A Gifted Child Humbles ME!: My Personal Policy

» rahunter_nf - My Personal Policy

While I understand how you feel, Peggy, I wasn't surprised by part of what the teachers said: "Well it’s really not fair that THEY get to leave and the other kids have to STAY!" and "Well, I TRY to do some fun things while thy are gone."

I imagine that the teachers were just repeating what they'd heard the "regular" kids say on various occasions when a group was absent for some special activity: "How come they get to leave and we have to stay?" and "How come they get to have fun and we have to work?"

However, I was surprised by a teacher's saying, "well of course I have them do the work they missed--if THEY are gifted they can do extra!"

My personal policy when I was a teacher was to have groups that were away do enough, but just enough, of what the rest of the class did while they were away so that they'd understand what was done and thus wouldn't be handicapped in future work.

I also tried to limit the amount of new work that the rest of the class would do while a group was away and to include some fun activity for them to compensate for their missing what they perceived to be a fun break from school.

-- posted by rahunter_nf