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Home : 2007 : July : 3

Meggin
By josephineg

I'm deeply saddened to hear your reports that you did not let your son skip a grade. When will you give him a chance to be with his mental peers? Perhaps when he goes to college, if he doesn't drop out before then? The
best place for him to learn to socialize appropriately is with his intellectual peers. This has repeatedly been borne out by research.

"Nathan was clever. So clever, in fact, he finessed and maneuvered his way around the principal, teachers and classmates at his North suburban middle school. So clever he grew bored in class, frustrated by the lack of challenge even in an advanced

program. Where did he end up? Jail." (http://wwsusanohanian.org/show_special_news.html?id=269)

"Gifted children have better social adjustment in classes with children like themselves. The brighter the child, the lower his or her social self-concept is likely to be in the regular classroom. Social self-concept improves whenchildren are placed with true peers in special classes." (p. 2, from "What We Have Learned About Gifted Children 1979 - 2007) by Linda Silverman, Ph. D., Director, Gifted Development Center, downloaded from the Internet on 3/7/07).

You write: "Our son isn't going to fit in any grade..." Not true. "Because gifted students are a diverse group with varying needs, experts in the field agree that there's no one way to help them flourish. 'We need to be much more explicit about examining the individual child and his or her needs, and then structuring program services around those needs,' says Richard Olenchak, PhD, president-elect of tne National Association for Gifted Children..." "(p. 3 of "Cultivating otherise untapped potential", at http://www.apa.org/monitor/may03/cultivating.html).

But please, please read the entire brief article at the above URL.

Your child will fit in a grade...but if you give up before finding it, you won't know where it is, will you?

All the best.