I just don't know.

Today we have a meeting to discuss what grade Max should move into next year. I'm not looking forward to it. This is one of the many burdens I felt dropped on my shoulders the day we found out he tested in the top 1% and was eligible to skip kindergarten and go directly to 1st grade. For me the score basically confirmed the reason Max has so many ISSUES... he is a highly gifted child; a fact that can seem at times, to be brutally honest, more of a curse than a blessing.

So he's been in this regular 1st grade class this year and has done very well adjusting and has had no problems academically - if anything he has still not been challenged enough - especially in math. The problem is that he really needs to be in a gifted class to truly get his needs met. However, the way they have the system set up, he would have to stay in 1st grade next year... it would be a gifted first grade where they do 2nd grade level work. But it's still 1st grade. He would have to watch all of his friends from this year move on to 2nd while being held back. This is where the whole Early Access Program pisses me off. They were never planning on advancing him at all. They've just put him somewhere to basically sit and wait. They haven't even really cared if he's progressed or not.

The gifted and talented team tell us this would be better for him to fall back in line with his "peers". But he relates better with older kids... always has. The kids he's with now are his peers... not to mention that he's already dancing around the house singing about being a 2nd grader next year. So then, do we just send him to our regular neighborhood school and keep him a grade ahead?!?... where he's pretty much guaranteed to never be challenged.. and would most likely become extremely bored and lazy?!?

At any rate, I'm not even a full year into the public school system and already I dread dealing with the administrators. Many of their policies make no sense whatsoever. They make no sense because they are outdated, lack individual consideration, and/or are just plain ridiculous. But the administrators think they make no sense to you because... well, you must be stupid... let me explain it to you over and over again... slowly...

I'd rather just bang my head against the wall.

In the grand scheme of things, I know putting him in a gifted 1st is not a big deal... especially if he's at a different school. I'm just blown away by the fact that there wasn't a better spot for him initially. They kind of just wedged him where they thought he would most likely fit and hoped for the best. THAT was their great plan for him? And now, either way, he's got to switch schools.

* Well, the meeting actually went much better than I anticipated. I think. It's now possible for Max to move into a 2nd grade GT class next year if that's what we think would be best... I still don't know...