Just received a spot at a public school for the HG (99%+). Entered the lottery last spring out of frustration with current school which tracked my student as average, leading to anxiety of frustration by my student. Here’s the glitch — I would have pulled the studentin a heartbeat last spring. But, this fall, the student has risen to middle school and was able to test into a higher math class (his passion) and engage us some extracurriculars that are exciting (robotics, mathletes). It’s been the smoothest start to the school year in years. However, the current private school does not buy into acceleration and emphasizes achievement over intellect. Do I switch the student to the HG school? The HG school allows for individual acceleration (so they advertise) but has no extracurriculars or electives or my student’s friends. Long term, academically, it’s a far better fit. It’s a far better fit simply because they understand kids like my student (asynchrony, etc) and it would also provide opportunities/exposure to things like standardized testing (important for a student with performance anxiety). It’s also FREE! I think the thing that is troubling me the most is that I don’t think I’ll get the buy in from my kid and my kid will be unhappy. And if the whole point of this is to find an environment in which my child will thrive, maybe it’s not the right choice to pull my student from the current school?!?! Of course the new school is putting tons of pressure on us to decide tomorrow. And of course they won’t let us visit during the school day to see what the student body and classes are like (I am very curious about behavioral issues and dual diagnoses and how that manifests in the classroom only because I have a sensitive kid who will be overwhelmed by this and I’d also like to know more about the teachers).
