[Ohiogift] gifted parents as advocates

[Jane Brewster]

I would sure hope not!  I am deeply interested in ensuring that my kids are provided the appropriate opportunities for learning and success.  It is my job to teach them how to respond to those opportunities and then let them go to experience life and to reach their potential!

For what it's worth, I'm also an older parent of five lovely daughters.  I have learned much along the way and my second grader is fortunate to benefit from the mistakes I've made with the others :).

Jane

From: ohiogift-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:ohiogift-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of (Mary Collier)
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 12:19 PM
To: ohiogift at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: [Ohiogift] gifted parents as advocates

You made my day, but it is a shame you had to do this.  Would you also be labled a helicopter parent?
Mary Collier (an older parent)
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Brewster <JBrewster at brewsterandbrewster.com<mailto:JBrewster at brewsterandbrewster.com>>
To: Ohiogift <Ohiogift at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<mailto:Ohiogift at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>>
Sent: Tue, May 28, 2013 12:09 pm
Subject: Re: [Ohiogift] gifted parents as advocates

I have never posted before, but this topic is near and dear to my heart.  I am

not an educator.  I am the parent of several gifted children (and a past school

board member).  Parents absolutely MUST step in and advocate for their children,

beginning with the local classroom.  My daughter entered kindergarten a year

early and is currently in second grade.  During an early conference with a

teacher this year, I was told my daughter was not motivated.  She was disruptive

in the classroom and not progressing beyond the beginning second grade reading

level the teacher had given her.  I discovered it was the teacher's habit to

make each child read the same book three times.  I asked the teacher (okay, I

wasn't that nice) to quit making her read the same thing three times, when she

clearly already understood it, provide her with more challenging work, increase

the difficulty of her spelling assignments, and, in addition to the usual test

for the reading level, allow my daughter to p

 rovide a report or project for each book she had read.  Amazingly (not really),

she has progressed in her reading level to about the end of the fifth grade.

She and I did some really cool projects at home, too (no help from the teacher).

Sadly, had I not intervened, I believe my daughter would have continued to

disrupt the classroom and refuse to do her work, making it appear that she was

actually BEHIND rather than ahead of the other kids.  I will say that the

teacher later indicated to me that she had never had a child like my daughter

and was thankful for the insight I had provided into differentiation in the

classroom.



Jane







Katie and other gifted parents,



Margaret is absolutely right.  You must advocate for your son. Talking to your

legislators is crucial.  Ann Sheldon and/or the Ohio Association for Gifted

Children website at oagc.com can give you advice.  Click on advocacy on the

left, and then advocacy alerts you will see that gifted is once again embroiled

in a fight to have units reinstated so that districts actually have gifted

teachers and gifted coordinators who understand and actually like gifted

students and know how to address their needs.  The House had addressed this

issue, but the Senate seems poised to revert to the initial budget which did not

specify exactly how money should be spent for gifted--if at all.  Regrettably

most classroom teachers have had zero coursework of any kind on gifted children.

Your representative needs to hear your story.

Good luck to you,

Barb







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