Thursday, October 19, 2006

TAG: What a waste of time!

My son's Talented and Gifted program is a waste of time. My son's TAG teacher (the art major) called complaining that my son doesn't seem to be engaged in the class. Of course he doesn't, the program is a pull out model that only meets for 3 hours once a week. The teacher told me that my son doesn't seem to be up to speed on his Latin root words that he is learning and seems to be lost in class. I had to remind her that he has been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder, which means that he has problems processing information and instructions. I also reminded her that he was identified for the program because of his "math" skills and not because of his verbal skills (he is low average). I asked her what math she was teaching in the class... and she fed me some BS answer about decimal placement and fractions (obviously made up on the spot). Well duh... that’s what they are doing in his regular class. It doesn't take a genius to see that if they can't effectively teach concepts whether its math or latin if the kids are only being exposed to it once a week. I am so seriously considering pulling him out of the program. If he was struggling in reading or math he would get after school tutoring, direct instruction and all sorts of extra stuff, but because he is only "advanced" they put him in this class that pays lip service to education. Well let the other kids waste their time learning through "art" projects, I can and do teach him more by tutoring him for around 15 to 30 minutes a day once or twice a week. If I was rich or in an affluent district, he would be an accelerated math class every day... but no. My low rent school district ignores the needs of its strongest students because they are more worried about improving their "failing" students, which by the way are "failing" because of they don't use the most effective teaching methods.

Can you tell I'm a little pissed off?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You probably wouldn't be better off in a rich or affluent district. Many got rid of any kind of decent acceleration because it was "elitist." Plus, they've discovered that slower kids do well if they are in the same class as the bright ones (heterogeneous classes). The bright ones appear to gain nothing by being in a heterogeneous classroom. But, rich/affluent kids have parents that can afford tutors.

TurbineGuy said...

The school district that we have our eye on has subject tutoring. In other words, for math and english language arts students are put into ability groups for instruction. The groups then progress through the standards at their own rates. If a group finishes the standards for that year, then they start on the next years standards.

Anonymous said...

They should all be subject teaching. Gifted kids are often not gifted in all things. One gifted conference for teachers clears that up.

Susan