You snuck in on me there Mary! The "special needs" comment is a winner for sure. Waiting for these doozies to roll off someone's tongue almost make these confrontations worth it.

I'm thinking of that comedian from Blue collar comedy Bill Engvall who is known for saying "Here's your sign..."

A women in my DS3 play group after seeing my son read..."Maybe if you take away his books he would be more normal." From my sister "You don't want to make a big deal about his intelligence, you don't want to make him feel special". (Remember this is the boy's Aunt!!) From the assistant principal of the elementary school "Prepare him to do his extra work at home and use school as a place to socialize". Ummm isn't that what the park is for???

Okay I must add one more...

My DH just yelled up to my son "Stop reading bedtime stories to the dog and go to bed!!" LOL

'If I had a son like that, I would force him to be normal. He'd thank me later.'

Mary, I am aghast at this one. Oh, the ignorance...

Who said the comment about your grandfather? That is priceless!

It sounds like you expect your child's Gifted IEP to be individualized.


This one calls for a big "Duh!" What did they think the "I" in IEP stood for?

I am commenting late in the game. I am a bit confused. 150 on a wisc is near the ceiling. my friend is a psychologist in a ny state district and has been there fro over 10 yrs. She stated that that score is rare. Either the district doesn't know how to test or they are simply not telling the complete truth?

Karen,
i have bad news. Soime people lie to each other. Some people go so far as to lie to themselves. Particularly when they feel as though their backs are against the wall. Particularly when they feel like they don't really understand 'what's going on.'

In 2nd grade, the school refered us to a private psychologist to evaluate DS10, because "there is something medically wrong with your son." ((Our Dime))

The local psychologist met him and said, there isn't anything wrong with him, he's just a little immature. If you want to be totally sure, we can run some tests. The WJ and WISC III came back with YSP type scores. The psychologist's assesment?

Kid is bright and maybe boredom is having an effect on his behavior. You should read up on NVLD because there is a big gap between his Verbal and Performance.

Personally, as a Mom, I can not see how anyone can look at those kind of scores in a child that is clearly unhappy, and acting out, and not reccoment a change of educational placement!

So my nomination for most outrageous thing heard is - he MAY be bored in school.

Particularly as it was part of a dismissive side comment, rather than, he may be bored - we should find out using these methods.....

Why do I even remember these things? They only frustrate me!
Trinity

This is a great thread! I've thought of a couple more:

From the principal, after the grade skip to first: "It's apparent he didn't go to kindergarten because he answers questions without raising his hand and sometimes runs and talks in the hallway. But the teachers said they can work on those behaviors." Yes, please do. I would like to see his spirit squashed!

From my sister-in-law: "Well, you can have him do sports so he'll be with kids his age, so he doesn't miss out on friends."

And from the teacher after he cried in school due to making a mistake on his paper: "Is he particularly sensitive?" Apparently she didn't read the report from the private testing we went out of state for!

I am simultaneously relieved and frustrated that everyone else hears the same type of stuff!

Trin, I have this one in writing on DS's WISC-IV report, with multiple ceilings...

"A concern for gifted individuals like DS is that they become bored due to working on material that is not challenging. We recommend that efforts be made to avoid this potential situation with DS."

This was the ONLY thing written under "recommendations".

Um...thanks.

Debbie, there is a certain comfort in sharing these things, isn't there?

For Todd's 154 comment, I wonder if whoever made it really even knew what they were talking about. I've probed further on similar comments on my end, and the admin making the comment generally appears to be quite clueless about IQ testing in general. The thought that they truly believe what they are saying is incomprehensible to me.

I love this thread!! It is hilarious and so very sad all at the same time. It is amazing how we hear so many of the same things. I checked off about half a dozen comments that had been spoken to me. I guess it underscores that a big part of our advocacy job is in educating the educators.

Dottie, I have discovered that educators really don't understand the significance of an IQ score. Everytime I present my daughter's IQ score to one of her teachers I get a blank stare. Teachers understand achievement tests and percentiles better.