[Ohiogift] Published letter regarding Rosemond column

[Katie Thurston]

Hey all-

Although it has been awhile since I perused the gifted listserve
commentary, my quandary is the same:  how to best protect the
interests of my gifted son, who, unlike his older sister (who excels),
is failing high school after his first year there. This in an
'excellent' rated school district, no less.

School for Zach has always been awful, and it shows. I have enough
paperwork to fill a file drawer. He's been hospitalized, cajoled,
labelled (ADHD/ODDwGAD), dismissed, and ostracized. However, I have
tests results that verify his gifted aptitude in math, etc...
Unfortunately, the results diminish year to year as his learning
hasn't kept pace.

My son calls himself a failure. It is easy for me to understand why. I
hated school in many respects but like his sister, I did well. He is
brilliant, any one who has engaged him in a conversation may sense
this; yet his experience of school has been, for the most part,
abysmal.

I try to help, but the courses and methods are so much different from
the 70's when I was in high school. I feel stymied. Z and I are
discussing homeschooling. Again. I fear the district will try to
intervene, on his "behalf"- although given their treatment of him, I'd
posit that a strong court case could be made that his interests are
being neglected in the name of the district saving face. The
district's interests are its own.

I'm not worried about "socialization" since where we live now, he's
enough of an outcast since gradeschool (in part due to the ignorance
of others), that he really has mostly online friends. And the children
placed in the "resource" room where he has been forced to spend part
of the school day are not all gifted.

Any suggestions? I am impotently angry about the situation. I cannot
afford a decent lawyer. And I have written to state reps in the past
on behalf of gifted programming. Didn't get any response, at all. If I
had thrown cash at them, I believe I would have gotten better results-
but if I had said funds, my son would be enrolled in a school for
gifted children, or perhaps even college by now.

Thanks for your time.

Katie Thurston

On 6/16/13, Lisa Henry <lmhenry at zoominternet.net> wrote:
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Art Snyder <artsnyder44 at cs.com>
> Date: 06/16/2013  2:46 PM  (GMT-05:00)
> To: Ohiogift at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: [Ohiogift] Published letter regarding Rosemond column
>
> Mary Collier's letter to her local newspaper regarding John Rosemond's
> parenting column was a breath of fresh air and clarity on behalf of everyone
> involved in gifted ed.
>
> I'm really glad she (and perhaps others) have taken Rosemond to task for his
> consistently dismissive response to gifted service and the students who
> ultimately benefit.
>
> Bravo, Mary!
>
> Best wishes,
> Art Snyder
>
>