Two weeks ago, when I learned about the unfolding drama surrounding Kumar Singam’s efforts to enroll his 9 year old daughter in an MCPS middle school (posts here and here), I wrote him an email:
… I wanted to let you know that I really, really empathize with you. Just last night my 15 year old who will be a sophomore at [deleted] was sobbing about how she didn’t want to go back to school because she feels like she is “spinning her wheels”…. MCPS refusal to accelerate students who need it–especially those who are verbally gifted–is a travesty….
The Singam case, and the resistance by MCPS officials to grade skipping, gave me a feeling of deja vu. My daughter was never whole grade or radically subject accelerated. Instead over the years we bought hook, line and sinker into every MCPS-touted GT program there was, with promises that “next year” it would “get better.” Nonetheless, by the time C. was in middle school, she was asking school officials for acceleration–or some kind of intervention–ironically first in “GT” science class, but really in other classes as well. She self-advocated, as GT kids are often urged to do. And was brushed off–which is when things took a serious turn for the worse, to the point where we felt we had to withdraw, and were left no option but to homeschool. We were told by the magnet coordinator, “If she’s not happy in the magnet, she’s welcome to return to her home middle school.” Snort…As if. I had naively believed that the magnets were part of that “continuum of services” MCPS likes to talk about, where people would appreciate and “get” kids like mine and where we would work together to find a way to meet their needs. But clearly I was wrong. The magnet, I was told by the then-coordinator, was a “privilege.”
Fine. We withdrew C. The next month she took the SAT as part of the CTY Talent Search and got a freaking amazing score for a 12 year old. (No, as it turns out, they probably didn’t “have many students who fit her profile.”) What to do? More to the point, what would MCPS do for this kid/with this kid if we wanted to re-enroll her for 8th grade? Because she–we–could not return to the one program supposedly tailor-made for kids like her. That relationship was shattered. After countless phone calls and conversations with indifferent or clueless school system officials, I finally connected with someone in the Office of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction (since retired) who got it. I mean, by that time I had met with so much resistance and hostility that I actually cried while on the phone with her.
Much like Mr. Singam, we met with someone from the Community Superintendent’s office. We too believed that based on testing, our daughter needed to be placed beyond the norm for her age, namely high school. MCPS didn’t want to go there; it was not even open for discussion. Our fall back was that at minimum she needed access to high school English and social studies courses: just as they arrange for very advanced math or foreign language middle school students to take classes at high school (and for which there is ample precedent) they should do the same for our child. Again, we could get no commitment from MCPS. The best we could get was an offer of possible placement into the middle school housing the math/science/computer science magnet. (Not the magnet itself mind you, but just to be in building with other really bright age peers. And they made that sound like a huge concession.). Once there, we were told, this MCPS individual, the principal and someone from AEI would meet with us and personally build our child’s schedule. However there was no assurance that she would receive high school level instruction, and by this point we were just too gun shy to take a risk–yet again–on an MCPS promise. So we homeschooled another year, returning C. to an MCPS high school program that is the unspoken “service” at that level.
All should be great, no? Well, actually no. I mean, it’s a really great program and she’s getting vastly more than is available to most kids her age. But she still has felt underchallenged in her strength areas. For example she essentially had to repeat government last year (after sucessfully completing an equivalent college course). To the credit of the coordinator there however, this year C. has been able to get permission to take an AP history class typically reserved for seniors. It’s her favorite class, the one where she feels she “belongs” intellectually and socially. Clearly, this is a student who could have been radically subjected accelerated years earlier in her area of strength, the humanities, if allowed. And no, I’m not pushing her. She’s the one who is yearning for more challenge, for true intellectual engagement and risk taking, for the chance to get to college sooner in the hopes it will be there.
Recently we met a young man from elsewhere in the country who has grade skipped, someone C.’s age who will graduate this academic year–and she is angry that she never had that opportunity. To her, it feels as if MCPS has held her back every step of the way, and she has asked me “Why with MCPS is everything always a fight?” I wish I had the answer. All I know is that children like mine–and potentially Mr. Singam’s until he fought back–are being harmed–yes, that’s right, harmed–by MCPS’s refusal to deal with the realities of giftedness at the individual student level, to fully and truly meet their academic needs. What kind of a toll does it take to be given the message year after year that it’s not okay to be who you are, that you must stifle and dampen your curiosity and passion to learn?
It’s because of these experiences that I have been following, and will continue to follow, the Singam case so closely. By very vocally and fearlessly pushing MPCS to do the right thing by his daughter, Mr. Singam has forced truths about the system into the light that go against the happy feel good message they put out. (It should be noted that many GT advocates have more than one child in the system and that the fear of retaliation is often what mutes their advocacy efforts.) The Singam case reveals the lengths to which MCPS will go to put the institutional status quo above the needs of a student. It reveals MCPS attitudes towards the legitimacy of homeschooling. And it shows that the Centers, and middle school magnets are essentially mechanisms to hold the the brightest kids in MCPS from advancing too quickly. Meanwhile in “regular” school there is no GT there “there.”
Another sad gifted tale! Sometimes I wonder if there are any happy uplifting stories about gifted kids and schools.
Sorry high school is not working out so well. I hope her clases this year are more challenging. Have you looked into early entrance college? I know a few kids that left HS after sophomore year and not, at 20, have an undergraduate degree. Is private school an option? I know you have pushed for public school, but perhaps she would be better served (and possibly eligible for scholarship money) at a competitive private school where kids commonly take all AP classes by junior year and are expected to work hard and think. It will get better for C. in college. Unfortunately, it may not be soon enough.
It’s working…more or less. I mean I feel badly to be complaining, because it is so much better than what’s available to the average student in this country. And yet.
Yes, we have looked at early college. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is she doesn’t want to go to just any college, it’s not an option at the moment. We are looking at private, but again only a select few because in reality the public she’s at is better than most.
I thought about that after I posted – many of the top college don’t offer early entrance, or at least may only allow students in after 11th grade. I think things should improve from here on out. She should be eligible for more AP classes next year that (hopefully) will challenge her further. However, the reality is that she may be so far ahead of typical that she may not really be challenged or meet students with equal intense academic yearning until she gets to upper level college classes or even graduate school. Her challenges may always be more internal than external. Not saying this to be discouraging, simply realistic.
I can relate! My son is in public school in CA. He missed the birthday cutoff to enter kindergarten by a whopping four days, but they would not let him enroll. Even with IQ tests and other evidence that he needs more challenge than his grade level provides, plus his stated desire to accelerate, we have been told no to whole year grade skipping for years. He was so excited to enter middle school this year, but the rosy glow is already wearing off – “I thought this would be harder.” It’s very frustrating. Collecting jaw-dropping administrator statements is almost a hobby for me. A few favorites: “We can’t grade skip him. He’d feel bad about being the smallest kid in the class.” and “It isn’t really possible for a child his age to do the things he does.” (ummm… He does them – you’ve seen him do them – you just said he does them – am I missing something?)
“It isn’t really possible for a child his age to do the things he does.”
Agreed. That is just a bizarre thing to say.
It shouldn’t be this difficult! In our part of the world, the University of British Columbia has an option for profoundly gifted kids to allow them to compact four or five school years into two and start university classes much earlier than is typical–http://www.vsb.bc.ca/vsbprograms/kto12/apfe/VSBUBCTransition.htm. BUT they want kids who are high achievers across subjects, which will never be the case for my high average in math/profoundly verbally gifted daughter who’s starting Grade 3 reading at a Grade 11 level. Last year we pulled her out to homeschool after too many picture books were handed to her for independent reading time; we just couldn’t persuade the teacher that chapter books were more appropriate, much less the kind of thick, meaty reads she chooses for herself. It still bothers me that the tiny change we were asking for–appropriate reading materials to read on her own–was more of an accommodation than a school would make. Instead we were told that any differentiation required formal gifted identification, which doesn’t take place here until late fourth or fifth grade. We had her “WISC”‘d, as her educational psych said, and we’re hoping that her re-entry this year with a gifted designation in place will make a difference. But with NO money allotted specifically to gifted ed, and a 50% drop in gifted IDs across the province over several years…well, as the school principal helpfully said, she can always tutor the struggling readers…sigh!
Every time I read about yet another example of how hard a parent of a highly gifted child has had to fight tooth and nail to secure a barely acceptable educational experience for their son or daughter, it reaffirms my confidence in our decision to home educate our children for as long as we can handle facilitating their unique needs ourselves without having to wage war against a bureaucracy to do it.
I deeply admire your committment to demanding change from MCPS and from American public education as a whole in how the system treats these children. The situation is infuriating to say the least and isn’t any better where we are, where grade acceleration is also not even considered as an option by the local systems. Please keep bringing these stories and issues to light.
Sympathy for C! I remember feeling the same when I met other people at college and at a summer program who had got to grade skip, and who had actually had their school help them get an appropriate education(wow!). It makes me sad, because I went to a great college and had friends who had been to really nice schools, and they actually have happy memories of their time in school. I mostly remember isolation, unhappiness, counting ceiling tiles, and clock-watching. People seem to think that I shouldn’t care – because look at me, I turned out alright – but I could have done so much more. I didn’t need to waste all those years.
It still makes me angry to think about how I was interested and really wanted to learn, and school was just this gigantic fight to do every little thing. (With the exception of a three teachers who did go out of their way to help me. I am very grateful to them.) So many teachers actually seemed to try to obstruct me from completing the course, or make it difficult for me to access the external opportunities that were available. Some of my teachers seemed to enjoy putting me down in front of the rest of the class, perhaps to connect more with the other students. I think I’ve commented before here, that my teachers openly told me and other students that I had no personality and thus wouldn’t get into a good college.
It does harm children, and can make students learn habits that are damaging long term. I started college with a deep belief that if I cared about my subject and was interested in what I was learning, then I should never, ever let people know – especially not the teachers. It took me a long time to stop assuming that anyone who taught me would dislike me, and would be out to trip me up. I still instinctively watch what I say to dumb down the vocabulary.
If C was interested in biology, I’d recommend that she tried to get into a lab, even if that meant emailing dozens of people and explaining that she was a very interested high school student and could she get experience. (Most summer programs don’t kick in until the final few years of highschool, but if she lives locally and doesn’t require funding, then maybe someone would take her on.) Is there something similar that she could do, based on her interests? (Maybe work in a museum or something related to what she plans to study in college, where she could connect with a local college?) In general, I’ve found that most college professors are quite open to genuinely interested students, and I found it a real boost to be an environment where being interested was a good thing! The thing with science, is that even the most boring, repetitive tasks are great for a highschool student because they’re learning so much. I don’t know if there are equivalents in something that would interest C, but if there is, perhaps it’d be worth her while to try to create an opportunity.
Flinny, so sorry for not approving your comment sooner! It landed in my spam folder and is only now seeing the light of day. C. is a verbal girl, not science-y. Sadly not as many opportunities to shadow a lawyer, politician or diplomat…although now that she’s getting older those kinds of opportunities may start to open up.
The ostracism and pushback from the district is expected; what shocked me was ostracism by elementary school parents, jealous of the kids who do get into the gifted center.
I actually would PREFER to have kid stay at neighborhood school, if they would just offer anything by way of enrichment there.
off topic aside:
Did you happen to notice the Bethesda magazine cover this month? I saw the “Teacher of the Year” photo and just assumed a math teacher. Yep, the best teacher in the district teaches math. Shocking. I thought about going through all the articles on education in the current issue and charting the number of times math pops up vs. writing or other areas of learning, but decided the analysis would prove too depressing.
MCPS has done a good job “relandscaping” the public discourse about math.
And yes, what’s stopping me from being more outspoken is the potential retribution from peers, parents, idiotic school counselors, and MCPS administrators.
I have heard that administrators drove past Kumar’s house last year on a weekend. He happened to be working in his yard and recognized them. He does not live on a busy thru street. That’s harrassment.
And yes, private school is likely to not be any better at supporting individual needs. Been there, paid the bills, discovered it was no better and in many ways actually worse than MCPS (spoiled kids and spoiled parents with no personal boundaries on behavior seemed running the place). YMMV, of course.
Newbie, we’re going to have to meet IRL…
Yes, I did see the Bethesda Magazine education issue. Boy, talk about disconnect. Flipping through it seems like a foreign country–it’s not the Montgomery County I know. And I started to see why so many GT parents on the East side of the county can get so frustrated. I mean, you have to love an article that breaks down the college acceptances at half a dozen west side high schools…with a nod to Blair. To me it seems that Folks are just so invested in believing that the schools are great…and from where they sit, amongst their high SES neighbors, they probably are. So why *would* they complain? It’s working for them.
[...] my, is it ever. One needs look no further than the recent Singam case. Or just read my post on this subject earlier in the week. Or what happened with my other daughter when subject acceleration was [...]