Thanks for your replies.
@Polar bear. Perhaps I overstated it about the other side of the bell curve, and I've been on the local ARC board. But there is that distinction where gifted children in my state have no statutory right to services, whereas those with developmental challenges do. At least with a child who has challenges, you can say, that he or she has a right to such and such. My child has a right only to an assessment.
We do not see private school as an option. At the local,quite prestigious, private school, there are even more restrictions re AP courses than at our public school.If we lived in my home town, NYC, he would find an ideal school, Stuyvesant, Bronx Science or Brooklyn Tech. AP courses are an option for any student starting at freshman year. And they even have post-AP courses because so many of the kids have taken APs.
I am also biased towards the idea--at least--of the public school as the crucible of a democratic society. We also made a conscious decision to raise our family in the inner city rather than a suburb.Now that our kids are older--they can walk or take public transportation. Many of their suburban friends thinks it's cooler that our kids are in the city.
To a great extent we are meeting our child's needs with a tutor--who is exceptional himself. He has a PhD in math from the local Ivy, and was a medalist in the International Math Olympiad. What's nice about him is that he takes our child's ability for granted, and is credibly able to tell him that he needs to work hard rather than just relying on whatever gifts he has. Whatever happens with the school he will have his tutor to push him at the high level of which he is capable and move him along in math. (Our son wants to be a mathematician, so it's a perfect match.)
As far as the school goes, I'm confident we will work it out. We feel that the AP courses themselves are not ideal. Statistics and the Physics B are not calculus based, so they are actually the equivalent of the courses you would take if you were planning not to be a math or science major. But I'm buying into the statistics because one of his teachers says he will learn to write about mathematics--an important skill. And the physics will be, frankly, easy. My son, from calculus, already knows the Newtonian laws presented at calculus problems.
To a great extent, I'm just venting that it has to be a struggle. Somehow we naively imagined that when he got to high school--with all the APs--he'd be free and clear.
And after the sophomore year, he will be able to take college courses for free--due to a special program--at the local Ivy, although I'm sure we'll be hearing, "Oh, that's too many college courses for a high school junior."
You don't force a violin prodigy to play in the school band. But they want intellectual prodigies to play in the functional equivalent of the school band.
