The Awesome, Ever Amazing, Disappearing Brianiac.

by Amy Cortez, Editor - The Eclectic Telegraph

Picture the Looney Tunes character Taz, the Tasmanian devil.

If you're parenting a gifted, highly gifted or even profoundly gifted student I am sure you can make the connection. Go ahead and allow yourself that small indulgence of a chuckle at your situation. Then give yourself a high five because that job, parenting a gifted child, is a tiring job. If you are parenting and homeschooling a gifted student, give yourself a box of expensive chocolates and a huge high five because your job is an exhausting one. Trust me. I know.

As your student whirls through his homeschool day at full speed ahead, marvel at this because if he were in the school system he might be a really different person. He might be the awesome, ever amazing, disappearing brainiac.

The school systems really aren't set up to deal with this sort of student though they would have you believe they are. Professional educrats. You either love them or not, or you are somewhere in between. One thing I have learned is that there are not many "professionals" that are "trained" adequately to handle the needs of all, or even most gifted students because each of these kinds of students are as different as seashells on the beach. Few to many regular classroom teachers in the school system see our gifted kids as interferences to their classrooms, or worse, threats to their intelligence.

The whole reason we homeschool is that I came to the realization that the private school my student was in at second grade was not set up to deal appropriately with the kind of student he was then he that has become [our story]. For several years after my decision to homeschool my gifted student I wondered if it was just our situation, my imagination or are the educationists really not prepared to deal with kids like mine? My biggest fear was that if my student stayed in the school system, who he was would just disappear. It seems there is plenty written on this topic and that my fears are justified. [read on]

The December verion of The Eclectic Telegraph is out!

Here's what we wrote about:

The Java House... radical opinions about whatever, from OldSage

• A Rant from OldSage. Ho. Ho. Ho.
• Let's Bring Our Schools Into the 21st Century
• Why Don't We Ask the Schools Really Hard Questions?
  If Parents Controlled the Schools

• From The Thinking Has Been Done For You File
  A Perfectly Ludicrous Idea From Our Pals at HSLDA
  We Don’t Need Representation.

Teens

• High School Core Curriculum - What You Might Need to Know. Or Not.
• Want Something More Interesting Than High School?
• You Thought the Bully in the Play Yard was Bad. Today it's Cyberbullies.

See the Current edition of The Eclectic Telegraph HERE