Frustrated

Lots of you commented on my last post about Jonah. Thanks so much for all your words of advice and encouragement. I've begun looking at options and I'm getting a bit frustrated. So I'm going to put it all out here in cyberspace to perhaps get a better perspective or be inspired or just plain feel better.

First, I checked for charter schools in our area and wasn't really too impressed. Then, on the suggestion of a friend who has a daughter Jonah's age that is quite gifted, I called the district's gifted education department. I told them that his teacher had said he passed off his first grade flash cards and is reading at a fifth grade level. She looked up his testing scores from last January and said that while he did well, he wasn't quite high enough to be placed in the district's magnet school. She said they would test him now, but that school is full. She suggested we look into grade acceleration, which is testing to skip a grade. I told her I felt that would be a good step for him, at least to do the test and see where he stands. So she said she'd contact his principal and have her call me.
So I spoke with the principal today. She had already talked to Jonah's teacher about what we'd like to do and the teacher says that he's not ready. She says that while he's advanced in his reading, he's slower in other areas. When I asked which ones, the principal said, "work completion." I'm not exactly sure what she means by that because every time I asked, she'd change the subject. I'm guessing that he sometimes starts his worksheet and then doesn't want to finish it. That doesn't surprise me, because if it's too easy for him, he's going to get bored with it and want to move on to something else, right?

Anyway, the principal basically told me that he's already being placed with the top learning group within his class and that should be good enough. But if that's enough, then why is he not excited about anything that he's learning in class?! The only things he seems excited to tell me about are the books that he checks out of the library and gets to read during reading time. So far he's been checking out the Zoo Books on snakes and sharks, he loves to learn about animals. I look at the worksheets he brings home and they just seem too simple for him.
The principal said I need to meet with his teacher and let her know my concerns. She pretty much passed it off to the teacher saying that his teacher has some gifted curriculum and it's her job to be teaching it to him. I agree. My problem is that, so far, granted it is early in the year, this gifted curriculum is still easy and boring for him. I don't get why they won't just do the test and see where he's at. I'm okay with it if he's not ready for second grade, but maybe they could send him to the second grade class just for reading time or spelling or something. Are you feeling my frustration yet?
I'll talk to his teacher on Tuesday and set up a time to get together. She's a great teacher and I hope she's not taking this personally, I just feel like he needs something more. I'm not saying my child's a genius or trying to push him or overstate his ability. He's not one of those kids who are doing physics in kindergarten or anything. I'm just trying to keep him happy and engaged in his education so that he doesn't grow complacent and go from being the top of his class, to becoming lazy and unmotivated.

I just hate the way they're trying to make me feel like I'm just some snotty parent who thinks my child is smarter than he really is. That's the tone I felt from talking to the principal.

Of course, that's the same tone I got last year when they put Jonah in a different kindergarten class and the teacher wasn't challenging him and he was so bored that he hated going to school and I had to fight to get him put back in the class with the teacher who recognized his ability and actually gave him more challenging material.
I thought educators were supposed to want the best for each individual student. I'm not really getting that feeling lately.