I think that my perspective is driven by two or three things: 1) at the point dd skipped (last yr of elementary), we were getting close enough to the point where it "mattered" that we weren't willing to risk having her be placed at a point where she was not going to be a top student, 2) my dd has processing speed issues that make placing her at the level she can work a challenge b/c she probably could not have handled any more quantity and higher level is coupled with quantity at least where I live, and 3) no, I don't think that I'd place a child at the highest level s/he could work in all subjects.
The main reason I say the last piece is that, for us, the point of the skip was not to push her to her fullest extent but rather to have her need to work some so we didn't wind up with a kid who graduated high school thinking that all she needed to do was grace the school system with her presence to get straight As. We wanted her to have to work some in some area and, for her, that area of learning to work was by getting her into one class (her weakest area) where she was accelerated as much as she needed to be and would need to work to get an A some years and b/c the quantity itself developed work ethic.
Agreed. I also like Kaibab's remarks above. It is VERY individual.
And also noting that the three-category descriptors completely misses some kids entirely. My DD fits
none of those categories. She's simply not externally motivated. Ever-- so 'push' parenting, as described by 2 or 3 either one is simply a non-starter. We have to turn up the heat to get her to crank through the stuff that she is
more than capable of... but sees as a complete and total waste of her time and energy (and mostly, she's right about that).
As Cricket notes, it's often not clear
what the actual working level of a child like this is-- because you so seldom get their complete buy-in on evaluations of said working level, and because they may really prefer to work at a level that feels "effortless" even in enrichment activities... and how much of that is perfectionism... chicken, egg, rinse, repeat.
One thing which we found quite telling has been that additional challenges have been adapted to with mind-boggling ease. We were a bit concerned about the 3rd acceleration (in high school), but in retrospect, shouldn't have been. She's managed that one every bit as handily as going into 3rd grade as a 6yo. It would be easy to look at
current working level and make assumptions on that basis. But there's no easy way to predict whether or not a particular child will relish the challenge and triumphantly conquer it (and
then what, really? What do you do for the next act at that point??), or will decide that it's now "too hard" and that they are unhappy.
We simply have no idea what "throttle wide open" looks like, other than a few glimpses here and there. We certainly haven't wanted to put DD into a situation where that was
required of her routinely, though, because that didn't seem appropriate for her given her relative youth. She
needs to have the ability to be flakey, since she is at an age where that is completely appropriate. On the other hand, as Cricket notes, we also didn't want school to be
effortless. Definitely NOT.
We settled for 97th percentile and up across all but one domain... but that, too, is a moving target. Within a year of each placement shift, that was usually back at 99th again, and the weak domain was edging from 85th+ up toward 95th+.
I think that is how you decide, honestly. Our thought process has been much like Cricket's.
