<p>As my S has had some teachers who were willing to enrich within the existing grade level structure, others who were not, still others who could not, and yet still others who encouraged him to skip several grades in some subjects, I have come to the conclusion that it is very important to ascertain the attitudes and abilities of individual teachers.</p>
<p>To put this in context, we live in a district, indeed a whole state, where there is no gifted mandate or budget. So this is not an issue for the school board as it might be elsewhere. Nor, it seems, was it an issue for the principal to decide on, although once teachers concluded that my S should be taking classes in the high school, the principal's endorsement of the plan had to be sought since it involved a rather drastic re-arrangement of his schedule and grouping structures. Again, somewhere else, a principal's attitude toward enrichment and acceleration might be of crucial importance. it was not in our case.</p>
<p>In fact, it really boiled down to teachers' willingness and capabilities. Some posters have argued that it is easier to accelerate in math and science than in the humanities and social studies. We found the contrary to be true: it was far easier to enrich in the humanities and social studies by expecting our S to perform at a higher level: choosing more difficult topics, doing more research, writing longer and better papers. Indeed, the teacher who refused to group advanced students in math out of ideological preferences unconsciously enriched students in the humanities by directing those who expressed interest in certain topics to extra resources besides those she used to teach the units. </p>
<p>The major block we encountered was teachers' lack of knowledge on how to enrich, especially in math and sciences. Some of S's teachers were young and inexperienced and rather overwhelmed. Others were experienced, but their strengths were in the humanities. In retrospect, there should have been better vertical integration among teachers (there was a great deal of horizontal integration among grade level teachers). With better vertical integration, the specialists (who taught the middle school grades) would have been able to advise the lower grade generalist teachers how to address the needs of advanced students through allowing them to test out of units and by providing more advanced curricular materials or pointing to outside resources (such as the Math Forum, competitions, and so on). I read some years ago that the College Board was promoting the idea of vertical integration in k-12 but I don't know what came of that effort. </p>
<p>Once S was in high school, things became somewhat easier as he was able to take the math/sciences classes that were most appropriate for him, rather than being forced to stay with his age peers.</p>
<p>A school that says "all are students are gifted", isn't flexible. A school that says only juniors and seniors are allowed to take APs isn't flexible. A school that says this is the gifted program (once a week pullout) take it or leave it isn't flexible.</p>
<p>Harder to tell: A school that says "we've had kids like yours" and we've done classroom enrichment or made an advanced math group probably thinks it's flexible. If you're lucky there will be other equally gifted math kids and all will be well. If you're unlucky. your kid will be an outlier and the advanced group won't be nearly advanced enough or the enrichment will be inappropriate (we've had both way too hard and way too easy.)</p>
<p>A math whiz is actually relatively easy to accomodate - the question is what to do with the first grader who reads at a fifth grade level and writes at a first grade level. I don't envy the schools - it's easy to say "be flexible" it's not that easy to practice it.</p>
<p>Personally, I'd love to see schools that paid much less attention to age. As a grown up you aren't only friends with people within 12 months of your age are you? You can play with your brothers and sisters can't you?</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to have spent at least part of my childhood in a one room school house and then in a very small school. I played with kids anywhere from 2 or 3 years younger to 2 years or so older than me regularly. Age peers are overrated.</p>
<p>Personally, we've found spending LOTS of time at bookstores & libraries & allowing the kids to use the computer & ed games freely to be a tremendous boost for them. My S was one of those who could read at a much higher level than he could write. In kindergarten, they allowed him to go to other grade-level classrooms to borrow reading materials. He liked the freedom & made friends with the teachers in the other grades & classrooms. </p>
<p>We have been on a 1st name basis with the local librarians since the kids were born & they consider it a great treat to spend countless hours at bookstores--any bookstore.</p>
<p>Age is a convenient "handle" for schools, but not all that relevant to learning. With the federal "No Child Left Behind," pressures in public school classrooms are continuously building & leaving a LOT of stressed-out, unhappy teachers.</p>
<p>True, in "our day" there were no gifted programs and somehow we "survived." But it wasn't fun. I was not challenged, was often bored, and felt like a weirdo. When I got to college I discovered my straight A average didn't mean anything. My high school was, frankly, second-rate and did not provide me with skills I would have needed to be, say, an English major.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I was also gifted in music. :)</p>
<p>Alu: It just occurred to me, with all that brain power, Silicon Valley must have at least one awesome public high school! </p>
<p>We actually moved within our area to be in the school district containing the best HS in terms of NMFs, AP classes, Math/Science teams, etc. We think they're better than the private schools, and a good use of our tax dollars.</p>
<p>mommusic - there are two fantastic public high schools, Palo Alto and Gunn. And Menlo Atherton is good, with a big but. You have to be available to advocate for your kid to get the right teachers etc. and as a full-time working mom (well except for cc :)), I knew I wouldn't be able to do what my kids would have needed me to do. Hence the private school. And there are several extremely good ones of those too.</p>
<p>Just some thoughts from a parent of a "gifted" child who has just finished the college application/admission process...
My son was reading TIME Magazine at two, taking college math classes in the 7th grade, he took the SATs when he was 12 and scored a 740 in math, he was a very bright kid. He is a VERY laid back kid, sometimes I think he was uncomfortable with his abilities. He went to a top private school, scored 800s on his SATs is a National Merit Finalist.... but he did just enough work to get a B+ average.... he just never had that "drive" that some students do, why? I am not sure, but because of his grades he didn't get into any Ivies, so the moral of the story is, sometimes it isn't how "gifted" the child is, but how they choose to use the "gifts" that they have.
P.S. He did get into one of his top choices- just not the "ONE"</p>