You might order a copy of "A Nation Deceived" to take with you and give them. It's free! Good luck.

Grinity - can we go to the school you're talking about? LOL. I mentioned to the teacher about why they don't schedule the subjects together to make it easier for kids to be accelerated. I got the deer in the headlights look. In K, DS's reading instruction was coordinated w/ 2 other teachers. Well, you can imagine with no schedule synchronization, how hard it was to get the 3boys together and which teacher would do the reading group? So my son got reading instruction about once/month compared to the other kids 1-2/week.

There are some/many/several schools that do this. It must have some downside,but I can't really imagine what it is compared to the benifit.
I'm glad that I'm at the point where I can explain it as though it were no big deal...

Dazy - Sadly, that better than 'below readiness' instruction twice a week! Still no fair!

I think a lot depends on the personality of the kid. If they aren't that happy socially to begin with, or they are just starting out and don't have friends to lose, then I weight social less. I don't think it's really possible to measure maturity in anyone - ((Have you been watching Baby Bowwers Lately, or any TV, really?)) - particularly difficult to measure maturity in HG and beyond kids. ((shrug)) It's a dice toss.

Grimity

You can download a copy too. Just google up nation deceived.

I think your point about showing up with solutions is the key. I think you can convince them of the need, but you have to respect the resources they have available.

My friend undertook a whole GT program for her children but that meant, planning the curriculum, the staffing, doing the fundraising. And it that was just for some pull out classes and projects.

Hence, I would look at the industry around you and see what kind of fundraising and support you might get there for pull out classes. Also, look at any museums or universities that might help with programs.

good luck,
Ren

Hi all - thank you so much for the discussion on this topic. My friend and I met with the superintendent and asst. super. and while we were given some good suggestions, it didn't quite go as I had envisioned it would. In the end, the super. gave us his spiel about how gifted kids are not the priority because there are so few of them and so gifted programming is not in the top tier of his priority list $$$ wise, though he has plans to have teachers trained in differentiation esp. with the new math curricula being piloted. He actually put it back on us and said all he could suggest right now is going back to our own school and finding teachers who would be willing to work and train us (parents, skilled community members) to provide mentoring opportunities to GT kids.

My motivation to advocate was significantly deflated after that meeting. I think the super. and asst. super definitely do have the needs of GT kids on their radar, but their hands are tied because of the economy, funding, other issues in the district that apparently are more pressing.

I need to go back and re-read all the suggestions here and hopefully that will give me some much needed inspiration and motivation.

Wren - wow, is your friend here on this board? I'd love to hear/read about how she went about doing all that.