DD8 is a social creature who craves lots and lots of friends (not a lot of luck on that front, though), so we've given school every opportunity.
pre-K: Highly successful. Teacher and DD bonded, and teacher said, "I have nothing to teach her," but found ways to differentiate for her that kept DD engaged and included while celebrating her strengths. For instance, DD took over the reading during story time.
K: Abysmal failure, DD was yanked out and homeschooled after 2 mos. School rejected all our suggestions, decided on differentiation in class, then didn't differentiate. Our DD was bullied by the teacher to keep quiet so the other kids could learn. The tipping point was when DD, who had written beautifully since before she started pre-K, declared, "I don't know how to write an M." Her work output had been growing increasingly sloppy.
1: DD back in public school, now eligible for gifted program. Not a successful year, though she managed to last the entire year. The 90-min G/T pull-out taught 1-3, almost all 3rd graders (DD was the only 1st grader), and no differentiation was made, so she felt like a failure there. Meanwhile, everything in home room was chaotic, as she had the class where all the troublesome kids were stored. Differentiation in there was promised, but was spotty at best. DD began developing some rather alarming personality traits.
2: DD lasted a month before we yanked her out this time for homeschooling. Her home room teacher made no effort to differentiate for her, and was hostile to DD's requests for any. G/T class material was looking less like education and more like enrichment... but she was supposed to be getting these classes for math and language arts, which sorta implies there should be some education in there somewhere. DD's homeschooling involved identifying and addressing all the gaps that had developed, then accelerating her through material until she'd completed all 3rd grade requirements. Before any of this could be done, DD had to be restored to her previous levels of self-confidence and love of learning.
4: Going back to school again, because apparently we're slow learners. Different scenario again... G/T is longer in 4th grade (half the day), so you'd figure it has to be more than just enrichment, plus we've effected the grade skip the school always passive-aggressively refused to consider. Wish us luck.
