Gifted Discontent

Today's Washington Post includes a letter from a Loudoun County parent who isn't happy with the gifted programs that LCPS offers.

The gifted program in Loudoun County is an attempt at appeasement. The system officials do not want the parents of the bulk of the students pointing at the gifted program and screaming elitist nor do they want to try to justify large expenditures for a segment of the community.

Jay Mathews, the Post's resident education guru, calls the letter "an apt summary of the strains and stumbles that surround this issue:"

You put your finger precisely on the problem that gifted programs have throughout the country. Public school systems rarely have the expertise or the money to reproduce the kind of program you had as a child, and the number of students like you and your daughter who are ready for it is so small that it is hard to justify to taxpayers.

I wrote about the gifted programs in October as part of a back and forth with Loudoun's blogging gifted program critic, Elise at Loudoun Schools Feedback. She also talks about the Post article today in her blog, I give her credit for getting to it first this morning. Her assessment below:

This parent and teacher perspective, in our opinion, is absolutely accurate. And, while tepid and unimaginative, Jay's response is also absolutely accurate...a tremendous amount of potential will be added to Virginia's vast pool of the untapped.

To see my overall assessment of LCPS gifted programs, see my LCPS Gifted Programs post.

As with so many things, parents who feel impacted need to take ownership and take action. If you have the answers, you have a responsibility to get involved and share them with the rest of us.

• Take advantage of the resources made available on the LCPS Gifted and Talented Program webpage.
  
• Download and read the LCPS Local Plan for the Education of the Gifted.
• Talk to your LCPS School Board member about the changes you want.
• Attend meetings of the Gifted Advisory Committee (next meeting: Jan 10th, 7:00p)
  
• Speak during the public comment sessions of the school board meetings (2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 6:3opm)
• Find out if your Parent-Teacher organization offers after-school programs, and if so offer to teach a class for gifted students

The LCPS parent who wrote the letter refers to "system officials" as the cause of the problem. I'm certainly one of those "system officials," but more than that I'm just a dad and a neighbor who just goes to a lot of meetings. So are every other one of the "system officials." My interest isn't in appeasing, it's in trying to do the very best for every child in our community. We only have the funds to spend that the taxpayers give us, we only have the hours in the day that nature gives us, and so there is always opportunity for improvement. When Elise refers to "Virginia's vast pool of the untapped", I think of the many parents with the expertise and perspective and hours to give and I wonder how to tap into that.