Prejudiced

Thank you all for going along with my April Fool's Day joke. I didn't think you'd buy a surprise pregnancy, but it has been almost 4 1/2 years since we last moved...so it's kind of due, right? Of course, now if we ever do move, you won't believe me until I post pictures of my new house and all of us breaking down into tears, right?

Moving on...

Friday was a very busy morning for me. Drop Lily off at school, kill an hour of time, watch Andrew's class do a cute little play, race to pick up Lily on time, race to our neighbors to drop off Lily and Michael, and then race back to Andrew's school to have a GIEP (Gifted IEP) meeting with that teacher.

First off, let me say that I am very impressed with this whole program. It is not called the "gifted program" but I will continue to call it that to disguise a bit what school district we are in. I really liked the teacher, and she will be Andrew's gifted teacher until he reaches 7th grade. 1st and 2nd grade they do a variety of subjects, science, math, reading, etc. For example, she said next week they are starting a Tangrams unit. The 2nd grade just finished a spy code decoding challenge. But starting in 3rd grade, it is all Social Studies. The kids simply take social studies in the "gifted" class rather than the "normal" class. And they do all kids of brain busting, accelerated thinking type activities with maps, governments, geography, etc. Throughout, one of the things they stress is that all people have gifts...these kids have a gift for learning easily, and the point of the class is to get them to push past the stuff that comes easily to them and really use those brains. I love that. The teacher also said it is a very humbling experience for kids who are used to being the superstars in their regular classes...they come and are suddenly surrounded by other kids who are also superstars.

Anyway, I'm pleased. That this much time and energy is going into adapting the curriculum and experiences of the children whom school is "easy" for. Andrew will start going 3 times a week starting next week. I'm excited for him.

But I've begun to realize through this whole process that I am a bit prejudiced against gifted people.

This teacher kept stressing to me how amazing Andrew's scores were. She would point and say, "Do you understand how high this score is?" and, "We're talking top of the class material here.", etc. etc. And after each comment about how gifted he is, I felt the need to say, "Yes, but he's really kind too." or "Yes, but he is such a good friend too." As if they are mutually exclusive. I had to pinch myself and remember that she was not actually insulting my child. ;)

I guess I just have such negative memories of some kids I went to high school and college with. The ones who were gifted and let you know that they were better than you. That told you their IQ or SAT scores 2 seconds after you met them. The ones who bragged about how big their scholarship was or what ranking they were in comparison to others. The ones who gloated during Trivial Pursuit about "how easy" every question was and "how could you not know this one?"

I have issues.

To be fair, I am married to a very gifted man. So my prejudice is not all encompassing. He is simply not a braggart. He understands that not everyone can comprehend the things he can and he never judges you for it. He does not use his intelligence as a weapon in arguments unless it is respectful and matter of fact. He does not lord his brains over anyone.

So I need to relax. Andrew can certainly be a highly intelligent and gifted individual and still be kind and empathetic and personable. I know this because I'm married to one. And hopefully Jeff can lead by example. And help him with his homework ;)