This week my lovely wife and I were called into the school to talk to Max’s teacher. Max is a good nine year old boy who rarely (but not never) gets into trouble, so I wasn’t too worried about what the conversation might entail. It turned out to be a very positive conversation about the potential for enrolling Max into the gifted program at his school.
It turns out that at some point in time I signed a permission slip allowing them to test him for the program. Although I don’t remember it, I’m sure I did. Why wouldn’t I? Anyway, he scored a 128 on some scale of which I’ve never heard, but apparently 130 is the magic number for giftedness. 128, not gifted. 130, gifted.
Things got even murkier when the teacher said that the test I’ve never heard of is just a rough estimate of how he’d score on another test I’ve never heard of, but this other one is the real deal, and it is administered by a real-life psychologist and everything. So, we’ll have a psychologist come to the school to test Max on a variety of things for which we cannot prepare him (spacial awareness?), and that will determine whether or not my boy belongs in the program.
Fine. Good. All for it. Except… She had to add two little items at the end of the conversation. One: She told us not to put any pressure on him. Two: She described, in detail, the extensive awesomeness of the program.
One without Two would have been easy. But One, coupled with Two and the near miss of his 128 is giving me fits. I don’t want to pressure him, but boy do I ever want him in the Gifted Program. While the other kids are rehashing their spelling words, the gifted kids are dissolving egg shells in vinegar and other cool science-y things.
No pressure. Sure. Easy for her to say. Luckily for Max I don’t know when the test is, and I couldn’t prep him for it if I did since I don’t really understand how it works.
No pressure.
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