Smartypants, Revisited

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the parent-teacher conference we had with The Princess’s teacher and our concerns for what we would be able to do to help her remain challenged, engaged and frankly, unBORED with the process when she is so far ahead of her classmates academically.

I was able to speak with a coordinator of gifted programs and I felt well-prepared when Hubby and I went to meet with the school principal today about what kind of resources the school could or would use to help us help our daughter. Frankly, I was prepared to have to present a lot more information than I really needed. We ultimately decided skipping a grade entirely wasn’t the magic answer (and honestly? I heard SO MANY grade-skipping horror stories! Yikes!) and hoped that with some of our other ideas, we could present a compelling argument to the principal for putting something in place for The Princess.

We were pleasantly surprised.

Not only was he receptive to our concerns and our ideas – he had already started doing some legwork of his own to research ways an “OFFICIAL” program could be put into place. My daughter certainly isn’t the first smartie to walk through their door, surely she won’t be the last — and the potential benefits of developing a program for gifted children extend beyond just our family.

Not only had the Principal been brainstorming ideas of ways the curriculum could be differentiated to help The Princess, he’d already been thinking about what teacher would be the best fit for our daughter next year. He was already in the process of scheduling a sit-down with the superintendent to speak not just of our daughter, but the school district at large and how the lack of having a clearly-defined program could potentially hurt kids at risk for becoming bored with the lack of challenge in their school day.

And as I type this and recount it all, I am still giddy.

Do I expect the PERFECT plan? Nope.

Do I imagine it will all flow smoothly from Day One? Nah. Nothing ever does.

But the dialog has started and both sides are listening – and the fact that this impact may be broader than I had originally hoped, well, it IS exciting. To know that the schools are looking to identify these kids who require more challenge and possibly a little  tweaking to their curriculum to keep them engaged and eager to learn – and that they may have a plan in place to more readily help these families and keep those kids loving school? I could not be happier right now.