How happy are you with your gifted child's school experience

[kathymuggle]

Multiple answers allowed for people with more than one gifted child.

[mom2ponygirl]

We've tried school for dd. It wasn't horrible but it just wasn't great. We've found homeschooling not to be perfect, but significantly better given our local school choices.

[JollyGG]

Honestly my answer tends to depend on the day of the week and what's going on right then. I think overall my son's schooling situation is the best I can find for him of the currently available options. He's at a school where they want to do what's best and are willing to put effort forth to figure it out.

But they still often don't quite get it. Despite being a gifted school they still sometimes fall into the same traps that non-gifted schools fall into of not totally understanding asynchronous behaviors and sometimes believing things that aren't evidence based (such as grade skipping stereotypes).

But, I'll keep working on education and improving things.

Most of the time I'm fairly satisfied. For the past several weeks the school has been floundering to figure out how to deal with some of my son's asynchrouies and I feel are making some mistakes that are making the issues worse not better so right now my answer wouldn't be real positive.

[annettemarie]

A major reason we're homeschooling is that the school fell way short of meeting our son's needs. The gifted program was a joke and the regular classwork was mainly teaching for the PSSA exams. They would only "let" him go 2 reading levels above everything else, which was ridiculous when he was a third grader testing at a 12+ level. On top of this, he had some pretty intense anxiety issues, and come of the teachers almost seemed to think it was funny to play into them. For example, one teacher said to him "I almost want to give you a pink slip just to see what you would do" which freaked him out for weeks.

For the most part, the teachers tried thier best. I know their hands were tied by school policy, state standards and testing, and NCLB. But they weren't meeting his needs and it felt unfair and unrealistic to expect them to change what they were doing just to cater to him, especially when I had the means and desire to school him at home.

He's been home for three years now and we couldn't be happier. He's really thriving and I'm thrilled with his progress. He still participates in the school strings program and is at the middle school almost every day for orchestra, lessons, and fiddle group (a special small ensemble he's in).

[eclipse]

We sent ds to school for two years. It was a great school, and one some gifted kids could thrive in. (In fact, I'm sure dd would have done great there) It was not a good fit for DS, and I can't really imagine any school being. So, we're homeschooling due, in part, to school concerns. We're actually hsing through a charter school that has classes one day a week - and that's going great for both of my older kids. (My younger one, too, but he doesn't seem to be gifted in a traditional sense). Neither one are really learning anything academically, but dd is a very social kid and it's a good outlet for her. DS1 is the opposite of social (anti-social has too many bad connotations ) and one day a week of being in a room with lots of loud kids is about all he can handle - but it gives him social experience that I really think he needs. Plus, they have a chess club, so he can get his geek on a bit, and he's able to teach some of the other kids a bit of the programming he's into - which, again, gives him an opportunity to be social in a way that makes sense to him.

[mamazee]

My dd has some differentiation in the classroom, is sent out of her class to another grade for some things, and is in a gifted pull-out program that she absolutely loves one day a week. Generally, it's great, but there are still little annoyances. Like the other day, she was doing some classroom work, and finished the page and saw there was other stuff on the back side, so she did that too, and as she was finishing the teacher told the class not to do the back of the page. She turned it in and tried to apologize for doing the back of the page, but the teacher got upset with her for not following directions and didn't really give her a chance to explain.

[MJB]

My son started K early (will be 5 next month) and is in a great private school. We are moderately happy, because he likes it and is doing well, but he is not being challenged so it's not a permanent solution. We're thinking he'll need to go to a gifted program/school or skip another grade. We have to decide whether to switch to Montessori next year which would mean he could be in a 1st-3rd grade classroom, or keeping him at his current school which has higher academic standards but he'd be in a 1st grade only classroom (or possibly 2nd, but I don't think we're quite ready for that).

[straighthaircurly]

I answered 50/50. I am happy with the structure of the school day and the year round schedule. I love the teachers and I think they have gotten to know and understand DS very well. The reading/literacy work has been meeting his needs for the most part although he should be doing much more challenging spelling and vocab. Math has been my big issue this year. Last year the teacher had him and some other students working at least a grade up in curriculum and gave them math notebooks where they could do open ended exploration of math concepts and problems. This year they spent 5 weeks on the first unit of reviewing really basic addition. But I am working with the teacher to come up with better options. She has started sending home higher level homework but the in class work is still all grouped together.

[carmel23]

right now we are very happy, but it isn't always like that, and I feel like we've 'earned' this, if you know what I mean.

We're in public Montessori charter, with really dedicated teachers.

[Linda on the move]

My kids attend a private alternative school, and it's amazing. I don't talk about it too much because it just sounds like bragging.

[ollyoxenfree]

I marked very happy because my dc are very happy.

The poll results are interesting. I've always wondered if studies that compare homeschooling to public schooling are skewed because there is a high proportion of gifted children being homeschooled. There are homeschooled children who are at the other end of the spectrum, but I suspect parents may be more likely to send them to school for access to support services. It would be useful to know if the homeschooling distribution curve is skewed toward the gifted range.

[emmaegbert]

We lucked into an awesome brand new school and our son is just thriving. We're thrilled and so is he.

[bec]

I voted 50/50.  Only because I am taking the district as a whole.  Last year was an unmitigated disaster.  They promised things, wouldn't follow through, we would go in and discuss/complain/and eventually threaten, lather rinse repeat.  We finally were able to bully them into allowing a grade skip (they were very clearly not in favor of this), and this year has been a breath of fresh air.  She is in 2nd in a 2/3 split class, and is doing 3rd grade work.  We haven't had to advocate even once for her to get more challenging work.  If the content is a little easy, the teacher goes into a higher level of thinking to go in depth on the subject.  She has no problem accelerating the work.  The kids are supposed to have fast math facts quizzes throughout the year.  It was intended that the children start on addition, and move their way through multiplication.  DD has done enough of them, that the teacher has tabled her fast math quizzes for later in the year when new content is introduced.  She's doing other things instead, like working on algebraic concepts, multi stage story problems, logic puzzles, etc.  Things that are making her take these math concepts and really apply them, showing her true understanding of them. 

It feels like we've gone from one extreme to another in the last few years!

[SubliminalDarkness]

My son is in his third school. (One for K, one for 1st, and the current one for 2nd and now 3rd). Kindergarten was a great experience, even though there was no gifted program specifically. His teacher and assistant were awesome and really worked to help DS stay stimulated. It worked. He had a blast and learned soooo much.

1st grade was also good. Again, no specific gifted program, but he was in an advanced reading program and his academics were supplemented by the teacher. 

2nd grade, again, no gifted program. But he was challenged in other ways, and was tested for GT.

This year, 3rd, he's in the GT program. One day a week he goes to a different school where they only do GT. It's not academics, its lots of stimulating, imaginative activities and he LOVES it! 

[loraxc]

I voted 50/50. The school has many great qualities and this year DD seems to be pretty happy, but the differentiation they've provided isn't much at all. It could be worse, however, and her teacher is open to our concerns and suggestions. If we stay at this school, we'll have to see how next year (when gifted pull-out officially begins) will go.

[moominmamma]

We waited until high school to try school (homeschooling until that point). My dd has had a pretty amazing experience with big-picture thinking and flexibility from the school officials. Last week I was at a meeting she had with the guidance counsellor where the idea was to take her part-time homeschooling part-time schooling and turn it into enough credits for her to finish all the graduation diploma requirements a year early. And it was deftly done, fully validating all the incredible reading, writing, violin and choral music, part-time employment and travel learning she's done beyond the walls of the school. Waiting until high school has allowed her to get subject acceleration without needing to be pulled out of a regular classroom or given differentiation. The availability of on-line and independent-study courses has allowed her to set her own timetable and get the out-of-school enrichment that serves her music and travel passions. 

The idiotic basic courses required for a graduation diploma in our province are still a pain. Phys. Ed. assignments every week, the touchy-feely project-based Canadian history course, the "Career & Personal Planning" course that is so babyish ("discovering your interests?" sheesh!). She's mopping up all of those this semester and the busy-work is nuts. But in general she has been able to make the school system work for her, rather than the other way around, using it as a place to document and validate learning that she enjoys doing, both within the school and (especially) without.

So I voted "mildly/moderately happy." 

School would never have worked for her prior to 10th grade, though.

Miranda