O.........M..........G!!!!!!!!!
Spongebob's mom, I'm sorry the store clerk was so very rude. That was just spiteful to write that on your receipt. She must be a very frustrated person!
It sounds like Spongebob chose Snap Circuits? That is a very fun toy and both DD7 and DD5 have had lots of fun with it.
Sounds like a boy who knows what he likes!
Have fun!

Incog

Wow! What a petty dictator she is! Ugh. So sorry!

Similar experience. I talked to the principal (a relative of mine) when my son was reading well at four and he told me since it was just a small town school I couldn't expect them to be able to meet his needs and I should put him in private school (which I couldn't afford) or homeschool.

The next year at age five I took him to the Kindergarten teacher for the Kindergarten readiness evaluation. He was excited about starting school and asked a lot of questions. I sat in on the evaluation and thought it went well, but the teacher wrote on his evaluation "verbal overflow" and also that he "couldn't follow directions" when he couldn't answer how old his sister was. I explained at the time that his sister was an adult and didn't live with us and he doesn't like to give a wrong answer if he doesn't know for sure.

So the first day of Kindergarten, at age 5, the teacher handed the adults a list of instructions for putting up the supplies we had to bring. I had my son read the list out loud and follow the instructions that he read so there was no doubt that he could both read and comprehend and follow instructions.

Even though my son could read well, Kindergartners were only allowed to get Kindergarten level books from the library. I asked the teacher if he could get a Cam Jansen book. She got him one, but told me
"at this age kids are more accepting of differences, but when they get older..."
as if I needed to worry about other kids seeing him reading and appearing too smart because this is not a good thing.

I later learned from his friends in public school that if you don't do sports and are smart you are a geek and this school is not very geek friendly.

At a parent teacher conference my son's Kindergarten year, the teacher told us he was doing well in everything except drawing and coloring in the lines and if this didn't improve she would recommend T-1 (a year in between Kindergarten and first grade) so he could work on coloring and drawing because
"he didn't really need to learn anything next year"
since he was already reading well and doing math. Even when we explained about the hypotonia and motor delays and that we realized he would never be an artist and we didn't care, she thought coloring in the lines was important enough to hold him back for.

So I really have a problem with "coloring in the lines" and now years later, what do I need to have him practice for the Explore test? Coloring in the lines.

I pulled my son out of school at the end of the Kindergarten year as recommended by a first grade teacher who thought he was highly gifted and needed to be homeschooled. A year later, when I complained to the superintendent that my son had only homeschooled about two hours a day and now tested grade levels ahead of his age mates in school, he told me that I should continue to homeschool because they could not provide an appropriate education and
"this is a good problem to have."

DD7 started K at a school in CA and she was in class with my BF's dd. The teacher at her K didn't recognize dd's GT-ness, even though I tried telling her that she was reading nearly a year before K even started. At report time, dd got marked "at grade level" for just about everything, including reading. (???) So...1/2 way through K we move to NV. Within 2 weeks the school had dd run through a battery of tests since it was obvious that she was way ahead. She tested out at 2nd grade level across the board. When I told my friend this news her response was: "Wow...they must have lower standards there"

It floored me.

I think that other parents say these things because they interpret *your* child being so far ahead as meaning that *their* child must be behind. It seems to be sort of a defensive reflex in my experience.

Some of my IRL friends see DS as 'wildly smart,' some, and his old school's teachers, see him as a bit smarter than their bright kids, but 'odd,' I'm sure that there are many many PG kids who don't come off as 'different' I just don't happen to have one!
Smiles,
Grinity

Ok. Maybe I do have baggage!

Here are some things that happened to me--

When I was in 5th grade my parents had me placed in a 5th/6th combo class. It was supposed to be a self-paced class. Well, it was self-paced until I finished the 5th grade math book in just a couple of months. I wanted to continue on with the 6th grade book but the teacher refused. My parents went to talk to her and she told them she was not going to let me do the 6th grade math because it would make the 6th grade boys "feel bad." My dad was livid!

Or how about my Calculus teacher... I was 15, a junior in HS and taking Calculus. It was very easy for me and I scored 100's on everything and caught mistakes by the teacher (probably impolitic...) The teacher was always making comments about me "ruining the curve", etc. Anyway, on the midterm there was this impossibly long arithmetic problem (no calculator allowed) which was completely unrelated to Calculus. The teacher made an announcement to the class--"Don't worry about problem 20, I just put that on the test so that Cathy won't get 100% again."

After a few months of being mistreated by this teacher I went to the school counselor and complained about it. The counselor's response? "You're getting an 'A' aren't you? Well, then what are you complaining about?"

At the end of the year all the seniors got out of school a week early. Being a junior, I still had to go to class. The Calculus teacher, however, went to the teachers' lounge. I just sat in the classroom by myself for an hour every day that week.

So yeah, I have baggage! I'm still mad about it

Cathy

Cathy-

I am so sorry for your bad experiences in high school. That teacher must have had self esteem issues. Were your parents aware of what was going on at the time? From a parent's perspective, I would want to raise he** over it!

Sigh... I had a teacher who was very invested in being smart. He HATED me, and I had to endure him for English classes both freshman year and senior year. He didn't do enough to get himself in trouble, but he used to roll his eyes at me and make sarcastic comments. Once I skipped his class when we had a substitute, and he seemed delighted to provide me with a detention. This guy hosted an annual freshman trip to NYC, and he said he chose the participants by lottery. But I knew the truth when I saw the list of who was "randomly" selected. Every one of his pets made the list, and I obviously, did not.

People who are overinvested in their intelligence can be absolutely brutal to the very people you would expect them to support. Here's a Carol Dweck model that shows what a negative mindset can do: http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/images/features/dweck/dweck_mindset.pdf

Thanks, Lorel! I have no idea what was wrong with the guy but you may be right about that he had self-esteem issues.

I did tell my parents but they didn't complain to the school. Instead they talked to me about intrinsic motivation to show me that I could get a lot out of the class whether or not the teacher liked me. It was probably a useful lesson!

Cathy