Monday, December 19, 2016

"Every Child is Gifted...

They just unwrap their packages at different times". I love this.

Jordan just missed the cutoff, which would have gained her access into the world of the gifted. Her scores on the verbal section of the WISC, are what pulled her down. The verbal section. Let's think about this.

Jordan was pulled out of her comfortable classroom, asked to sit in a room with a total stranger, and prompted to answer a bunch of questions. Out loud. Jordan, who at this point in her life wouldn't ever, make eye contact with adults. Every time we went to her pediatrician for a well visit, and the doctor would ask her the usual questions regarding her health habits, I would constantly have to remind her to look at the doctor, not at me, when she was answering. I was aware that her brief answers were only the tip of the ice-burg, as compared to the information she wasn't sharing, but I didn't want to come across as a helicopter mom who hovered too closely, and spoke for her child. For whatever reason, she was uncomfortable when speaking to adults.




Initially, I was angry. I wondered who would get in, if a child who gets 100% on basically everything, did not. It was obvious, at least to me (and I certainly wasn't the least bit biased) that she was a child who had been graced with many gifts. So that would mean she was gifted, right?

Eventually I got over the initial, parental sting. It took a few conversations with Weeze, Dad, and Adam, for me to gain a better understanding of the situation. Perhaps the gifted class would not have been the best fit for Jordan. She wasn't bored in school. She also didn't strike me as the type of student who thought "outside of the box”, to the point where she wasn't benefiting from the standard curriculum.

What Jordan was, was a smart, motivated, organized, diligent, rule following, happy (albeit sometimes overly emotional), eight year old.

Who needs labels anyway?

Thank you,

Us Too

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