how do you tell her ? about her Non fitting style

.com/~bernardschopen/ Joanne HA hahahahhahah thank you mirjam

Here it wouldn't nessecarily mean special needs, it's more a slang term for someone who is other worldly. It gets used for example on another Brit who lives near here, he lives in a falling down ruin, builds piles of rubbish outside his back door but has put his property on the market for a couple of million as that's what it's worth to him! So the french say he is special. . I used the children reference as that was how I used the word special and got myself into complications, ironic as I have a son with learning dificulties. Now backing out of the hole I have dug for myself.

Claire in Montréal. FRANCE

In our school district, gifted children are also classified as "special needs children". And indeed they are. When testing identifies these kids they are placed in the gifted education program.

They are pulled out of class one day a week to attend Spectra, taught by a teacher well-versed in the unique challenges these kids present to their teachers. In this setting they are allowed to feel "normal" for once. They are presented with advanced projects designed to challenge them.

They are exempted from rote exercises assigned to their classmates in areas they've already mastered. The Spectra teacher also advocates for them when classroom teachers try to use them as unpaid assistants and tutors, or when teachers become frustrated by kids who insist that they explain themselves rather than accepting information presented at face value, or worse yet (from the classroom teacher's POV), present conclusive evidence to the contrary.

All of this runs counter to the pervasive attitude in the US. "All men are created equal" so why should these kids "get away with" not writing their spelling words 50 times each, just like their classmates (in spite of the fact that they are reading, writing and spelling on a college level)? And the flip side is, if "all men are created equal", if they're gifted in one area, they MUST be deficient in another - emotional, physical, social... Right? A lot of folks have a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that it ain't necessarily so. And that's where the Spectra classes come in.

It sounds counterintuitive, but in districts without a Gifted and Talented program, these kids drop out at a rate higher than that of so-called average students due to simple frustration. And that's a shameful waste of one of our country's natural resources.

If it were always well done, I would agree with you. However, my older son, after a few months in the local G & T program came to me and said he wanted out. His reason was that one day a week he went to a class and worked. Then he went back to his regular class and had to make up all the work he missed that day. He said it just wasn't worth it. He did like the annual trip to Ashland, Oregon, for the Shakespeare Festival, so he continued to go on that.

He now has two Master's degrees. He was working on a Ph.D. when he realized he was preparing for a job that he would never want to do, switched departments, and picked up his second Master's with the work he'd already completed. He's now a hydrological engineer with expertise in water resource management.

And so it goes on. Labels are labels no mater what end of the spectrum.Special needs, Gifted and Talented. My 9 yo DGS is certainly on the G&T end of things. The school he attends supplements it programs as after school clubs. These clubs are open to all the children, not just the ones who are quick learners. The benefit is that those who are faster studies get additional work, but also have the opportunity to work with other children who have educational challenges. All the children love the program. No one is singled out, no one lords it over anyone else. That brings about immediate expulsion from the group. When my son was in school he had many reading problems. They were brought about by the fact that as a child he had repeated ear infections and missed much of the sounds children learn as a preliminary to good reading. We fought for him to get what he needed throughout his school life. At one point the district wanted to classify him as needing special education. I wouldn't allow it. My reason being he would be in a class that made no demands and had no expectations from the children and the children had no expectations for themselves, DS is extremely bright, He struggled through school and college. He has a very responsible job in a computer firm.He is also friendly and outgoing and can and always could hold his own in any intellectual situation.He has had many in house papers published in the world of computer science. He holds several patents through the company he works for. Just don't ask him to spell very. He can't. Juno

Juno B wrote: Just don't ask him to

My husband has a Ph.D. in English literature. He has taught college and university classes all his life. He's written and published three novels and an academic book in addition to a large number of professional papers. He can't spell worth a darn.

Another brilliant mind! Doesn't have room for that kind of stuff. Juno

We lived 2 year in Uk , 2 years in Usa , and most our life [ and the kids schooling ] here in Israel , Thus i can say that i saw 3 different educational system , each has better and less good parts , none is the Ideal we all would like to have for our children. Good education shopd be a combination of what the local system can give + Whar we as parents Think might WIDEN the horozns of our children . mirjam

My DH was the son of an educator, but DH dropped out of college after one year. DH was dyslexic before there was a term for it. He struggled his entire life, especially with spelling. He was mortified if he had to write a check in public, he never spelled "eight" the same way twice, and homophones? Aaaarrrggghhh!.

And yet, he was extremely intelligent, had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports stats, could take a car apart and put it back together, re-wired our house, knew lots about plumbing, had a built-in GPS and NEVER got lost....

Weird how we're wired.

Beverly

He would agree with you 100%!!!

Not indiscriminately, I hope. Assisting the teacher and tutoring other students was a very valuable part of my education.

Joy Beeson

Only when the student in question feels pressured and/or coerced.

For major projects my daughter's 3rd grade teacher repeatedly paired her with students with serious emotional, learning and/or behavioral issues so she could "model appropriate behavior" and "help him/her along".

These were kids who'd make your average adult want to cry and/or tear out their hair and my daughter's grade was tied to their performance. DD likened the experience to one of those nightmares where the monster is chasing you and all the sudden you're running through jello.

The issue was not unique to my daughter. This teacher had a cluster of Spectra kids and felt that they were her personal resource to draw upon as needed.

Her Gifted Ed teacher stepped in and forced the classroom teacher to allow the Spectra kids to choose their own partners (usually other Spectra kids), just like the rest of their classmates. Not more privileges, merely the same as those granted to everybody else.

It worked very well in the old one-room school houses, but there weren't all that many children in most of them.