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“Hey Mom, I LIKE Gifted School!”

My eight-year-old son has embarked on his new journey into the gifted “spectrum” program in our school district. At first, he was very reluctant. He has several good friends who live within walking distance of our home who he liked to play with at school. Leaving those buddies behind was a little hard to face. “I don’t think I want to go to gifted school,” he said. Several readers urged me to have him attend anyway, because of the marvelous educational opportunity he had been given. Finally, somewhat hesitantly, he determined to give it a try. One drawback has been … Continue reading →

No Child Left Behind Law Expires in One Year, What’s Next?

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The No Child Left Behind law is set to expire next fall and I am sure that leaves many teachers with a bit of a grin on their faces. After all, this law, while it has many positives to it, is just an added stress to already stressed out teachers. Because the law expires next year, something will most likely replace it or it will be amended to have new and improved aspects to it. Just what would the NEA (National Education Association) like to see happen next with The No Child Left Behind law? The NEA likes the idea … Continue reading →

Ten Signs that Your Child May be Gifted

Gifted and creative children often have behavioral problems in school which resemble ADHD, ODD, or other disorders. Sadly, many of these children are reprimanded, medicated, and denied the ability to reach their full potential. When this happens, our entire society suffers. Imagine if Einstein, Churchill, Edison, and other great thinkers who struggled in school were held back and forced to be ordinary. What if we had labeled them as slow learners and medicated them? How might the world be different today? I wonder why we assume children who misbehave are unintelligent. For some reason we’ve adopted this thinking in the … Continue reading →

Why It’s Not Bad to Fail First Grade

Parents and kids hear the words ‘fail’, ‘retained’, or ‘held back’ and instant panic sets in. “Not my child!” I’ve even seen parents ‘bully’ their way to the principal’s office demanding reevaluation. For some reason, we as parents can’t get past the stigma of being left behind a grade. However, I am convinced that being held back in the early years is much more beneficial to the child than struggling through elementary school. A Developmental Process Maybe instead of saying a child is being retained we should say they are on a different learning curve. Truth be told things like … Continue reading →

Update On Javits Funding

Last month in an article titled Gifted Kids Might Be Left Behind, I discussed the fact that the House of Representatives allocated no money for gifted education for fiscal year 2007. The Javits funding is the only funding at the federal level for gifted education. On July 20, the Senate appropriations committee met and allocated $5.25 million to fund all the current programs and the National Research Center on the Talented and Gifted. No new funds are available for innovative programs or different research. This is a significant decrease in funding from 2006, which was over $9.6 million. I think … Continue reading →