<p>This is complicated but I think I’d let him skip 7th grade and escape middle school a year early since he has many friends a year older than he is.</p>
<p>I also think he might enjoy being an exchange student for a year during high school. You could check out AFS too. Or Youth For Understanding. These would make him a year older when he graduates. I am not keen on his starting college 2 years early.</p>
<p>If he has great h.s. friends and activities, a gap year sounds like a great plan</p>
<p>A Rotary exchange is just one of a number of exchange programs where high school students spend some time (like a year) abroad. It is not necessarily difficult academically but he would learn many new things-- such as a new language. This kind of experience could be ideal for a gap year but there are also experiences that might match up better to whatever his interests are in 5 years. (He could do research, volunteer work, etc.)</p>
<p>The ideal-- if possible-- is for him to be taught with other very bright kids close to his age. Please look at the boarding schools. You may find the best match for him there although there may be magnet schools or private schools in your area for very gifted kids. Some parents homeschool because they cannot find an appropriate educational setting. </p>
<p>One other thing to consider: schools gear their curriculum to children based on their ages so when your child is accelerated, he is being given a curriculum designed for older students. Make sure you are ok with this. I bring this up because we had friends whose daughter was accelerated in elementary school English and the mother was very upset about the lit selections. I can’t imagine that one year would make a difference, but once you’re talking about 2-4 years, it could be a cause for concern. (In the case I know, the child was told she would have to read The Diary of Anne Frank and she was in about 3rd or 4th grade. Mom was quite upset over this.)</p>
<p>Please consider contacting Davidson Young Scholars. This is a free program that offers consulting services and community for profoundly gifted students and their parents.</p>
<p>[Davidson</a> Young Scholars](<a href=“http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/]Davidson”>Davidson Young Scholars for the Highly Gifted | Gifted Program)</p>
<p>Rotary Exchange is a program through Rotary International to study abroad during high school (age 15 and up). You can contact the local Rotary Club or go to the website for Rotary International (Rotary dot org). </p>
<p>Rotary does quite a bit of work to keep the costs down to airfare and a few fees. Our local Rotary strongly encourages the parents to become a host family. Many clubs even include some allowance funds, ie money for movies, day trips.</p>
<p>Another thought – If your high school offers so many AP course, would the high school permit him to take an extra year? Our public school will not, but it is worth looking into.</p>
<p>You are facing an issue other parents of gifted kids have faced. You may want to check out Hoagies Gifted on Facebook. Hoagies has a website, but the FB group has a strong and immediate exchange of info.</p>
<p>I skipped 3 years and went to college at 15. My sister skipped four and also went to Simons Rock. I would say that it was one of the worst things for us. Yes, we could handle the school work and yes we were mature. But being mature does not mean you have the skill set to deal with college. I erroneously believed that being mature meant the I could handle college situations. Also, there is something to be said for learning to cope with being bored. As an adult, there is still boring work that has to be done. As an adult, I often struggle with the mundane. I still carry the notion that if a task is boring, I should not have to do it. That mentality is the largest obstacle I have in my life…</p>
<p>I skipped 3rd grade and could easily have graduated from high school a year early – at that time, it was quite easy to schedule classes in a way that would make this possible, and a substantial number of the top kids in each class did it (including my sister and my best friend). But I chose not to because I didn’t want to be two years younger than the crowd in college.</p>
<p>Being even one year younger than your classmates can sometimes be a problem – and it’s hard to predict when. The person you are at the age when you skip a year is not the person you will be a year, or two years, or five years later. At some points, your chronological age or social development may put you out of sync with your classmates, even if your academic development does not. </p>
<p>For your son, I would be especially concerned about dating. Girls mature earlier than boys, and it’s common for them to date boys a year or two older. Your son is already a year younger than his female classmates. If he skips again, he’s two years younger. What 16-year-old girl would feel comfortable dating a 14-year-old boy? </p>
<p>Besides, skipping doesn’t solve the problem of academically talented kids being bored in school. Most catch up within a year or so and are bored again.</p>
<p>The truth is being gifted or having a gifted child is no gift!</p>
<p>Our son skipped 6th grade and by all accounts seemed “mature” had lots of friends in the older grade etc…At the time it seemed like a great idea, in hindsight I wish I had looked into other options. He did well academically ended up getting into all top schools etc but socially and emotionally we saw a change. He was an athlete but with his younger age, he was now competing with kids physically bigger and stronger than he was. In middle school maturity is one thing by the time they get to high school its a much bigger deal, puberty, dating, drugs and alcohol all come into play. Can’t imagine sending an 11 year old into 8th grade. My son never did get involved in the “bad” things, graduated from High School and went to a top college but he said in hindsight he wished he had just done a bunch of independent study, college courses, summer challenge stuff, etc rather than skipping. He felt that it really affected his self confidence. Now that he is in college he is great with his peers but there were some rough years in High School until he caught up maturity wise. You only have 18 years don’t push him out of the nest too soon!</p>
<p>Is it possible for him to take classes at a higher level but not actually move up? I know in our school, kids like your son take some classes at the high school but are still considered 7th or 8th graders. I know of a few middle school kids that took advanced math and science classes at the high school, one actually took AP Calc BC as a 7th grader and then moved into the college level classes at the state U as an 8th grader but still ended up graduating on time with his age mates. </p>
<p>If the school thinks he is mature enough to move ahead though, I would respect their opinions too. Maybe explore some other options if you aren’t comfortable but despite what a lot of people think, the school teachers and administrators do know what they are talking about and don’t recommend things like this lightly.</p>
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<p>I disagree. </p>
<p>I think that school administrators are primarily focused on the immediate problem – a student who is obviously bored or otherwise unhappy because of a lack of academic challenge – rather than the long-term implications. The student will be out of their hands by the time long-term issues arise.</p>
<p>I don’t think that teachers and administrators are deliberately insensitive. But I do think they are uninformed. How would that middle school principal know whether a child whom he allowed to skip 7th grade a few years ago is doing well in high school and college or is having a miserable experience?</p>
<p>Marian–how does a middle school principal know if their 8th grader, that is age appropriately an 8th grader is going to do well down the road…</p>
<p>I really don’t think that the school administration is uninformed. In our district anyway, those administrators have many years of experience working with kids, most have PhD’s in their fields, have worked with 1000’s of kids over the years and are more than qualified to make that assessment–MUCH more qualified than any parent can make of their own child. We don’t see our children in the academic setting. We don’t really know what they are like in school, around their classmates, etc. They are far different people there then they are at home most of the time. The fact that the administration is concerned about his social development is very telling that they are looking at the whole picture.</p>
<p>Also, at least around here, the schools keep tabs on graduates. Surveys are sent out evaluating all kinds of things like how long they took to graduate from college, what was their college experience, how well did they think they were prepared for college, etc. Most better schools/districts do this. Schools don’t operate in a bubble. They are fully aware of how they are preparing their students for life after high school.</p>
<p>Skipping is the easy route for the school. To actually challenge and provide a meaningful education within the grade would mean they would have to expend resources. Of course that is what they offer, it in in their best interest NOT necessarily your child’s</p>
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<p>I’m not HPuck, obviously, but I can tell you that this fall my daughter will be a freshman at MIT at 16. She’s already met two others on the MIT FB group (a male and a female) who will also be 16. They had a little phone-a-thon back in the winter for students who were accepted EA, and the current student (male) who called her had also started at 16. He’s now a junior, I think, and has had a great experience. It’s not unheard of. </p>
<p>It was the right thing for us to allow the dual grade acceleration (she skipped from 2nd to 4th grade when she was 7), but it certainly isn’t for everyone. She’s been cyber schooled since 6th grade, which has worked very well for her. If you do decide to allow it, be sure to have a thick skin. We’ve had to deal with a ton of second guessing and people giving us wide eyed looks when they learn of her situation. They talk behind our backs, too. They assume we’re going to “force” our younger children to “rush” ahead, which we’re not. The other kids are taking a much more typical educational journey. </p>
<p>What’s interesting is that everyone who knows her best - friends, teachers, mentors - absolutely think she is ready for college. There was no dissent. She’s been doing college at a local LAC as a dual enrolled student for two years, and my dh, who teaches there, thinks she has had more emotional maturity and college-level work ethic than his freshman since she was 12. College readiness is about MUCH MORE than academic prowess.</p>
<p>Best wishes on your decision.</p>
<p>My husband’s roommate was not quite 16 when he started Harvard. I never realized how young he was. He had a girlfriend by junior year. (Same time dh found me plenty of guys don’t date right away.) Skipping for some kids is the best of not perfect solutions, for others there may be other ways to go. My oldest skipped ahead in math and science, but graduated with his class. We were always having problems with his high school schedule because he had an atypical line up of classes.</p>
<p>I graduated from high school at 16, but took a year off before starting college. (Spent it in France achieving language fluency.) I never had any issues about being young in high school and I don’t think I would have in college either.</p>
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<p>SteveMA, I think you have WAY too much faith in the system. </p>
<p>But I think this is a point on which we’re going to have to agree to disagree. I don’t think either of us will convince the other of our viewpoints.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recomend grade skipping- Done it with my S(he skipped 4th grade), but see that it is not worth it. As one post suggested, skipping the grade is teh easiest route the school can take, Actually finding the programs to challenge him is the hardest part.
Each child may be different- so you really have to look at your child’s need. But if i get to do it all over again- i will be finiding programs that challenges my S than let him skip a grade.</p>
<p>As one poster suggested it- It is like adult life coming in too quickly…There is so much to do in high school, academically and exracurriular activities. I wish i had known what the high school has to offer then! I grew up outside USA and so did my H, So we only thought what my S needed at that moment. He is fine academically and socially fitting in the group too. Luckly, he doesn’t worry about teh drivers license he can not get yet. he is a junior. But, the otehrday, when we watched him play volleyball in his school JV team, myself and H regreted that we made the decision to skip the grade. So far S has not told us any thing about this-</p>
<p>I would opt for subject acceleration where appropriate, online classes to supplement where the school’s curriculum runs short (like Stanford’s EPGY) and then intense summer programming to provide challenge (CTY, Duke TIP, EPGY summer camp).
The students who get to do the most interesting things in high school, like independent research, are subject accelerated (so they have the necessary curriculum) but not by grade (so they have enough time to achieve something meaningful).</p>
<p>Or Marion, some of us do have good systems in which we can place our faith…I know our administrators at the middle and high school level personally as their children are classmates of our children and we socialize and have had a lot of interaction with our district superintendent. They are all also parents of students in our school system and I do trust their opinions and value their years of experience and expertise. It’s sad that not everyone can have that.</p>
<p>I have not read every post on this thread. </p>
<p>My daughter went to college at 16 and for her, it was the right thing. She is now 23. </p>
<p>She entered K early. She very much needed to do so and was evaluated closely when that happened. We talked about skipping 6th grade which the school brought up, but at the time felt she had already “skipped” once and did not end up doing it. We had lots of accommodations made for our kid throughout her schooling. In middle school, she did take some classes in the high school and so on. However, our D came to us in 10th grade and begged to graduate a year early (after junior year) and she made a good case and did that and so she skipped senior year basically instead of 6th grade as it turned out. Her teachers and GC were all for it. </p>
<p>In her case, her rationale went beyond academics and intellectual development. She was also ready socially and always had older friends and was a leader amongst older kids throughout her schooling and even in college. It sounds to me that your son is not just academically advanced but also socially. I think that is key. And the educators seem to think this would be a good placement. Yes, there are other solutions but I do think skipping is a possible one for the right kids and your son may be that kid. My D was. Yes, others may scoff at it but anyone who truly knows my D, knows this was what she needed to do. We followed our D’s lead and now that she has been through with education, we see she did the right thing for HER. She graduated college at 20 and it went wonderfully. She is a girl and so it may be different for a boy. People don’t realize her true age, including her friends/peers. It mostly arises when it is her birthday and her real age comes up.</p>
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<p>But not physically. And I don’t think you can anticipate how he will feel when he is still physically a child but his classmates are men.</p>