Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've noticed a lot of assignments in AAP are just handed out with little background. Lessons are short and there is not a lot of repetition. One week they are reading non-fiction. The next week, they are writing poems, the next week working on vocab. The activities never repeat. It's expected the children already know what is being taught I guess. I had been of the impression that children would be doing work quicker and with some less repetition, but that they would still be building on previous tasks they've learned. We are wondering if general ed might be a better fit. Our child is advanced and is doing well, but could use more reinforcement with each task assigned.

AAP was originally designed for kids who catch on quickly. If your child needs reinforcement, at least in the old days, GT/AAP would not be for him/her. I guess the question to be considered is is your child advanced because he/she has had more and earlier exposure to advanced material or because he/she is constantly pushing the boundaries and learning new things.

Kids who have received a lot of enrichment often seem advanced and end up in AAP, but once everyone else catches up and is being exposed to the same material, the kids who are slower to catch on can fall behind. If your child doesn't mind working extra hard to keep up and is happy in AAP, then perhaps being there is fine. If, on the other hand, his/her inability to keep up or need to do extra work is overly frustrating or affecting his/her confidence, Gen Ed might be a better fit. They all end up in the same place by high school anyway. In middle school my Gen Ed kid has better grades than many of his AAP peers (in the same honors classes, too).

There is actually more work being done in general ed than in AAP at our school and because of the reinforcement, the work actually looks better. So it's not an issue of too much work to keep up with. It's a matter of being thrown work without any explanation.

I have one in AAP and one in Gen Ed. The social studies and science are the same, except they write more in AAP for tests instead of having multiple choice. The books that they are required to read in AAP are harder -- but one thing I didn't like is that the fiction books in 3rd and 4th grade AAP were taking up DS's personal reading time, so he didn't have his own time for reading his own books for fun. My gen ed kid did have time to read his own books that he chose. The projects seemed to be the same in 3rd and 4th grade when they had to present. Math is AAP is ahead and goes much faster.

Also AAP the child is expected t owork on his/her OWN a lot in class. The kids in AAP who keep asking their peers questions all day are annoying. Don't insist on pushing your kid into AAP if they can't handle it on their own or won't be happy with the work/pressure.

Anonymous wrote:We've noticed a lot of assignments in AAP are just handed out with little background. Lessons are short and there is not a lot of repetition. One week they are reading non-fiction. The next week, they are writing poems, the next week working on vocab. The activities never repeat. It's expected the children already know what is being taught I guess. I had been of the impression that children would be doing work quicker and with some less repetition, but that they would still be building on previous tasks they've learned. We are wondering if general ed might be a better fit. Our child is advanced and is doing well, but could use more reinforcement with each task assigned.

AAP was originally designed for kids who catch on quickly. If your child needs reinforcement, at least in the old days, GT/AAP would not be for him/her. I guess the question to be considered is is your child advanced because he/she has had more and earlier exposure to advanced material or because he/she is constantly pushing the boundaries and learning new things.

Kids who have received a lot of enrichment often seem advanced and end up in AAP, but once everyone else catches up and is being exposed to the same material, the kids who are slower to catch on can fall behind. If your child doesn't mind working extra hard to keep up and is happy in AAP, then perhaps being there is fine. If, on the other hand, his/her inability to keep up or need to do extra work is overly frustrating or affecting his/her confidence, Gen Ed might be a better fit. They all end up in the same place by high school anyway. In middle school my Gen Ed kid has better grades than many of his AAP peers (in the same honors classes, too).

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a simple difference I've seen: A lot of the kids in Gen Ed are really special but don't realize it. All of the kids in AAP have been told they're special, but only some truly are.

Wait a minute. THIS post stays but the ones saying it's inaccurate are getting deleted?

I left one message saying that it was inaccurate. I'm allowing the point and counterpoint, but not letting it derail the thread.

PP again. OK, I get it.

Thanks Jeff! Appreciate it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a simple difference I've seen: A lot of the kids in Gen Ed are really special but don't realize it. All of the kids in AAP have been told they're special, but only some truly are.

Wait a minute. THIS post stays but the ones saying it's inaccurate are getting deleted?

I left one message saying that it was inaccurate. I'm allowing the point and counterpoint, but not letting it derail the thread.

Anonymous wrote:Here's a simple difference I've seen: A lot of the kids in Gen Ed are really special but don't realize it. All of the kids in AAP have been told they're special, but only some truly are.

Wait a minute. THIS post stays but the ones saying it's inaccurate are getting deleted?

To 14:44, this is not to discredit your post about two experiences with bad teachers. That stinks.

Just continuing the discussion about teacher influencing the level of the classes, it really can depend on the kids themselves and how they relate to the teachers.

In my kids fifth grade year, they had three teachers split between the three classes. I was talking with the mother of one of my kids' best friend. We both agreed one teacher was fine. However, the teacher she thought was the worst they have ever had was one of the best my kid had ever had. They thought the third teacher was wonderful, and we thought she was meh at best. Another parent hated, just hated the first teacher and thought the other two were just spectacular. A fourth parent thought number three was outstanding and the other two just fine.

All kids in the same AAP class, same teachers, but very different experiences and opinions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Believe it or not, I have a Gen-Ed kid, was in pool did not get in AAP. He has lots of friends in AAP and it is strange that Gen-Ed kids are actually doing much more challenging work than AAP. Gen-ED teacher is phenomenal in understanding each child's weakness and strength and push them accordingly. The teacher has also helped kids overcome their weak points drastically.

I totally believe it.

Contrary to what dcum would have you believe, gen ed is not a horrible punishment for bright kids who missed the pool. There are many exceptional teachers in the gen ed program, and many very bright kids as well.

The reason some people prefer gen ed to AAP isn't because AAP teachers are viewed as superior to gen ed teachers. It's because even if you have a bad AAP teacher, at least your child will still have exposure to an advanced curriculum. My DC in AAP had a terrible teacher last year, but still at least had the advanced curriculum so it wasn't a total loss. My DC in Gen Ed had a terrible teacher this year so had a terrible year with no redeeming silver lining because the work they did was also not challenging. My kids have had fantastic teachers in Gen Ed and in AAP, but whether a teacher differentiates and challenges kids in Gen Ed is way too teacher dependent. After DC had such a bad teacher last year in AAP, I had decided to keep DC2 in Gen Ed because I thought it was the teacher not gen ed vs. AAP. After this year with an equally bad gen ed teacher, I see why AAP vs. Gen Ed does matter. And I know I'll get flamed for thinking two teachers were terrible, but in both cases it was consensus among the parents that the teachers were terrible. The one from last year is no longer teaching.