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Are there any regular kids left? Is everyone 'gifted' these days?
Don't mean to derail, but every kid I read about on here is some kind of genius.
Ain't that the truth I also notice that there seems to be a huge focus on academics as opposed to all the other, often social skills, which are required to form a well rounded human being.
I have a 6 year old grandson. He lives in Geneva, Switzerland and just happens to be bilingual (English/French). But that is no big deal. It is just an accident of his environment and, in any event, is pretty common in Geneva. He is bright and active. He skis, plays soccer and computer games like any other kid. He has friends and seems to get on pretty well at school (he did two years of pre-school in the Swiss system and is now in his first year of real school). In other words he is a normal kid and that is all anyone should wish for.
It's strange that nobody has mentioned the socialization aspect of kindergarten. A child can be academically advanced, but learning how to deal with others from different backgrounds and with different levels of skills, how to behave in a classroom or formalized setting, and how to understand and follow directions as a group are equally important for lifelong success.
Especially since socialization is actually the most important aspect of kindergarten.
Especially since socialization is actually the most important aspect of kindergarten.
Absolutely. And learning how to go to school, be prepared, interact with others. There's plenty to learn at school that does not involve the little genius's solving equations and reading technical manuals.
Been there, done that. I respect you for having waited a week!
Here is what I have learned after having multiple bright kids who were ahead of the game go through school. Unless you find a private school that caters specifically to children who are academically far ahead of their grade, no school will offer your child much until high school. You can try moving to a district that has a self-contained gifted class (NOT a pull out enrichment program - those are just window dressing). There aren't many of these left in the country, since as a nation we pour money into bringing the below average student up to average, and offer virtually nothing to students who are ahead of the curve.
Since I didn't have that kind of school available to my children, I had them attend the public school (which they enjoyed, at least at kgtn age - most kids LOVE kgtn) for the social experience, gym, art, music, etc. I simply kept teaching them at home, outside of school hours. A foreign language, math, reading, writing, science, private instrument lessons, whatever we were interested in.
The most important subset of IQ for success in life (and happiness) is SOCIAL IQ, so they will be learning something in school - how to get along with classmates and teachers. But I found that my kids didn't really learn anything academic in school until they got to the high school level, where they had the choice to take honors and AP classes.
If your child gets to the point where he complains that he's bored, ask the school to send him, just for reading group, or math, to an upper level classroom, and he spends most of the day with his regular grade.
Especially since socialization is actually the most important aspect of kindergarten.
This is what I always thought.
I wonder how the child expressed his boredom. Maybe he just isn't used to sitting in one place and following rules. Maybe since he has a lack of social skills, he feels out of place. Probably a lot of the other children knew one another and he feels like an outsider.
I guess the decision has to be whether he needs the socialization enough to learn to be and function with others his age or the mother home-schools him for that one-on-one that she feels he needs. All kids could use one-on-one but that is not the reality of school.
I don't think it was established that the boy was gifted.
I agree, considering how many children actually test as gifted, it does seem like all the parents with those children are here at C-D.
I also notice that there seems to be a huge focus on academics as opposed to all the other, often social skills, which are required to form a well rounded human being.
This is partially a result of the current culture and climate around which educational achievement is assessed and designed in the U.S.
Public education is judged, rated, and funded based on how children perform on very specifically designed academic tests. Their learning, and whether or not it is deemed "sufficient" for their schools to continue to receive funding, is not judged based on how well-rounded they are, how solid and functional they are from a social skills standpoint, their emotional intelligence, it's based on performance on standardized testing that measures a very specific set of academic parameters. While a wide range of finely honed functional capabilities are needed to achieve success in the world, the way the system is currently structured, nothing is valued or counted nearly as much as certain academic capabilities. State testing doesn't put a number value on social skills, so they're "not important."
It's not a good system, but it's the one we've put into place, purposefully or not, by virtue of the people we elect, and it is the reality of the overall climate and culture. So, yeah, you have LOADS of parents who are EXTREMELY focused on their children getting the academic leg up from preschool on, versus focusing on other extremely important points of development.
There hasn't been any indication (at least none shared) that he has. On the contrary, the OP reports that he seems to be just fine. It's more HER concern.
I wonder how the child expressed his boredom. Maybe he just isn't used to sitting in one place and following rules. Maybe since he has a lack of social skills, he feels out of place. Probably a lot of the other children knew one another and he feels like an outsider.
I guess the decision has to be whether he needs the socialization enough to learn to be and function with others his age or the mother home-schools him for that one-on-one that she feels he needs. All kids could use one-on-one but that is not the reality of school.
I don't think it was established that the boy was gifted.
I agree, considering how many children actually test as gifted, it does seem like all the parents with those children are here at C-D.
I guess people don't bother reading the actual thread before posting.
a) He hasn't expressed boredom. I guess the thread title was misleading but I thought I made it clear in the OP. At this point this is more my concern, but one I make very sure to not pass on to him. I express nothing to him but enthusiasm about his schoolwork.
I also said several times that he has no issue with sitting in place. He attended a Montessori-like preschool for two years (not formal Montessori but combination of that and play-based which was ideal for him in my mind), where he got lots of practice with following directions, socializing, etc. And where he also did stuff that sounded much more interesting than tracing worksheets.
For that matter, with all that's said here about socializing, I feel they did a much better job of that in the preschool as well. He is fairly social and extroverted most of the time but can also withdraw into solitary activities under certain conditions. At preschool he actually thrived socially, they formed a great little group of friends within his class, he had a 'best friend' for the first time, knew everyone's names and generally got along great with everyone. I attribute a lot of that to the teachers in helping the kids form these relationships. Here so far he doesn't seem to be doing nearly as great - still doesn't know most of the kids' names, doesn't seem to have formed friendships, and so far told me they haven't done any group/pair activities or other activities where they'd get to know each other - although maybe they did and he forgot or didn't tell me. In any case, it doesn't seem as if the teacher is doing a lot in promoting the socializing aspect.
b) I never said he tested as gifted or anything else, simply described the actual things he was able to do. As in 'everyone' saying they have gifted kids - hm, maybe that's a sign we need to rethink our education system that's dumbed down to the lowest common denominator? Maybe that's why we have so many kids, gifted or not, who end up hating school, because most of it is drudgery and busywork? And whether or not and how much a kid is ahead of the curriculum would depend on the actual curriculum, would it not?
Honestly, if all kindergarten is is just socialization and following directions, then why don't they just take the academic part of it out altogether? I'm not being sarcastic. Quite honestly I'd be perfectly happy with that - if they took out the boring worksheets and focused on helping them make friends, I could just tell DS it's a fun social club. They could do games, music, PE etc. Works for me.
But no, they sit down and do worksheets - which for him, are developmentally only slightly above putting the square block in the square hole in a shape-sorter. And I don't care that he's not being 'educated' or given complex math - no, we have no problem helping him do it at home. It's more that I worry about his perception of school at that point. As I've said, he was excited to go, and we've built him up so much for it in talking about being a big kid now and starting school and it being this big serious grown-up step. So when he takes that state of mind, and comes in to sit down to work that's so incredibly easy and baby-like and such a huge step back for him - what kind of message is that sending??
THAT is my key issue here. Does no one really get that? It's like, say you just got this new job which is supposed to be a step above your current position, a position that sounds challenging but interesting and exciting at the same time. Say it's an office job. Maybe you were a mid-level manager and now you're supposed to be creative director, or something. And you come to your first day, only to be given a bunch of filing to do instead of the challenging duties you were expecting. And the next day, you're given some data entry. And then your supervisor teaches you how to turn on the computer, and how to launch Microsoft Word, and type up a document. Next day you're shown how to do a Google search. And this goes on, day in and day out.
How soon would you lose your motivation and lose hope in ever doing the interesting stuff you thought you would be? How soon would you check out, start biding time, start looking for another job, wish you could quit? Even if the office maybe has some new equipment you haven't seen before, and some new coworkers you're trying to get to know.
THAT is how I see the situation right now and that's why I'm concerned. HE isn't concerned, yet. *I* am not concerned for his education, yet. I AM however concerned FOR HIM and what this is doing to his view of school and his motivation.
I guess people don't bother reading the actual thread before posting.
No, no, they don't.
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