Gifted students 3/3/07

There was an article in The Herald-Dispatch on Monday about programs for talented and gifted students in Cabell County. I was mildly surprised by the lack of resources for TAG programs, but I was stunned by the fact that schools expect parents to have their children tested for giftedness. I would think schools would want to identify gifted students, but there might be a reluctance because of a lack of programs for them.

On a personal level, I have one elementary school child that I'm particularly proud of. I'll have him tested and see what happens.

No matter whether my child is accepted for TAG or not, I would appreciate hearing from other parents on their experiences with the TAG programs in their children's or grandchildren's schools. Either reply to this blog or e-mail me at jimross@herald-dispatch.com.

I plan to pursue the idea of TAG programs and TAG education. Your input would help.

Having said that, let me add that I am continually surprised by what our kids are learning in school today. What my first-grader brings home is far above what I did in first grade many, many years ago. My ninth-grader, too, surprises me. Last weekend she asked if we had a copy of "The Odyssey" in the house so she could read it. One of her classes is reading it, and she wanted to do some reading on her own. I had to tell her we don't have "The Odyssey," but we have the DVD of a movie based on it: "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" which happens to be my second-favorite comedy movie of all time.

Back to my first-grader. Last month, he asked if he could use my desktop computer at home. I said, sure. I figured he wanted to play a game. The kid typed in -- typed -- a paragraph about Xrays. When I was in first grade, we never had anything to type, and we sure weren't studying anything about Xrays.

Lately he's taken to doing arithmetic in his head, like "What's 52 plus 19?" Not even the brightest first-grade kids at my school tried that. Of course, that may say more about me and my friends than it does about my own kids and their school.

Kids must be able to learn far more than what my parents' generation thought they could. It makes me wonder what the brightest could learn if we had the resources to devote to them.

Having said that, I'm disappointed my older kids barely know what you mean when you ask if they have ever diagrammed a sentence or if their music teacher ever had them transpose something from C to E. We were expected to do both by the time I left ninth grade. And I read a lot of stuff from people who can barely spell or punctuate. Something is improving, and something is getting worse.