Y My question to you - is there anyway you can tell if a private school is just for hothouse-types, maybe parents who want to pay big money to say their kids are in a gifted school? This private school in our area is very expensive. I looked at the kindergarten curriculum and it is well advanced beyond what public schools offer - but it is still stuff that my 3 year old is learning now (like fractions). So I'm really questioning if this is truly a gifted school, or just a school for bright kids with wealthy parents. Any red flags I can look for? The IQ cutoff is 125, which doesn't seem as high as I would expect.
Thanks again!
You have to remember that LOG is an emerging concept. Most schools don't believe that there are subcatagories of 'gifted' so they expect all kids to thrive in the 125 and over category. I think it's because IQ tests aren't created to sort kids over 125 very effectively. Now if you find a school that does all it's Math for each grade at the same time so that it can sort the kids by 'readiness' or ability, and it's normal for kids to wiggle up and down the hall at Math time, and maybe Reading time too, then you know you have a place that doesn't see Giftedness as a unitary adjective.
If they don't do that, they might just be lucky to be flexible - ask, how long since you had a child who needed to be placed in a room with older kids for all or part of the day. How did that go?
I wouldn't even bother asking about enrichment because all the schools will claim that they are doing that already, and it's impossible to tell. One teacher may do a great job and the next year you are paying the big bucks and it's almost a bad joke. Looking on the shelves to see what books are in the room, and observing the classroom is what makes the difference. If the school has a 1st grade classroom with 'Harry Potter' on the shelf, then you know it's going to be ok.
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Smiles,
Grinity
