NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/sci/math/14569

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-08 | 3.5 KB

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From: lwalsh@nemo (Laura L. Walsh)
Subject: Re: Is Math Hard?
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
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Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 18:04:19 GMT
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[e-mail] (BRIAN BURTT) writes:
>    Having failed at the home education route, my mother tried to
>get me enrolled in a gifted program in a local school district.  They
>were quite happy to have me, but it took TWO AND A HALF YEARS before
>this particular school district was willing to give up its state funds
>for me and let me go on my way.
>    Have others had similar problems in moving elementary
>school students to more appropriate situations, or was I just
>particularly unlucky?
>--Brian Burtt
>[e-mail]

My mother is working on a history of our family and I came across
a lecture she gave at a conference on the education of the gifted
about our family's attempts to meet my educational needs.  In this
account she stated that up until 6th grade (in small schools) I
had done fine, but when I reached 6th grade, housed in a junior
high, I began to be sloppy and distracted, doing C and D work.  My
elementary teachers had suggested that I be sent to a gifted
program available in the neighboring city, but, since it was a
"special education" program, it was not permitted to attend it
from outside the district.  So my mother and I moved into an
apartment in the city, while my father and siblings remained at
"home".  Even this did not satisfy them, however, when they found
out that my siblings were going to school in their original schools.
So my parents, at great cost in terms of finances, rented a house
in the city and moved us all there.  All I remember is a great
feeling of re-awakening I experienced there.  I loved my math
class especially, and learning seemed fascinating.  The
following year, in the junior high, there was no "gifted"
program, per se, but some of the classes were "tracked", so
we were permitted to return to our home and my parents paid
tuition for me to attend the city schools.

My own experience with my daughters is familiar to readers
who have been on this group a while.  Our local public
school simply could not deal with my second grade daughter,
or rather, they dealt with her just fine -- by doing nothing.
She, like me, did not act up, but rather became distracted
and uninterested.  The district's gifted program consists
of a 5 week, 2 hours a week chance to go to the library
for literature class and one or two week summer classes,
which last 1 hour, 3 days a week.  Result:  my husband
ended up teaching her at home after school hours.  In school,
she learned how to burp and how to pretend to be busy
without actually having to do anything -- and she learned
to fill out innummerable too easy worksheets.  This year
she is in a new private school, which I have helped start,
along with other parents equally fed up.  This has been
with great cost for us, not only financially, but time
and energy-wise.  I am doing all of this while trying to
finish grad school myself.  I am satisfied that it is
beneficial, necessary and worth it, but it certainly isn't
easy.
Laura Walsh