Playing the Game

Last week, I had my annual parent-teacher conference with Sydney's teacher.  It was a run-of-the-mill "this is how your kid is doing" kind of conference.  This is opposed to the "your kid is a pain in the rear end" kind of conference that I'm sure I will be attending once Liam starts school in a couple of years.

Anyway, Sydney's teacher revealed that she's at the top of her class in both math and reading.  In fact, the teacher could only test her to a certain level (per school district guidelines) for reading, but she's sure that Sydney is reading well above that level.

She basically said that she spends so much time tending to the kids who misbehave and the kids who are academically behind that she feels like she's ignoring Sydney and a couple of other kids who are reading and doing math at similar levels.  And here I thought we moved out of The Big City and to the suburbs to avoid this kind of situation....

The teacher told me that our best bet is to prepare Sydney for the Gifted & Talented test that will be administered early next year.  Honestly, I think Sydney is more of a high achiever than a GT kid, but then again, only 1% of school kids are officially gifted; the rest may qualify for GT services, but they're really just high achievers, too.

So I turned into one of "those" parents and bought a test prep book this past weekend.  I figure that we'll work on some of the skills and such, but I honestly don't know if Sydney will qualify for our district's program.  If she does, great - she'll be challenged a bit more.  If she doesn't, then we'll continue to supplement her education at home with plenty of museum trips and the like.

I just wish I wasn't so disappointed with the current system.  I shouldn't have to play a game to get my child a challenging education.  Granted, it could be worse.  But, you know, it could be a lot better, too.