No one cares that your child is gifted... Posted By a member from our message board Fri Jul 27 10:11:48 2001 OK, I just feel like typing this out because perhaps if I had understood this better at the beginning, I might not have saved myself a lot of frustration. The public school system's purpose is to provide an education to the most number of children they can. It's purpose is not to provide an optimal education for each child - they simply lack the money and resources to be able to do that. The public school system originally was designed to create a literate workforce, and although they do not have this inscribed on their doors today, understanding this root origin helps understand their approach somewhat. The public school system does not care that your child is gifted. The ideal student (and parent) in this system is one who is unnoticed. They sit quietly at their desk, do their work, pass their work, and demand nothing special. After the ideal student, the ones they focus on are special needs/disability. That is because without aid, these children will not be able to function in society. Yours will. The public school administration resents any additional work you have done to put your child ahead. You have created more work for them by doing this. They are not amused that your child can already read, because now your child will not fit easily into their curriculum- your child is now another one on a long list that they have to make special accomodations for. Do not go in thinking that they are happy that you have a bright child who needs more! They are not happy that your child needs more math stimulation, again for the same reason. They are not going to rejoice in how clever and advanced your child is. They are going to sigh, be frustrated, and have to figure out how a teacher who is already overworked and underpaid is going to be able to do even more work to now help your out of sync child. The public schools will generally not go out of their way to tell you what you need. It's not their job. And they don't care about any one individual. They already have more to deal with and more politics than they can generally handle. You must develop relationships with Principals and teachers to get this information, and search it out yourself. One of the reasons that the Board that Sheri is setting up is so exciting, is that it will list a lot of this information which to date each one of us has had to spend a lot of time digging up ourselves. Almost reinventing the wheel each time. There are only a few choices. 1. Leave the school alone to do its work, and accept that your child will get a less than ideal education. 2. Supplement your child with other programs, or try to get your child into specialized programs (like gifted classes) once they become available. 3. Put your child in a different school system. 4. Advocate. This is the hardest, and least likely to yield results. But if advocacy is something that you're really into then it may make a difference over many many years time, and ultimately may help other children in the future.   OK. Hope I didn't leave too much out. Hope I didn't upset anyone too much. Feel free to post back or email me if you want to discuss further. Good luck everyone!