Child did not pass gifted test and we are crushed!?

O

One Still Man

New member
Our child is very bright. He gets all As! He was nominated to take the REACH program in his school. I just got a letter stating he was not qualified according to the test! I'm so hurt! How will I tell him? How do I handle this? What went wrong? How do we fix this? I want him to pass.
He is 8 years old.
 
I know you feel it is a disappointment but if you tell him he did not qualify you may crush him and he may loose all interest in his education. At this point I'd simply tell him that the program wasn't right for him this year and maybe next year he can test again. No since in putting pressure on an 8 year old. He has many more years to be a genius. And really there is nothing to fix, your child gets striaght A's and has a love for learning...so what if he won't graduate college at 14, this is not a failure by any stretch!
 
Nothing "went wrong". Gifted isn't something you are or you aren't, it's a continuous scale. Your son isn't quite high enough on it for this one program.

Why are _you_ hurt? It wasn't your test and it isn't your life. Get over yourself. Unless you promised him something you couldn't give him (i.e. a place on the program) you don't have to do anything.
 
All of these answers are the core of what I would say,too, but with the addition of the fact that most gifted programs are now clustering in more kids based on their state testing scores. To sum up, many children don't even have to pass the standard G>A>T>E test now, they just have to do really well on their state tests a couple of years in a row, in order to be clustered in to the advanced and/or GATE programs.
 
You know your child is smart and so does he. Its a test, dont let it get to you too much, dont want it more them him, just because he didn't pass a test some supposedly smart person made up, doesn't mean hes not qualified as gifted. He sounds very bright, tell him he just needs to try one more time, and tell him to take his time and do the best he can, he might of had alot of pressure. Still no matter what influence him to do great in school, his day will come, and he will pass that test
 
Tell him you are still proud of him and that it was an honor for you to even be selected to take the test. Tell him that he is very smart and he does not need to be in this program to prove that.
 
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