Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-h Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:aeq From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent) Newsgroups: net.kids Subject: Re: Classes for gifted children Message-ID: <509@pucc-h> Date: Thu, 2-Feb-84 04:16:02 EST Article-I.D.: pucc-h.509 Posted: Thu Feb 2 04:16:02 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 7-Feb-84 15:42:55 EST References: <117@ihnet.UUCP> Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Lines: 23 Several people have mentioned having been bumped a grade or two ahead in school because they were gifted. I was a year ahead in the early years, then 2 years ahead after switching from 4th to 5th grade midyear. One little detail that no one thought of: While my intellectual development was ahead of my age, and so was my height (thus I was in the same height range as the kids 2 years older), my strength and coordination were, at best, normal for my age, i.e. 2 years less developed than my classmates. As a result, I always did rotten in Phys.Ed., and have to this day an abiding dislike of exercise for its own sake (though I usually commute to/from work via foot or bike power) and upper-body musculature which is unspectacular at best. In addition, I have had major self-image problems because I was so laughably inferior, physically, to other males--and this was back in the mid-60's, when machismo had not yet been discredited, and when a man's worth depended greatly on his physical abilities. The point: If you have gifted kids who are moved a grade or two ahead, rather than being put in special programs in their own grade, I strongly recommend that you try to arrange with school administrators that the kids take their physical education classes with kids of their own age, so that they will have a reasonable chance of doing comparably to the others in their P.E. classes. Otherwise you might end up with offspring as lopsided as I. -- Jeff Sargent/...pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq