Okay folks - I am aware that I may be opening a can of worms here but why does this topic piss so many people off?

[Theclosetpagan]

I mean if someone has deemed a child G+T (or is it G or T) why is it that they seem to be flamed when they post about any difficulties here?

If the label has come from outside the family and the family struggle why can't they post here saying "Help" without people leaping in to say "your child sounds normal to me"

For what it's worth I don't have a child labelled as G+T but am glad I don't given the response some posters get to this topic.

Surely it's okay for some children to be extra bright. Or is it that there is distrust of this label?

Just interested really.

Message withdrawn

pmsl- I didn;t think through the sound of that.

anyway, another answer to the OP's question: lots of MNers were labelled 'gifted' themselves or are close to people who were and have seen how much harm it can do, hence find it quite hard to keep their mouths shut on these threads sometimes. But don't necessarily want to tell everyone that's the reason, so they end up looking jealous when actually that's the last thing that's going on.

neither do I

Nice is more important IMHO

I did a G and T dat for NAGTY not that long ago. Most of the kids were very nice, but some were horrible, very rude, silly and disruptive.

Obviously no-one had ever told these kids that being clever gives you less excuse for being an utter arse, not more excuses

I think what put a lot of people's backs up recently was the implication that G+T (whatever that actually means) is an educational 'need' on a par with real SEN. I suppose an equivalent would be me defining my ds's bilingualism (which is also not without its rocky and sticky patches) as an SEN, which would be patently ludicrous.

Agree with gess's posts, especially the last one , and with MB about the trend of looking for G+T as cause for disruptiveness - this is very common over here (Germany) - whenever a boy (for some reason it's always a boy) is disruptive, the first reason suggested it almost always 'oh, he's G+T'. A lot of people are very down on the school system and (especially primary) teachers here atm, and I think that's part of the reason.

I so agree with gess about the huffiness. I have to admit to having snorted at the huffiness on a couple of occasions.

Yes, we had hundreds of posts on this a few weeks ago. Thead started by KerryMum - here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2408&threadid=383166#7791208

(the last one = gess's post at 16:43)

Gess my eldest was the same he talked, counted, wrote his name,loved space and could name planets and moon etc
He has Aspergers Syndrome and cant spell at all

I'm just having to follow mb around agreeing with every word

Lol gess !

in the benefit of clarity I should say that some of the kids behaviour was horrible, rather than the child IYSWIM. They were utter pains in the arse tho!

agree with Berolina (is your ds totally bilingual already? do you speak English at home?)

I dont have a problem with G&T threads, even if it is someone just bragging about thier dc, so what bragging about your dc, is the same as being proud of them. surely.

(franca - he's effectively bilingual, as far as a 2.4yo can be considered to be - we do OPOL (dh German, me English) and dh and I speak german to each other. His German was ahead of his English but atm the English is really catching up and I'd say he has about the same level opf functionality in both langs)

It's a shame though, because I think there is need for people to be able to discuss issues for older children in the school context, eg, resisting the school's attempts to advance a G & T labelled child a year.
People experience all sorts of dilemmas and problems with their children's education on here, and I guess that must include how a school is handling the "G & T" process.
Agree that it is a dire and wrongly deployed concept, and that the Topic attracts some unwittingly funny/annoying posts. BUT, you could say the same all over Mn and people don't tend to get mauled about so much in other topics.
And I think all of us happy gifted daydreamers might be underestimating how much the curriculum has changed since we were at primary school.

(berolina, I see, I assumed you were speaking in English at home... sounds like he's doing really really well )

Very Sensible MN-ers I know of who have children deemed 'G&T' are never seen on the G&T boards at all. I see them on other boards asking q's about development / relationship wth school / SEN / SN (not in relation to academic abaility...just to be clear), behaviour and development - but about the issues concerned. they don't need to address any of their q's under G&T, as far as I can see.

And are also never seen saying 'oh yes, DS/D is G7T...' when they discuss their children on MN.

(thank you franca - he is doing great, he's surprising me actually

If anything I think that the current NC, for all its miriad faults, it actually far better at giving intersting stuff for able kids to do.

I remember being expected to knit for hours in primary school, for afternoons on end, because there was no guidence for teachers.

The NC is now too prescriptive, but there really is plenty of stuff there for able children. And the numbers of children who are so bright that they can't be stimulated by normal classroom differentiation are few.

()

I agree with MB on that. I remember spending entire days, aged 12 (Norwich had responded to the raised school leaving age by keeping you at junior school an extra year) sticking bits of wallpaper onto larger bits of paper. I would suspect that a school would not get away with this now.

I have to admit that the G&T label also just makes me frightfully anxious, when I see so many posters deploying it. My kids are bright, but not awesomely so.

And there we have it. Very intelligent G&T-level MN-ers MB and MI spent time knittting and wallpapering in spare school time (god! can you imagie if home school relations were like they are now and your Mums had been MN-ers? the angst about getting the school to support your needs etc etc...) and then went to Oxbridge and got top degrees...despite all that shoddy knitting and wallpapering education. If only they had been taken on as research fellows in Yr5.....

PMSL at the thought of you and glue

You must have loved it.

The knitting was real. We also spent eons making a peg bag for our mothers and an apron to use in secondary school. During this time the boys were allowed to play football.

We also seemed to spend vast amounts of time watching schools TV, one programme after another, with no seeiming aim in mind

Also I'm not so sure whether it is ok labelling a 5 yrs old "accademic".
did you really do all that knitting?