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My child was in Portland Public Schools until 8th grade. We moved to this area from out of state because I was told that there was a TAG program and that my child would be educated at the appropriate level of instruction. I moved here to find out that there is, in fact, no program, or there was none when I was involved with PPS. There is a 'designation' which, in my experience, consisted of a program for parents. The parent program was designed to keep the parents quiet, and to provide parent enrichment so that we could all home school our children better.

I am so sick and tired of reading about the TAG 'program'. A program as normally understood by most reasonable people consists of an organized set of of objectives and actions. In this case, that would be a curriculum. By a curriculum I do not mean a program devised and carried out by parents at home, or extra sheets that a child can bring home to do if he or she feels like it and chooses to 'challenge' themselves. What garbage!

So, the first thing to do is to admit that there is no program. When I realized that I had been duped, I finally pulled my child out of PPS at the earliest opportunity. Now he is getting a great education at a private school which actively nurtures bright and capable students instead of trying to make all students pursue mediocrity so no one will feel bad. My child had to unlearn the many bad habits he learned in the public schools becasue he never had to think or challenge himself. He became a master at doing as little as possible because he could, and he was shunned by his classmates for being too smart and skipping a grade. He spent many years being bored. His teachers all but ignored him so that they could bring up the bottom to improve the school's scores. Is this what Portland wants? I think so, and that is the crux of the issue. I have heard any number of people express bitterness and resentment at gifted children because they are not like the other kids, and who do they think they are to need something different? Portland does not tolerate diversity. My child absolutely blossomed in a learning environment where he had a peer group and teachers who actually encouraged their students to reach for the top instead of the bottom.

For people with gifted kids who can afford it, they can remove their kids from the negative environment. What about the many, many who can't? Those kids will get left, and no one seems to care. I spent years trying to work with the public system and finally stopped when I realized that Portland is getting exactly what it wants. Everybody has to be the same, and no one should be allowed to achieve too much because it is 'elitist'. 'Tracking' is bad, although no one seems to realize that the kids are all tracked, by age most of all, and then of course everyone is put in the lowest track.

Good luck Portland. You'll need it.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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