Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Time to make a change, seeking general advice

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

Kai, what we want from school (a socially, emotionally and academically engaging experience for all children!) and what we can reasonably expect from school is the heart of what we've been struggling with for a while. Whatever step we take next, clearly defining our goals together as a family will be important. Thank you for sharing your experience and for your probing questions. I don't know the answers yet, so we have some thinking to do.

aeh, I think you've summarized the situation in MA perfectly. There are wonderfully enriching opportunities outside of school, and if the school day weren't so long, I wouldn't want to raise a child anywhere else! We love living in an area where a curious family can never be bored. On the other hand, we live in a district that has actively eliminated its enrichment for gifted students, and in general believes that all students succeed in heterogeneously grouped classrooms, full stop. I don't, in theory, disagree with this, except that our experience has left our child disengaged and feeling negative about school - and he's only 7! It's really important that this does not become normal for him.

Unfortunately our district explicitly does not allow part-time public school enrollment, so that will not be an option for us. But you've given us a lot of other options to think over.

pinewood1, thank you for this perspective, and MumOfThree, thank you for the book recommendation.


I think right now, we're going to take advantage of the current school closures to feel out which homeschooling resources might work for us (in the short term). If the schools open up again this year, we'll try to have a conversation with his school about what flexibility they can create to make school a more positive experience. If they remain rigid, then maybe he won't go back this year.

I will also start doing research into small private schools that might have more flexibility than our public school.

Looking back at some things our child has said to us over the past few years, we should have known this day was coming, but it’s been hard to let go of the idea of walking to our neighborhood public school each day.

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Thank you again. I really appreciate all of your thoughts.


Lastly, while we always suspected our child processed things differently than his peers (particularly around language, reading, and ability to focus), we didn't expect him to be quite so gifted. If there are any specific resources you would recommend to help us understand how to best support him, please send them our way! Thank you!