I had some great chats with family yesterday at a birthday party; my brother-in-law (quite a smarty himself) was commenting that this is a great time to grow up a girl. I said I didn't think there was a better time (admitting in my head, yes there are still barriers).
I took 6 girl nieces and my daughter to the nearby excellent air and space museum and for the big group photo, asked them to say 'FUTURE ENGINEER!'. They really enjoyed that one; each and everyone of them is smart and most are obviously gifted. All are interested in science, math and just plain old building things. We had a blast.
My mother's story is similar to Austin's, she was excellent at everything she got a chance to do, but those options were limited.
To answer cmac's question, we are not in a place where whole grade acceleration is encouraged at all, but as you get up in higher grades subject accel. becomes an option. Imo, that is great for a moderately gifted child but I have a kid who needs more math in K already, so we are working on differentiating for that specifically, but is has been a struggle. More later as I have to run.
