"Gifted Education"

[Shadow of Sorrow]

Most school have some sort of program designed for gifted students. My school is one of these schools, or at least claims to be. From 1st to 5th grade my gifted teacher was an amazing person that let us do projects and other activities that required us to actually think. I loved it because we didn't have to do any normal school work that required little to no actual thought and it was the only class that I didn't feel like a freak for wanting to actually think and use my mind.

Then I got the great "joy" of going to middle school. Sure the teachers treated us better and we had more freedom, but my gifted class became terrible. I had a new teacher that I can't stand and she completely changed the curriculum in our class. Now instead of doing exciting activities that let us learn about subjects that were interesting and actually applicable in the real world, all we our learning is math at a slightly faster pace than the rest of the school.

Why is this, you may ask. The reasoning behind this is that our new gifted teacher feels that gifted students have more of a need to learn math slightly faster than everyone else, than actually having some quality learning time. Basically, now all we do in our gifted class is learn math that we would have learned anyways, just maybe a year later. In my opinion this is not helpful to us at all, and the gifted students at our school would benefit much more from our old thought provoking curriculum.

Plus, if all this wasn't bad enough we no longer have a gifted program in high school. They decided to get rid of it because no gifted students were taking the class. Coincidentally everyone dropped out of the class at the same time we got our new teacher. I don't think it's a big mystery as to why all the students dropped out of the gifted program.

Okay, that's all I have to say about my school gifted program, but now I need to let off some steam about my teacher herself. She's an average teacher, and qualified to teach a normal class, but she doesn't know how to teach the unique minds of gifted children. Plus, she is the wife of our Vice-superintendent and old high school principal. This is probably why she got a teaching job in the first place. However, she decided that she didn't want to work for her husband, so she moved to a different school district. Then after a couple years she moved back to our school district. She has done this more than once and each time she teaches at our school district she changes things at the school, such as gifted curriculum. Then when she leaves the changes she made are usually put back to the way they were before she left. I'm hoping that she will again find a reason to move school districts so I won't have to put up with her. I honestly can't stand the way she tries to teach us and just wish she would move and never come back.

[HeartofShadows]

No offense but I never saw the point of gifted classes.
Its extra work that won't pay off in the future..

When you go to college they only barely glance at high school grades and all that extra work in middle school is time lost.

Your gifted elementary school classes sounded pretty cool though..

Nice name by the way..

[returnal]

I feel the same way you do. Back in 5th grade, GT was nice, but now in 7th, the only difference between Science and GT Science is that it's done much faster and we're forced to do Science Fair, which sucks.

[Gaiyara]

I would take the easiest classes, but the kids are always fucking pricks/stupid in the regular classes. At least at my high school. The difference between regular and AP/advanced classes is huge.

[Shadow of Sorrow]

Now I'm even more mad at my gifted teacher. We were going to do a fun unit about architecture for the rest of the year and make our own paper houses, but instead we are just learning 8th grade math skills in 7th grade to prepare us for next year when we have to learn algebra. >:(

[JoshuaTheJew]

I had gifted History in 7th grade, and I have to say it was the best class i've ever had. We talked about the actual subject for about 10 minutes, then we used that as a jumping off point and expanded from there, just talking about current events and things like that. Fantastic class.

[Shadow of Sorrow]

That sounds like my Spanish class. We never learn how to say very much in Spanish, but my teacher knows a lot about Spanish culture, so we always just end up talking about interesting aspects of Spanish culture. It's a lot of fun and I actually learn stuff.

[тωιѕтє∂]

My gifted class in middle school exactly.

It's my first time being in a real gifted class this year, and I think it's boring and stupid.

Everyone thinks I'm an idiot for getting bad grades, not paying attention, and roming around in class, but it's really just because I don't WANT to learn this boring stuff. I don't apply myself or give in any interest about it.

If I WANTED to actually learn this shit, I would be acing every test and be at the top of my class, no joke.

But it's just too boring.

[LOON_ATTIC]

(03-24-2009 01:59 PM)HeartofShadows Wrote:  No offense but I never saw the point of gifted classes.
Its extra work that won't pay off in the future..

When you go to college they only barely glance at high school grades and all that extra work in middle school is time lost.

Your gifted elementary school classes sounded pretty cool though..

Nice name by the way..

that's if you go to community college... then maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe you can just do well on the placement exams and skip a lot of classes, and maybe that'd make AP useless?
Otherwise being more advanced and taking a bunch of AP courses can give you college credit. I guess the only thing that really matters in middle school is your math level... ie if you can take Algebra I in 7th grade you can have time to take AP Calculus and AP Statistics in high school.
They should really let people advance further if they wanted to, though... imo school is way too restricting and doesn't encourage people to do more than WHAT'S REQUIRED at all, ever, almost. The only exception I've seen is that I'm taking AP Calculus AB but I'm self studying for the BC test because it gives twice as much college credit (two semesters!)

i feel sorry for the OP. I wasn't in any gifted thing early on because there wasn't one.
I was in a sort of "regular" math class in 7th grade but the teacher was actually really awesome (IMO) and got me interested in mathematics. I took Algebra I in 8th grade...
I guess honors classes are the same crap as regular ones except there's less annoying people and less distractions, and perhaps slightly harder tests and such. I find them easier because they're less annoying, but they often could be much better...

[wanted]

careful... lunatic is a "spy" thats still in what? 7th grade?

[LOON_ATTIC]

(01-18-2013 12:54 AM)wanted Wrote:  careful... lunatic is a "spy" thats still in what? 7th grade?

yeah i must be in 7th grade because i remember it WOW

[IamNoone]

G&T classes were the best.

Every gifted class I had up till high school was actually fun and I actually LEARNED.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

We had three levels as I recall. There was the one for average students, then there was G/T. There was also Intervention which meant that you were too clever for standard program and too stupid for G/T enrichment - this was me.