How do you define smart then? I think the technical definition of gifted is generally IQ>=130 roughly. What do you think as smart? What do you think as bright?

know I am going to be flamed by mamas who claim that their kids are gifted. Gifted in my opinion means a God-given intelligence, innate in you. Which also means that they will remain gifted even if they do not get into magnet schools. Furthermore, the process by which they are admitted to the center is not really measuring giftedness, because is there a test that can measure that? And could giftedness come in different flavors?

well stated

My kids are in magnet schools. No, my kids are not gifted. They are just regular smart kids who do well with good teachers and hard work. I do not desire acceleration at school. just enrichment. My expectation from the school system is that curriculum is standardized and at par with the rest of the world. That is not the case right now.

If I was living in a W school, I would not even send my kids to magnet programs. There may be some exceptionally gifted kids, but going to a magnet program does not necessarily mean that your kid is one.

I know I am going to be flamed by mamas who claim that their kids are gifted. Gifted in my opinion means a God-given intelligence, innate in you. Which also means that they will remain gifted even if they do not get into magnet schools. Furthermore, the process by which they are admitted to the center is not really measuring giftedness, because is there a test that can measure that? And could giftedness come in different flavors?

So in the magnet schools a majority of kids are smart, hard working, well prepared and lucky. Not necessarily gifted in academics.

Yes, and really I don't see how everyone's kid can be gifted

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a young child that is quite advanced linguistically and cognitively, I've found myself self-censoring with my friends when I talk about our future school plans. A lot of our decisions will be based on which school would best support a "gifted" child, but I'm reluctant to mention that, so I just talk about the other decision factors, which aren't nearly as important. It feels phony, and I don't like the fact that I don't feel I can have a candid conversation without coming across as bragging. I'm also worried that other parents would resent me. I don't think I'd feel as constrained if my child were really talented in music or sports instead. So I'm grateful for an anonymous forum where it's ok to talk openly about such things. Or at least where it doesn't really matter if some people resent you.

Same here! I usually never talk about our experience b/c of the fear of resentment or bragging. When my daughter was admitted to a gifted elementary school everyone was surprised because we spend more time talking about soccer or gymnastics. No one wants to hear me talk about her crying at night because she's so bored at school.

I think many parents need validation and/or congratulations.

1. my daughter is gifted. I don't brag to others, she doesn't know , and we did testing (paid for ourselves not via school) so that she could be identified officially if any issues down the line.
2. she is 'highly gifted' by category as above.
3. we have never put words in her mouth but she does complain about school being 'boring' and is in Grade 3 asking about square roots.
4. the 'social' side (for those who posted silly comment that social skill is as important as..) - duh. we as parents know that and struggle to get our gifted kids 'social' skills up to grade level . they have (often) very asynchronis develoopment (yes spelled wrong - go on and correct me gifted bunch) . and we battle daily to get her to not be rude, bossy, controlling, but it is part of who she is - we are not like that. She has come a long way in 3 years - but don't assume parents not doing their part. Sometimes that isn't the case!

"spending probably millions on new facilities, new teachers. Most of the shuttered DC schools are now DMVs and clinics and such so even if you took the school facilities back you'd have to spend $$$ to relocate the DMVs. Also, taking 1-2 gifted kids from a class in each school won't free up teachers from the home schools, so you'd have to hire new teachers."

Seems to me that charters manage to do exactly that each year - hire new teachers and get space each year, WITHOUT the luxury of DC government's support to provide them with the real estate, as well as without receiving as much per student as DCPS schools do. Though they aren't specifically for G&T, they are nonetheless typically specialized offerings.

So the argument that it can't be done makes no sense - because it quite obviously can be done.

And if the DCPS school system is unwilling to do so, then perhaps they should allow a charter to do it instead.

The number of kids is a given, it's statistics and demographics, the math will show there are more than enough kids in DC for it to matter - and nobody is going to ever win that one based solely on their opinion.

As for the money - plenty of school districts that have less to spend per student than DC manage to provide G&T programs without sacrificing elsewhere, they do just fine.

This isn't just some pie-in-the-sky discussion of generalities here, we have elected officials who need to start answering for why it is that, compared to other districts all around the country, we DC taxpayers get so much less for our dollar. A lot of the money never even reaches the schools - there are people getting rich and fat by intercepting the money before it even gets to where it's needed, and anyone who's sitting around making excuses and deflecting from that, whining that we don't have the money to do this or that is part of the problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP but I will respond to you 9:20 - if you were the one who posted suggesting that the number of G&T kids was not sufficient to warrant meaningful G&T programs, then you are patently wrong. 80 per grade is more than enough. Even 40 per grade would be more than enough. Your objections are baffling. Evidently you don't seem to understand that many of us (particularly those of us in DC) are not so lucky as you to have ready access to those programs, and also might not be so well off as to be able to afford a $500k home in the burbs to get access to the programs that you evidently have access to. You are free to be as frustrated as you like but your frustration is purely a function of your own incapacity to understand the situations that many others here are in.

Uh, the question was not whether 5 or 80 or 800 kids, considered in isolation, is "enough." It's whether that number of kids justifies addressing all the DC political issues and/or spending probably millions on new facilities, new teachers. Most of the shuttered DC schools are now DMVs and clinics and such so even if you took the school facilities back you'd have to spend $$$ to relocate the DMVs. Also, taking 1-2 gifted kids from a class in each school won't free up teachers from the home schools, so you'd have to hire new teachers. That's the issue (and your incapacity to understand). Basic math.

Nonsense. Basic math tells me that DC spends more per student than any other district in the nation and yet fails to deliver the programs that we taxpayers have paid for. There's a huge amount of waste, fraud and abuse in the system. There's more than enough money - it's time to stop making excuses and deal with the real problems.

Well, that's progress because we've moved on to talking about cost-benefit, not just the number of kids. If could eliminate "waste and fraud" in government spending we could solve the budget program and still pay SNAP. Or so some people claim.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP but I will respond to you 9:20 - if you were the one who posted suggesting that the number of G&T kids was not sufficient to warrant meaningful G&T programs, then you are patently wrong. 80 per grade is more than enough. Even 40 per grade would be more than enough. Your objections are baffling. Evidently you don't seem to understand that many of us (particularly those of us in DC) are not so lucky as you to have ready access to those programs, and also might not be so well off as to be able to afford a $500k home in the burbs to get access to the programs that you evidently have access to. You are free to be as frustrated as you like but your frustration is purely a function of your own incapacity to understand the situations that many others here are in.

Uh, the question was not whether 5 or 80 or 800 kids, considered in isolation, is "enough." It's whether that number of kids justifies addressing all the DC political issues and/or spending probably millions on new facilities, new teachers. Most of the shuttered DC schools are now DMVs and clinics and such so even if you took the school facilities back you'd have to spend $$$ to relocate the DMVs. Also, taking 1-2 gifted kids from a class in each school won't free up teachers from the home schools, so you'd have to hire new teachers. That's the issue (and your incapacity to understand). Basic math.

Nonsense. Basic math tells me that DC spends more per student than any other district in the nation and yet fails to deliver the programs that we taxpayers have paid for. There's a huge amount of waste, fraud and abuse in the system. There's more than enough money - it's time to stop making excuses and deal with the real problems.

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP but I will respond to you 9:20 - if you were the one who posted suggesting that the number of G&T kids was not sufficient to warrant meaningful G&T programs, then you are patently wrong. 80 per grade is more than enough. Even 40 per grade would be more than enough. Your objections are baffling. Evidently you don't seem to understand that many of us (particularly those of us in DC) are not so lucky as you to have ready access to those programs, and also might not be so well off as to be able to afford a $500k home in the burbs to get access to the programs that you evidently have access to. You are free to be as frustrated as you like but your frustration is purely a function of your own incapacity to understand the situations that many others here are in.

Uh, the question was not whether 5 or 80 or 800 kids, considered in isolation, is "enough." It's whether that number of kids justifies addressing all the DC political issues and/or spending probably millions on new facilities, new teachers. Most of the shuttered DC schools are now DMVs and clinics and such so even if you took the school facilities back you'd have to spend $$$ to relocate the DMVs. Also, taking 1-2 gifted kids from a class in each school won't free up teachers from the home schools, so you'd have to hire new teachers. That's the issue (and your incapacity to understand). Basic math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my circle, it isn't discussed, so I like most of the gifted threads on DCUMs because with a DC a few grade levels ahead in certain areas it helps me figure out how to handle it.

get lost...loser

Wow, such anger. If you are so sick of gifted talk, how about you stop visiting gifted discussions - nobody is forcing you to read this thread.

There. Problem solved.

Anonymous wrote:In my circle, it isn't discussed, so I like most of the gifted threads on DCUMs because with a DC a few grade levels ahead in certain areas it helps me figure out how to handle it.

get lost...loser

Not the PP but I will respond to you 9:20 - if you were the one who posted suggesting that the number of G&T kids was not sufficient to warrant meaningful G&T programs, then you are patently wrong. 80 per grade is more than enough. Even 40 per grade would be more than enough. Your objections are baffling. Evidently you don't seem to understand that many of us (particularly those of us in DC) are not so lucky as you to have ready access to those programs, and also might not be so well off as to be able to afford a $500k home in the burbs to get access to the programs that you evidently have access to. You are free to be as frustrated as you like but your frustration is purely a function of your own incapacity to understand the situations that many others here are in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't know about the rest of your post, but the part I bolded is clearly wrong. I did the stats for you on another thread, and it looked like you'd get about 80 kids in each grade, taken from all across the city. This was using some assumptions that were very generous and probably implausible. You are a very frustrating person to deal with.

New poster here. I think you are the one who is frustrating and I am also guessing you really do not have any gifted children. Instead I think you have an ax to grind with the whole concept that everyone has differing academic abilities just like they do with music and sports. Get over it already

That was my post. I don't know who you are, who you think I am, or why you dregged up a post that's several weeks old just to attack me and my kids. You are creeping me out and I'm sure others here find your personal attacks bizarre. I don't care if you want to delude yourself about my kids' intelligence. (And you are soooo wrong, if you had wanted helpful info about the magnet experience, CTY or gifted testing I would have been happy to respond.) You're obviously a sad, strange little person who gets your kicks thinking you are better than everyone else - to the point of insulting other people's kids. Stop creeping everybody out.