In today's mail there was a letter from Robby's school. I have received many of these letters from this school as Cindy and Michael both attended . Cindy her eighth grade year when we first moved to this house and Michael two and a half years before we were able to convince the staff that he did indeed have ADHD ( even though he didn't exhibit behavior problems like most with ADHD) and got an IEP written up where Michael can not be in any classes with thirty or forty some students as his concentration simply can not handle it. My efforts in getting Michael an IEP were upsetting to the principal of this school as well as many others so in an effort to punish me ( Which turned out to be the biggest favor that they could have given me ) they outsourced Michael.( basically this means that he attends classes at a county special needs school but is still a student of his home school and will graduate with his class when the time comes )
Anyway, these letters, in my experience are never good. Upon seeing it my heart sank. Robby has never received less than an A in his life though his speech issues have landed him an IEP since preschool. My first thought was here we go. My adrenaline started pumping and I was ready to make some calls and rip some heads off. I ripped open the envelope to a letter to inform me that they think that Robby may be gifted. They want my consent to do further testing to identify him. Wonderful I thought, Cindy was also a straight A student when they asked that I sign to have her tested for "giftedness". I refused and found out that it didn't matter. Cindy was identified and labeled. Cindy was then sent to another school building in a questionable neighborhood where gifted classes were held ( so that the gifted kids would help bring up the school's averages) Cindy was then expected to do work grade levels above hers. Once there she was told that she would not skip a grade like before promised but would just have to work harder for nothing. Cindy ended up hating the program and her grades dropped. When we moved she felt she didn't need to do homework or study which caused it's own set of problems.
Now do I really want to start this whole process again with Robby? First off what if he is tested and finds out he is not gifted? Will he feel like a failure when those who he was tested with are recognized and he isn't ? Second, if he has straight A's now why ruin his GPA by making him work harder causing his grades to possibly fall.
On the other hand though, if I do not consent will they go over my head again? If not will Robby resent my " holding him back"? I just don't know. My gut says tear up the letter and pray that the school lets it go. But is this the right thing to do ? I think I best pray on this one . Come to think of it I should start now as they gave me a whole week to decide. I just love this school !!!!
