I've been thinking more since i wrote my last pro-public school post.
Dottie- DS is 12 and in his first year of middle school. He is not grade advanced but is +3 in math and in a gifted cluster 1/3 of the day for reading/language. I was prepared for a bit of a fight when we started middle school, but they took one look at DS's scores and gave us a dream schedule.
bianc85a--I really am not suggesting the public school is the right place for every kid or that there is anything wrong with finding a good fit for you child. You have a place where she is thriving and that is fabulous.
kimca--you make a great point about diversity. I have always lived where the publics schools are where the poor kids go because I have mostly lived in small towns and poor urban areas. I know that is not always the case and that sometimes one actually finds more diversity outside the public schools, so I'll apologize for over generalizing.
tamianne--I agree that I would not keep DS in public school if it were not working just for diversity, especially if he were angry/scared/depressed because I don't want his associations with diverity to by negative.
tamianne and bianc850a--We have not had problems with DS not having his educational needs met or having intellectual peers. It's not that he is especially challenged or that he has any real peers, we just find that there are other ways and places to meet these needs. I have joked that I actually home school, it's just that I consider the public school to be an important part of his curriculum. LOL. We supplement academically and socially after school, on weekends, and over the summer. With the money we save by going to public school, we can afford great summer programs where he is challenged and makes good friends. We travel. We read as a family a lot. He has music lessons and lots of time playing with the neighborhood kids. I also tell DS that he is responsible for his own learning and that he can learn wherever he goes. But I do understand that this works for us partly because of of DS's personality and partly because the schools have been adaptable.
The point I wanted to make in my first post is to encourage people who are still deciding what to do to give public schools a chance. More people than just your child will benefit if your child is able to succeed there. There is more at stake in our educational decisions than just where our child will get the best *academic* education--I think we forget that school isn't just a commodity. That being said, if you try it and it isn't working, then, of course, try something else. I get on my soapbox because I have had 6 of my good friends take their kids from the public schools just because they heard that the high school wasn't very good, even though their kids were in elementary and their kids hadn't had problems. The result has been that I am now the only parent from my son's class (of 100 kids) who regularly volunteers. That's why I get so frustrated!
