurting a kid at the end. Here is how. Every other, or most other kids
will be highly gifted and the contrast between the truly gifted students and those who are not became
painfully and quickly obvious among the center students. The bottom of the scale students starting
having problems with everything,the learning style is different there and requires tons of quick and
creative thinking and it has to be done on the fly, those kids do not have time to go home and cram
and prepare for discussions or problems. They have to think and they think like a wind.
When they write, they write like a wind. Gifted kids will have written a few pages paper before the teacher
ends reading the topic of the paper, they don't even have to go home to finish it.
A kid who is barely managing quickly became the "dumb" kid in the class and those kids
aside from being gifted are not sincerely nicest in the world. It can hurt your child in the most profound way,
because one thing is to get into a gifted program, another is to survive there and t hrive.
If a kid won't advance from that program to the next level, middle school level, which, if you think
was hard to get to the elementary gifted, then think again. (Elementary gifted has 6 centers,
middle gifted program for the same area has 2 Gifted centers, and anyone can apply again).

I saw a lot of kids who either dropped out of the Gifted program, or did not even apply to middle gifted program,
or applied and did not pass the exams. Each of them is devastated through the process to a degree.
Imagine being labeled as "gifted" and then all of the sudden you are not gifted anymore.
It takes huge toll on those kids. Huge. When a kid form a gifted program comes back to the main
stream, they feel like they did not delivered, that they are inferior, and the rest of the kids also
see them as some form of a looser. This is very unhealthy at the end.

Many parents try for gifted program even if they have so so students. May of those kids get
hurt by this. It depends on the personality of a kid but every kid more less takes a hit.
Smart parents who know that their kid does not have a chance in the run or at the center,
do not subject kids to this. Many parents prefer a kid who has self esteem and believes
that they could get in if they wanted but they don't want rather then the same kids being
put to the test and fail. Some kids will happily try and fail and go on with their life happily
thinking if I did not try I would not know. But most kids take the failure to their hearts.
It is not easy to get over the fact that you were "rejected" from the program.
It still hurt less in any case then getting into the center and then dropping off not being
able to keep up. It also hurts a lot when kids form elementary gifted did not make
to the middle gifted. It hurts plenty because the middle of the pack kids who are doing
so so in the center also hope to get further but the bar is very very high .

Anyway, this is just to make you realize that if your kid did not get into gifted program
not to take it to the heart as it is better not to get accepted then fail. The people who
select kids, they know who will have best chance in the run.
There is not much preparation that you can really do to get into the program because
those things that truly matter are nothing you can prepare yourself to.
All those crammers from Kumon sooner or later drop off the game. It only can get
you this far. Gifted centers are NOT about crammers.


This should be helpful to see how your kid measures up for the game:
Page 10 - Smart vs. Gifted
Page 11- High Achiever vs. Gifted Learner

http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cms/lib09/UT01001306/Centricity/Domain/73/Learning%20Distinctions%20Between%20High%20Achievers%20and%20Gifted.pdf

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

You didn't even have to apply this year. The selection process changed radically AFTER people had already started submitting applications. On March 9th, my child's teacher told me that this was the first year that teachers were not asked to provide recommendations. Without applying, I have a child on the wait list. It's bizarre.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that the HGC curriculum was made available on the MCPS website so that if more people wanted their students to follow along they could do that. They also need to open more HGC centers.

1. There is no "HGC curriculum." There are suggested themes/units, but no "curriculum" per se.
2. They are opening more Centers.

And you realize when there are more centers the caliber of the program will drop..it will be like middle schools offering only the advanced curriculum...which means it is not actually advanced.

My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Anonymous wrote:I wish that the HGC curriculum was made available on the MCPS website so that if more people wanted their students to follow along they could do that. They also need to open more HGC centers.

1. There is no "HGC curriculum." There are suggested themes/units, but no "curriculum" per se.
2. They are opening more Centers.

I wish that the HGC curriculum was made available on the MCPS website so that if more people wanted their students to follow along they could do that. They also need to open more HGC centers.

^^^I should add, DC went on to the Takoma Park magnet and a magnet high school program. It all worked out for him and he's a successful college student now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please remember teacher recommendations are important. If a teacher thinks your child's needs are being met, and will continue to be met, in the home school they won't recommend a move. It isn't always about being the smartest.Home schools can handle smart. HGC is about thinking differently too. It is not for everyone. Congrats to those families that got in and sorry to those that are disappointed.

It used to be mostly about the test which is as it should be IMO. Now the test is short and easy. My kids third grade teacher does not know the first thing about him! She assumes things because he has an attention issue. Seems MCPS has ruined this wonderful HGC program.

Teacher recommendations have always played a significant role. Our DC, now a college student, was rejected despite test scores above the mean. On appeal we learned that his teacher gave him low ratings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a message from Barnsley principal on our answering machine. He said he was personally calling all parents to make sure they had proper notice for the open house. Sure is a nice way to start anew and speaks to me of his dedication and desire to build community! A great first impression and I don't think other principals of HGC's made the calls in talking to friends across the county! Can't wait to meet him and see the school!

What is your home school?

I'll just say I don't get personal phone calls from my current school and principal so it was refreshing.

He calls the whole school every Sunday night which is nice too. "Good Evening..This is Mr Winters, the proud principal of Lucy V Barnsley Elementary school..." It has been a few years for us so that could have changed though..

Nice to hear some positive nostalgia. He still does these calls!

Anonymous wrote:Please remember teacher recommendations are important. If a teacher thinks your child's needs are being met, and will continue to be met, in the home school they won't recommend a move. It isn't always about being the smartest.Home schools can handle smart. HGC is about thinking differently too. It is not for everyone. Congrats to those families that got in and sorry to those that are disappointed.

It used to be mostly about the test which is as it should be IMO. Now the test is short and easy. My kids third grade teacher does not know the first thing about him! She assumes things because he has an attention issue. Seems MCPS has ruined this wonderful HGC program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a message from Barnsley principal on our answering machine. He said he was personally calling all parents to make sure they had proper notice for the open house. Sure is a nice way to start anew and speaks to me of his dedication and desire to build community! A great first impression and I don't think other principals of HGC's made the calls in talking to friends across the county! Can't wait to meet him and see the school!

What is your home school?

I'll just say I don't get personal phone calls from my current school and principal so it was refreshing.

He calls the whole school every Sunday night which is nice too. "Good Evening..This is Mr Winters, the proud principal of Lucy V Barnsley Elementary school..." It has been a few years for us so that could have changed though..

Please remember teacher recommendations are important. If a teacher thinks your child's needs are being met, and will continue to be met, in the home school they won't recommend a move. It isn't always about being the smartest.Home schools can handle smart. HGC is about thinking differently too. It is not for everyone. Congrats to those families that got in and sorry to those that are disappointed.