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First of All...
Sep. 25th, 2009 10:23 amIn case you didn't already know it, our president ROCKS. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
naomikritzer turned me on to this picture last night...
Secondly, I had a very illuminating conversation with one of the moms from Mason's school this morning. In Kindergarden and Pre-K, Mason had a colleague who was also an early reader. Both Mason and this other young man tested into Capitol Hill, our gifted and talented magnet in Saint Paul. The other young man transferred. We didn't. By chance, the other young man's mom was at our school today dropping off a sibling. I asked her how Mason's friend was enjoying Capitol Hill. She gushed. "Oh," she said, "There's homework every night. Plus, we're required to do TEN minutes of reading EVERY NIGHT!!"
I felt instantly grateful we stayed at Crossroads. Crossroad is actually more rigorous, as we're required to do 20 minutes of reading every night (though Mason easily does more). Secondly, I think busy work homework is a fast track to burn out (ESPECIALLY for gifted kids), and Mason only has the ocassional math sheet every so often. The rest of his "homework" is usually the sort of thing he can do and be done with quickly so we can get on to reading adult-level books or exploring dinosaurs or whatever interests him.
The other mom also went on about this big presentation her son was invovled in at Capitol Hill. It sounded pretty fun until she confessed that, really, the parents were doing most of the work, down to creating a power-point presentation for their son to read from for his speech.
Sounds fun for the parents.
It also sounds like a great place to be a "high achiever" (which is actually quite different than being gifted. For a great chart, check out: High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker) High achievers like school and school work. They are motivated by getting good grades (I, for instance, was a combination of a high achiever and a creative student. Creative students are also very different from gifted kids -- although they have more in common with gifted kids than high achievers). Gifted kids aren't always motivated to get good grades. They don't always even like school particularly. They, like Mason, would rather do their OWN thing and, honestly, find school kind of distraction from their own pursuits.
There is, I discovered, a school in the Minneapolis/St. Paul school system for profoundly gifted students. Perhaps, if we needed it some day, it will be there for us. In the meantime, Mason is happy where he is (and, it turns out, being challenged to read more!)
naomikritzer turned me on to this picture last night...Secondly, I had a very illuminating conversation with one of the moms from Mason's school this morning. In Kindergarden and Pre-K, Mason had a colleague who was also an early reader. Both Mason and this other young man tested into Capitol Hill, our gifted and talented magnet in Saint Paul. The other young man transferred. We didn't. By chance, the other young man's mom was at our school today dropping off a sibling. I asked her how Mason's friend was enjoying Capitol Hill. She gushed. "Oh," she said, "There's homework every night. Plus, we're required to do TEN minutes of reading EVERY NIGHT!!"
I felt instantly grateful we stayed at Crossroads. Crossroad is actually more rigorous, as we're required to do 20 minutes of reading every night (though Mason easily does more). Secondly, I think busy work homework is a fast track to burn out (ESPECIALLY for gifted kids), and Mason only has the ocassional math sheet every so often. The rest of his "homework" is usually the sort of thing he can do and be done with quickly so we can get on to reading adult-level books or exploring dinosaurs or whatever interests him.
The other mom also went on about this big presentation her son was invovled in at Capitol Hill. It sounded pretty fun until she confessed that, really, the parents were doing most of the work, down to creating a power-point presentation for their son to read from for his speech.
Sounds fun for the parents.
It also sounds like a great place to be a "high achiever" (which is actually quite different than being gifted. For a great chart, check out: High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker) High achievers like school and school work. They are motivated by getting good grades (I, for instance, was a combination of a high achiever and a creative student. Creative students are also very different from gifted kids -- although they have more in common with gifted kids than high achievers). Gifted kids aren't always motivated to get good grades. They don't always even like school particularly. They, like Mason, would rather do their OWN thing and, honestly, find school kind of distraction from their own pursuits.
There is, I discovered, a school in the Minneapolis/St. Paul school system for profoundly gifted students. Perhaps, if we needed it some day, it will be there for us. In the meantime, Mason is happy where he is (and, it turns out, being challenged to read more!)
