My son deserves a better education than what his school district can give him--Part 1

I could have had some pretty harsh subject lines, I could have really raised some eyebrows. But I'm not going to come off as kicking and screaming--but I am close. I feel that it is time to take my thoughts on my son's (lack of) education to a public forum, and I hope that my passion is something that can hit a chord with someone, somewhere--because it sure as hell isn't hitting home where it needs to be--and that's with the school district of Rantoul, Illinois.

My son had qualified for the gifted program in the school district back when he first could--in second grade. However, when my ex-wife and I separated, it ended up that she moved out of the district and he went to a different school. After spending approximately a year there, she later moved back to Rantoul where he went back to the same school he was at before. However, under the rules of the gifted program, all children must "requalify" in order for re-entry into the gifted program. (As if gifted ability suddenly goes away). He retook the qualification testing, and we had heard that he had one of the highest scores in the district--IN THE DISTRICT, mind you.

However, one stipulation with Rantoul is that they limit the class size per grade to 12 students for the gifted program (please keep in mind this is a rural community that has a village population of about 13,000). Another brilliant caveat of this endeavor is that once a child qualifies for the program, they are basically grandfathered in until the program ends in junior high. (So...let me get this straight...you have to qualify to get in to the program but are never retested, yet if someone qualifies, moves out of the area and comes back, they have to requalify--how egocentric is that? That going to another school district and coming back may mean that they "lost" their abilities but by staying in the Rantoul system they are guaranteed to "be qualified" throughout? Hmmm...interesting...). In my son's case, what this meant was that by the time he got back to the school district, the class was full and he was on a "waiting list", which basically means that unless someone is removed from the program--which has happened because they flunked out of their own grade (And there's no need for retesting...hmmmm again!) or moves, that my son has to basically "be" within his own grade and then as a sidebar, the gifted teacher will give paperwork and projects for them to complete outside of class.

Ok, first let me address the pacification ritual that is the paperwork and projects. I label it "busywork" because that's purely what it is. One of the most important pieces of the gifted program, as any sociologist or counselor will tell you, is the socialization that children get and need with peers of their own level. I am not dumbing down Rantoul (I will say that test scores for the district have been below standards for quite some time--I invite you to check this out at http://rcs.k12.il.us under the "State report card" section), but the reality is that just doing accelerated math problems is not what my child NEEDS.

But yet we get the argument that all teachers in the school district have gifted training--not necessarily certification--but training, so that should suffice. Ok, let me ask you a question--if you had the money to get a Lexus, and you went to buy it, but they said that they were sold out and you could never get one and that you could drive a nice Ford Festiva because it did the same thing, what would you say? Again, not dumbing down the system, but the excuse that there are teachers who have gifted training and paperwork is NOT the same thing at ALL. What would you think? It's the same type of analogy.

When my son re-entered the school system, he was told that he would possibly be able to skip a grade. That didn't happen for whatever reasons, but I assume it's basically political, which is the norm with several things there. Then he was told that he was on the waiting list for fourth grade. Obviously, he went the entire year without being involved in the gifted class. During that year, he set the DISTRICT RECORD for the most accelerated reader points with over 400 points, and no one previously had even come close--ever!

Over the summer before the fifth grade year that he is in now, my ex-wife's husband, who again we really have a great relationship with the both of them, decided to get on the "horn" with the Rantoul School District Superintendent, Mr. Bill Trankina. However, after numerous calls, he never got a call back--always excuses as to why he couldn't talk to him. Then, lastly, he told a receptionist there that he was taking this to the press, and suddenly--Mr. Trankina could talk! WOW! It must be maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagic!!!

After a brief discussion in which Trankina gave generalizations and basically skirted the issue, they set up a time to meet in Trankina's office. The points that we were holding close to were made to Trankina, who threw out a bunch of numbers and funding blah blah blah (despite the fact that Rantoul's school district is one of only two in their area that is not bonded--which means they have a SURPLUS of money) and basically had said--well, we need to discuss this with the gifted teacher and see what she had to say--but that she was gone all summer out of the country.

Of course, this basically brought the meeting to a halt because---what could we do or say to that???? One item of note here is that my ex-wfe's husband told Trankina that we needed to get some type of resolve here and that if it wasn't to our satisfaction, that it would mean that we would more than likely take things public. Trankina responded with a "That sounds like a threat to me." to which he was retorted with, "Well, it is what it is and it's important that you know how serious we are about this issue." At that point, Trankina clammed up and the meeting was over.

Well, do some detective work is what we can do. In a town of 13,000, people are bound to know people who know people and so on and so forth. And guess what? We found out that the gifted teacher was actually NOT gone out of the country, that she was in Rantoul and had been there the whole time...Hmmmm...another interesting twist, isn't it? And the thing is--the gifted teacher, Mrs. Holliday, was HOT at Trankina for assuming and saying such a thing! We were told that they would meet to discuss it and we would be informed.

What we got after that is nothing short of basically an asinine letter that made us all feel like we should be sitting in the corner wearing dunce caps for even questioning the "system". What you can gather from that statement is that my son was not allowed to be in the gifted program...

I'll discuss this and more in the next segment. Stay tuned--same time, same bat channel!!

TAGS: Being A Dad, Being A Parent, Education, Education Issues, Gifted And Talented, Gifted Education, Gifted Program Limitations, Illinois, Rantoul, Rantoul City Schools, School
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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Phibian said:

FWIW, as a previous "giftee" myself with experience in various accelerated and gifted programs in multiple countries, the best program I was ever in involved a mixed ability class but being given entirely different work.

I still have mixed feelings on the "pure" gifted programs; I'm not sure that the segregation is really beneficial to either group, the labeling was difficult to cope with at a social level, many of the students had difficulty learning to relate to "normal" kids and the teachers were hit and miss (one school board had a theory that bright kids learn regardless of the quality of the teacher).

Furthermore, my experience with fighting the system is that the system will take it out on the kids, and usually in ways that are difficult to prove or could be coincidence if it didn't happen so often.

Although I do understand your frustration, I would put your energies into improving the quality of education for your son where he is rather than fighting the system to get into the gifted program.

Posted at 07:38 AM, on September 12 2008

2

Tim said:

Thank you for your comments, Phibian! One thing that I haven't really delved into is that the gifted program we are wanting to get my son into is 1 day per week, so the other 4 he is with his classroom. I realize that may sound a bit pretentious in nature, but the fact is that this opportunity--whether large or small--should be given in some way, shape or form. I hope that you will be able to see the level of ridiculousness this has gotten to throughout the rest of my series. I agree with a lot of what you have to say, and believe me--we do put a LOT of energy into our son and his learning--we really encouraged him throughout the AR portion of last year and continue to find different avenues for him to increase his learning--but the fact remains that this is something that should be a no-brainer, and it's turned into a circus. As you will see as I go along, this is almost a matter of principle now more than anything else.

Once again, thanks for reading and thanks for your comments. I hope you can appreciate my passion for what I believe is right!

Posted at 08:36 AM, on September 12 2008

My son deserves a better education than what his school district can give him--Part 1

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