FWIW, the "strict" environment that you've described is an astonishingly insightful description of my (late) mother's elementary classroom environment for decades.
Yes, she was a public school teacher, and she generally had between 4 and 10 ADD/ADHD children placed-- by request-- in her classroom at any one time.
Those kids and their parents wound up giving her about a 90% approval rating, and her room was easily the quietest and most "calming" of any in the school. It amazed other teachers, even.
I mention that because sometimes that lower level of stimulation really works for ADD issues, and rather than feeling rigid or harsh, it can wind up feeling really empowering to all of the kids, regardless of ability.
My only concern in that environment would be whether or not such a teacher has a good sense of empathy for HG+ learners and divergent thinking. If so, then it could be nearly ideal.
If not, then it could feel like slow suffocation. My mom was a lot of terrific things as an educator, but sensitive to GT needs she was NOT. She was a terrific teacher for ADD kids who were otherwise typical in terms of grade-level readiness, and even better for those who were struggling as a result of an additional learning challenge...
but HG+ kids found her bafflingly inflexible and intractible, and I strongly suspect that she felt likewise about them.
Such an attitude about gifted kids is likely to be pretty obvious upon brief conversation with teachers-- is there any way that you could chat with the teaching team?
Hmmm, I will have to see about that. I wish I knew which teacher he would have, but they haven't told me yet. I will be advocating for ds to attend the gifted program if he does go to the charter school, although I don't know much about it. I do know it meets one full day per week (every Friday), and the students who go love it. At least I'll have a gifted teacher at the school who hopefully understands the issues faced by gifted students in the regular classroom.
I feel like I'm a bit in the dark. I'm wondering if I can request a meeting over the summer to address all of this. DS will be testing next week for updated achievement testing and cognitive ability (IQ) assessment. We're hoping to also identify any specific learning disabilities. I don't want to have to wait once school begins to have that done. I'm hoping if I can provide the test results/info over the summer, I can get a meeting.
