Now that school has started here's an update.
All is well. My son--a high school sophomore--is taking four APs, chemistry, physics, statistics, and US history, in addition to getting credit for an independent math study with a private tutor in linear algebra and multivariate calculus.
He even has to take two courses as independent studies because of scheduling conflicts.
This will set him up well to take some courses at the local Ivy ( tuition free! through a special local city-university program).
It helps that the high school principal is fully supportive, in part because he has a solid record: a 5 on the calc ap, a perfect score on an international Latin competiton, being first in a regional math competiton.
I'm back posting this to demonstrate that some of these school struggle stories can have a happy ending even if they appear Sysyphean at the start.
It will be interesting to see if this schedule will be a real challenge. So far academics have been quite easy for him. I wonder how he will react to having to work hard--something that hasn't been necessary for him up to now. I wonder if that's a common issue for gifted kids--not having the experience of how to work hard when they confront academics that are challenging for the first time. If not this year, maybe next when he plans to take a math course that could require 20 hours per week on problem sets.
Incidentally, the principal asked if he's thinking about graduating high school early. I said our goal has always been for him to remain with his social peers as long as he could be challenged at his intellectual level. He does well socially and likes playing lacrosse and the trombone in the band After all, skipping from the 4th to the 6th grade, for example, would not have been a challenge but having a tutor in math back then met his need better.
But now that he's in high school, it's a valid question about considering early college as a meaningful move, intellectually. On the other had, he may become a de facto college student as a high school junior and senior, given his opportunity to take courses at the local university.
