Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we have told our DC, there is nothing wrong. Its ok if kids feel something they have accomplished which will boost their confidence.

I did check with our DC if anybody in the class discussed about AAP selection, he said no one.

How has your kid "accomplished" something? Unbelievable.

I am just going to ignore this and not answer your question. This is the way I think and I don't care if you don't think the same way or not.

If your child qualified for special education services, would you tell him that he "accomplished" something? Because that was the onus and is still the legal basis behind offering a form of special education for the highly intelligent kids who learn differently, not necessarily better.

This is the problem with the current AAP. Instead of being considered a "service" it become another way for parents to measure how "accomplished" their kid is. I guess we should be thankful that no one has come up with an AAP bumper sticker yet.

Anonymous wrote:we have told our DC, there is nothing wrong. Its ok if kids feel something they have accomplished which will boost their confidence.

I did check with our DC if anybody in the class discussed about AAP selection, he said no one.

At this age, being smart isn't an accomplishment. These test are supposed to be aptitude tests not achievement tests. I'm all for telling kids, but not because it's something to be proud of. It's something they need to know because it affects their lives. Some have to move schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we have told our DC, there is nothing wrong. Its ok if kids feel something they have accomplished which will boost their confidence.

I did check with our DC if anybody in the class discussed about AAP selection, he said no one.

How has your kid "accomplished" something? Unbelievable.

I am just going to ignore this and not answer your question. This is the way I think and I don't care if you don't think the same way or not.

This is exactly why I don't want my kid knowing. Try to answer the question yourself, if not to me, how has you kid accomplished something? This just sets up the superior mentality and thus starts the great divide I'm trying to prevent in my own kid's mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we have told our DC, there is nothing wrong. Its ok if kids feel something they have accomplished which will boost their confidence.

I did check with our DC if anybody in the class discussed about AAP selection, he said no one.

How has your kid "accomplished" something? Unbelievable.

I am just going to ignore this and not answer your question. This is the way I think and I don't care if you don't think the same way or not.

Anonymous wrote:Not all level IV centers and local level IV centers are created alike-so to say the programs are equivalent is likely misleading. Totally depends on what school you are discussing.

This is a cop out. If FCPS can create good centers, they can create good LLIV, particularly at schools in high income areas that already have a critical mass of smart kids. Westbriar, for example, could have easily and sensibly started a LLIV as opposed to busing kids in from other schools to create another monster center to feed some administrative egos. Instead, it will balloon to a school of between 900 and 1000 kids in on a tiny street in a small neighborhood that can barely handle all the drop-offs for over 650 students. Just silly!

Anonymous wrote:we have told our DC, there is nothing wrong. Its ok if kids feel something they have accomplished which will boost their confidence.

I did check with our DC if anybody in the class discussed about AAP selection, he said no one.

How has your kid "accomplished" something? Unbelievable.

we have told our DC, there is nothing wrong. Its ok if kids feel something they have accomplished which will boost their confidence.

I did check with our DC if anybody in the class discussed about AAP selection, he said no one.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't told my kid yet. I think it's odd so many of you have, like it's this huge, exciting thing.

My kid doesn't do well with change and he was moving to a different school. I told him as soon as we found out because I thought he'd do better if he went to the orientation and saw the school. Telling him when we found out meant he knew about a week and a half before the orientation. Knowing in advance helped him because of his personality. Not odd at all to tell. If we're going out of town for a weekend we tell him, why is it odd to tell him about changing schools?

Not all level IV centers and local level IV centers are created alike-so to say the programs are equivalent is likely misleading. Totally depends on what school you are discussing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll never forget the mom who told me loudly --in front of a group of kids--that her daughter was just "devastated" that she didn't get in the GT program. This was years ago. She appealed and got in.

That's terrible, a second grader should not be devastated :o( Why is this so prevalent in some schools? My children's school has a huge asian population and my son had no clue what aap was when we finally told him. I don't think there's a buzz going on. Or maybe because he is a boy and his current interests are more in playing than studying and girls are more aware? It is still sad, and all it is is parents telling their children all about the program, prepping, hyping the program up and putting undue pressure on their 7/8/9 year olds.

New York City style-craziness, here we come! I think it's only going to get worse and worse, unless FCPS finally wises up and makes kids at schools where critical mass of AAPers exists stay and do LLIV there. As long as there is the perception that it is somehow better not to stay at your local school unless it is a center, you're going to have parents falling all over themselves to get their kids into AAP and perpetuating this often phony stratification of kids. It is simply unnecessary for MOST kids to be moved out of their base schools.

You are so very right. It's already been happening, creating this false hierarchy between kids (and of course, their competitive parents). Kids who already have LLIV in their base schools should be staying there, period. I don't understand why they're even given the choice to leave for an identical program, complete with free busing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll never forget the mom who told me loudly --in front of a group of kids--that her daughter was just "devastated" that she didn't get in the GT program. This was years ago. She appealed and got in.

That's terrible, a second grader should not be devastated :o( Why is this so prevalent in some schools? My children's school has a huge asian population and my son had no clue what aap was when we finally told him. I don't think there's a buzz going on. Or maybe because he is a boy and his current interests are more in playing than studying and girls are more aware? It is still sad, and all it is is parents telling their children all about the program, prepping, hyping the program up and putting undue pressure on their 7/8/9 year olds.

New York City style-craziness, here we come! I think it's only going to get worse and worse, unless FCPS finally wises up and makes kids at schools where critical mass of AAPers exists stay and do LLIV there. As long as there is the perception that it is somehow better not to stay at your local school unless it is a center, you're going to have parents falling all over themselves to get their kids into AAP and perpetuating this often phony stratification of kids. It is simply unnecessary for MOST kids to be moved out of their base schools.

at my dd's school the boys seemed to be talking more than the girls. we did not do any test prepping....we did parent refer but I didn't figure out what all we needed to do until well after all the tests were done and over (first child through the system).

but we have neighborhood friends a year or two older who go to our local center and my dd figured out last year about the center school when some of her friends didn't show up at the local school in september. we tried not to make a big deal out of it, but it is a life event and we aren't going to keep in her the dark about it.

we also told her not to gossip at school and she was not to bring up the subject, but could answer directly and quietly if asked. we also coached her younger sibling that only DD was to answer the question and that the younger one was not allowed to deliver the news.

Anonymous wrote:I'll never forget the mom who told me loudly --in front of a group of kids--that her daughter was just "devastated" that she didn't get in the GT program. This was years ago. She appealed and got in.

That's terrible, a second grader should not be devastated :o( Why is this so prevalent in some schools? My children's school has a huge asian population and my son had no clue what aap was when we finally told him. I don't think there's a buzz going on. Or maybe because he is a boy and his current interests are more in playing than studying and girls are more aware? It is still sad, and all it is is parents telling their children all about the program, prepping, hyping the program up and putting undue pressure on their 7/8/9 year olds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, they'll tell. And they'll tell their now (or future) siblings, "I'm the smart one". Yeah, good luck with that.

Parents often have no idea what they have put in place.

No they don't.

Maybe a tiny handful of poorly raised kids act like that, but it is a very small fraction of kids.

The kids that act like that are the kids who act that way whether it is sports or dance or any other activity with leveled placement.

Not true at all! I'm the PP who mentioned my daughters friends talking about how they go to the "smart school." These are really nice kids with awesome parents. Like I said they don't go on and on bragging about it it just comes across in casual conversation. I did hear one of them say, "We aren't smarter, we just think differently." I thought that was a good response and you could tell that her parents told her that. I think it bummed my daughter out for a few minutes and maybe she said something about it once but she's never brought it up again. I think other kids might be more sensitive to it especially if their parents really wanted them in the AAP program.

I'll never forget the mom who told me loudly --in front of a group of kids--that her daughter was just "devastated" that she didn't get in the GT program. This was years ago. She appealed and got in.