I live on the other side of the freeway and there is no other place in the Houston area that I would rather live. I have lived in South Houston (Hwy 3 and Edgebrook *shudder*), Northwest Houston (Hwy 6 and Telge), Galleria (San Felipe and Fountainview), and West Houston (Briar Forest at Wilcrest) and Clear Lake is the best for convenience to the rest of the city, low traffic, and things to do. The scenery (for a 20-something male) is nicer in the Galleria, but Clear Lake isn't bad even in that department.
Sorry, but wrong, wrong, wrong. It makes a difference. Both of my kids are in the GT program in Austin (AISD), and it makes a huge difference. Your advice to help the child at home certainly isn't wrong, but I suspect, as in our case, that VooDooPope, and his significant other, are doing that already. In AISD, once your child is in the GT (gifted and talented) track, they stay on it until they graduate, or until they do so poorly, or have such a discipline problem, that they are booted out of it. When the child is on that "track," they get better teachers, advanced schoolwork and homework (it took my kids forever to figure out that they were getting harder homework than most of the other kids, and harder, more challenging work at school... we never told them they were GT until they heard it from someone else, or asked us the right questions) It is also an advantage if they want to go to a magnet school, which offers advanced studies, in classes only for magnet program kids, that provides them with a far better environment than most regular public schools. Heck, in the 5th grade my son was asked to stop asking questions that were over the heads of most of the other students. It was the only time he had a GT qualified teacher that was over her head. Someone came to his elementary to give a talk to 5th graders about the magnet program. He came home and told us that was what he wanted to do. There was one middle school in Austin, at that time, that had a magnet program that started in the 6th grade, and it was across town. That's where he went, after testing out for it, and he's loved it. He starts in the magnet high school in the Fall, which will be even farther away. (argh!! I hope he can take the bus ride!) Good luck, VooDoo. I don't blame you for being pissed.
voodoopope... I think the gifted and talented program was the best thing I ever joined (I joined in elementary). It set me up to be taking advanced classes in middle school etc and ap's in high school. It forced me to perform at a higher level, and helped set me to attend the college that I attend now. Instead of making A's in regular classes, the added competition made me make A's in the gifted and talented classes. Looking back, I'd have been dissapointed if my parents didn't have me put in the gifted and talented program. I remember in some regular elementary classes the teacher had me teaching other kids how to do things that I understood quite fine. I came home annoyed that instead of learning stuff, I was teaching it.
My kid got his head stuck in a chair last week. But he's only three. It was sooooo funny. One of the hardest things about being a parent is not laughing in these situations .... poor guy.
This isn't even an issue of a kid being stupid or not. If you're kid is the dumbest kid in the world, you should still want them to have the best education they can have. So even if your kid is dumb, it's still okay to move them to a better district so they can become one of the smarter dumb kids in the city
My advice is to have your kid read my above post, and decide how smart he is based on if he notices that I said you're instead of your
When my wife was a few years older than that she got her head stuck her neighbor's driveway metal gate while playing "jail". They had to call the fire department and saw the fence a part. They fed her ice cream in the meantime so she wouldn't cry. The whole block came out to watch it all. She loves telling that story too.
Maybe it's because daddy didn’t spell Vanguard right. Come over to the Cy-Fair area, we have plenty of programs for kids that are smarter than their dads.
I tried one of those tests in Florida and they said I wasn't good enough. They were probably right. It was like 1st grade or something. I discovered how easy school was when I tried to get into Traci's AP Earth Science class in 8th grade so I could have sex with her. I passed my regents exam and got into the class, woo hoo, trouble was, there were two classes, and she was in the other one. Biotch! I worked my ass off for that too. She got one of those Madonna hair cuts the next year anyway, the Papa don't preach cut, and I wasn't that attracted anymore. Anyway, After that I knew how easy school could be. So then I became the genius species I am todai.
Harvard Elementary in the Heights has a nice Vanguard program....my kids went there when we lived in the Heights.
I just realized how I can make alot of money. I will start teaching kids 7-15 evening classes and charge them a whole bunch. Seems like the demand is extremely high for such services.
werd. they put me in G&T when I was in 4th grade. Screwed me up big time. Next wave of tests come by. 99% national percentile. Invite me to Duke for the summer in 7th grade. Didn't go, too much pressure. Ended up bored and said screw it. Graduated 4th quarter in high school cause i skipped so much. Guidance counselor in HS said "you will never go to college" Busted a 1300 on the SAT just to prove that b**** wrong... Couldn't give a crap about college when my parents paid for it. Then they cut me off and dad said, "I would pay for school if you get back into a 4 yr college but it won't happen..." Worked full time, went to community college pt. Paid for it myself Got back into as 4 yr school on probation... Dean's list every semester, 4.0 3 semesters in a row. ya, i have anger issues...
Okay... I actually did go there from K-8th grade, and while it was a great experience, I thought it was more valuable in middle school than it was in elementary school. (their scores are unbelievable, though... and they are legit... its a great school). There's a chance she will be able to re-apply and get in then, so all is not lost, and she'll still be getting the best part of the school. There are also plenty of learning center-type places around the city where your kid can remain ahead of her class (even if she's in a vanguard program... that's what I did). In particular, Kumon learning center is great for math... had me ahead of the game from elementary all the way to HS.
Heh, funny story (not really funny) from around 15+ years ago. I can't complain really about HISD, I attended K-12. So my brother got waitlisted from the Rogers Vanguard program back in kindergarten and so he ended up at Windsor Village in their program. He ended up getting off the waitlist 2 days before school started, but my mom didn't want to change at that point. I got into both the Rogers and the Windsor Village program, but since my brother was at Windsor Village, that's where I went as well. Windsor Village Vanguard started changing drastically (I think it was a big affirmative action kick), and my mom pulled us both out and we went to our "zone school", Lovett. Lovett along with Parker are really the only schools with well developed band programs in HISD. I started playing cornet. If it weren't for that, I would've attended Bellaire and who knows? It helps to be surrounded by other "gifted and talented" students, but at that age, I think it's unnecessary- I always competed against myself. My teachers at Lovett had some variable learning type things like timed math- I'd be doing multiplication and division while most of my class was still on addition/subtraction. I'd imagine any half decent elementary school will have its Spelling Bees, Geography Bees, and Math Counts programs. Honestly, I don't think the class level matters (with the exception for math and I suppose science) until your junior year of high school, when you take AP tests and such. If your child is interested in writing, he/she will probably be doing more of it outside of school. Ditto a history buff.
