Several devoted readers have asked about my son, Max, and his long-awaited test with the school psychologist. I appreciate the concern on two fronts: 1) It’s always nice to know that people are taking an interest in my son and 2) I can write this follow-up without sounding like bragging, since you asked for it.
For those new to the site, or perhaps those who just forgot about my column (it has been six months now), Max was slated to be tested for the Gifted program (called ALPHA – it’s an acronym, but I don’t know what it stands for) at his school. That was in March. About three months later, over the summer, the psychologist set up an appointment. The test involved talking about this and that and answering a variety of questions.
Then… nothing.
The new school year started without a peep. No acceptance letter, no rejection letter – nothing. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and called the school this week. Turns out – the school never got the paperwork for one reason or another. So, after a flurry of phone calls and faxes and parent-teacher meetings – he’s in.
His 128 on the previous proxy test jumped to a 134 on the real thing. Enough to put him over the magical 130 threshold. Hooray.
We did our best to not put any pressure on his about the test. I think we did a pretty ok job of not adding any pressure, but he found plenty of it on his own. He was devastated when some other kids were called out for ALPHA and he wasn’t (presumably their paperwork found its way to the school on its own) during the first week of the new school year.
I’m glad the waiting and anticipating is over. He’s in and all is well. Now I can move on from not pressuring him about ALPHA to not pressuring him about earning the starting quarterback job on his flag football team…