Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught
Posted by H. Parent on 7/20/07

For twice exceptional kids (gifted/ld or with physical differences) this
could mean more hours of an inappropriate education that would allow them
less time to actually learn at home.

Gifted kids with handwriting difficulties caused by physical differences, and
behavioral differences caused by sensory integration issues, are left to
struggle with these problems in school without therapy unless they get to the
point where they are failing. Nobody seems to care. The state gifted
coordinator says that individual school districts are allowed to decide what
is an appropriate education for twice exceptional children and it might not
be fair but that is the way our laws are written at this time. Sandy Garrett
does not answer emails about this and I am sure that ours is just one of many
complaints and suggestions that she receives. The Governor's office just
responds to complaints and suggestions with form letters informing us that
our suggestions will be forwarded to the State Department of Education which
has already told us that they can't help us unless the laws are changed.
Parents are told to homeschool or put their child in private school (which we
can't afford) if they want more than a mediocre education for their child.

At age nine, when my son should be going into 4th grade by age or 3rd grade
if I had listened to the Kindergarten teacher's T-1 recommendation so he
would learn to color in the lines better, my son can pass online exit level
reading tests and he has been homeschooled since he finished Kindergarten.
Because he was allowed to learn the way he learns best he is able to enjoy
reading National Geographic and Popular Science magazines, studying SAT
vocabulary first with SAT vocabulary cartoon books and then making up his own
with new words that he learns. He is preparing for a spelling bee and is
easily learning an average of 100 words per week, but he is only a couple of
grade levels ahead in math. Because of physical differences, I let him use
the computer to type most of his assignments and this works well.

I am sure there are other kids like my son in our public schools whose
parents can't afford to homeschool. I think it is sad that our state only
requires a mediocre education and that public schools will only do the
minimum required.


On 7/07/07, Jessica wrote:
> The last I heard was that Ms. Garrett was going to make an annoucement at
> the Superindent get together that she does every year to see how well it
> goes over. I personally think we as teachers need to email and call her
> office to give our educated opinions about these changes. She made the
> statement that many schools in OK end their day at 2:30 and that she has
> seen school busses in the mall parking lots during the school day. I
> wonder if she has considered that possibly that school bus is a vo-tech bus
> from out of town that is not wasting fuel while the driver waits for the
> students to get out of class. I also wonder exactly how many schools in OK
> get out at 2:30 and what time they started in order to do that. My school
> lets out at 3:10 and because ALL of our students ride a bus some don't get
> home until after 4:00. I agree that she needs to spend time in our schools
> away from OKC. Nothing against you guys down there but there is a lot more
> to OK schools than the big city schools.
> Jessica

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Posts on this thread, including this one

• Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/12/07, by teacher.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/12/07, by just wondering.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/13/07, by Lou.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/13/07, by hsm/Amy.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/14/07, by Bert.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/15/07, by Linda.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/18/07, by Eme.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/20/07, by Linda.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 6/28/07, by to bert.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 7/07/07, by Jessica.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 7/20/07, by H. Parent.
• Re: Adding length to the school day and days taught, 7/20/07, by All Day Pre-K.