March Wind Blowing In Change

I had hoped to post last month, but alas I'm a day late. Things have been a bit busy with the Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group which is a good thing! At the meeting in February, we had Ms. Murrian as a guest speaker on perfectionism in gifted students. We had new parents attending and lots of lively discussion on what local schools are doing or not doing in regards to gifted programs. This leads us up to the organization of this month's meeting which is sure to be lively one on Strategies for Advocacy for Gifted Programs. Dr. Jeanne Paynter, Gifted and Talented Education Specialist from the Maryland State Dept. of Ed., will be our guest speaker and then we will have an open forum to discuss our next steps to improve gifted education in Delaware. Now is the time to make your voice be heard! We are inviting parents, teachers, ed. administrators, legislators, and anyone interested in advocacy for gifted students. Please plan on attending Wed., March 23rd, 6:30-8:30pm, in the LGI room at William Henry Middle School, Dover. If you can help with our advertising efforts, please let me know so I can send you flyers.

As some of our readers know, Delaware does not require criteria/methods for identifying gifted students, there is no mandate for gifted education, and there isn't a mandate for gifted ed. teacher training. You can find out more by going to the Davidson Institute's database and clicking on Delaware on the U.S. map (www.davidsongifted.org/db/). If you are not in Delaware, why not check out your own state to see how they are serving gifted students.

Please help in our efforts to bring positive change to gifted students in Delaware! We are sure to make a difference if we join together. This statement reminds me of something Robin Schader said in a NAGC webinar. She mentioned that one parent advocating for a child is considered a "nut", two parents are a "nut with a friend", but 3 or more parents are on their way to make a difference and being heard, they just need to have good ideas and information.

Feel free to comment and I hope to see you on March 23rd!

Thanks for reading,

Monica