Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Gifted schools - Are they only for the wealthy?

If you want to maximize systemic control of the institution, ideally you want your parent to be the superintendent of the school district or principal of the school you are attending.

We've spent a lot of time thoroughly looking at the "top" private (and public) schools for Mr W in the area. We've met a lot of parents and know many of the kids at these schools. Most of the parents are professionals - physicians, lawyers, nurses, IT types, and small business owners. They live in modest homes and put most of their money into educating their kids. Are they wealthy? I doubt if most have a net worth over 500K.

Sure, a handful of families do have significant net worth. These are the "wealthy." They are the primary sources for the heavy endowments at the schools so that poorer kids can attend and they sit on the boards and oversee the policy changes so this can occur. Without their support many of the professionals could not send their kids either.

As part of looking at schools, I have done an analysis of their costs to try to figure out what I am paying for should Mr W and the Womb Raider attend one. And whether its really worth it given the alternatives. At its simplest, a class is one teacher and 15 kids. If the teacher makes 60K a year and the burden taken from private industry of 50% is added, then the cost of the class is around 90K. Divide by 15 and that is 6K per kid per year. Which is in line with many public school districts.

So, what is that 16K to 30K a year really buying? What are they really selling? From what we have found, parents' reasons for privates vary widely.

But, think of the private tutoring one could buy for that!! Or the month long summer trips abroad with a college prof doing real history!

Don't get me wrong. Many of the privates are phenomenal schools. But many top publics do just as well or even better if you dig down into other things like the AMC tests and science competitions. (But many parents hire tutors whose kids go to publics..)

The real draw of privates for GT kids and their parents is that the privates are much more flexible and tend to have a concentration of GT kids. And the teachers are carefully chosen. And the environment is conducive to learning. For parents who are of limited means, a top private school on a full ride is something to really consider.

I find it strange that anyone would want to ban private schools. At its root, an autodidact spending hours every day at the library is a private school. So is homeschooling. Church is a form of private school. Books are a form of private school. Two people discussing something are a private school.

So, to conclude, at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, what is a school? What am I trying to teach my kids? What is the end goal? I think that the answers to these questions, no matter your means, should then drive your choices.

I can only speak about California schools here.

In my area of this state (Bay area), the public schools are basically atrocious. The courses are watered down (see our recent discussion about geometry textbooks), the teachers and principals that I've encountered are mostly not really well-qualified, and the schools are poorly run. Add to this our ridiculous budget deficit and you get a disaster of superficial teaching.

In contrast, the private schools tend to be better-run and the teachers are better qualified and more responsive to gifted kids. They don't truncate the school year, either. We send our kids to private schools because we had no choice. Our eldest skipped two grades thanks to private schools. My DD7 skipped kindergarten because the staff at the private school said that it was "obviously the right choice." Yet the principals of the local public schools all told me that they are generally against grade skips. My eldest is in a charter this year (complicated reasons why) that advertises itself as being all about math and science, yet his math teacher believes "there's no such thing as a mathy mind" and teaches basic, superficial geometry at a snail's pace. Other courses (to be fair, not all of them) lack depth and go for memorization of facts without delving much into ideas. Etc.

Private schools aren't perfect. We've had our share of frustrations with them. But they don't compare to the frustrations we've had over the last few months with the charter school. YMMV. I know there are great public schools and woeful private ones. I wish I could send all my kids to public schools. I really do.


Yes, but think of how miserable your kids will be for 7 hours a day in the wrong school. I'm NOT saying that private schools are better! I know nothing of schools in your area.

I'm just saying that you might want to be careful about thinking that tutoring or summer trips can solve a problem that your child deals with all day, five days a week, in school. As only one example, what if he has a ton of busywork as homework and teacher won't exempt him from doing it (a real possibility)? He might be too tired for tutoring after doing a sheet of 30 6+8 type problems when he's doing 6587/124. Summer trips are great in July, but they can't cure what happens during, say, November, when there are still months and months to go until that magical day in June (or May, as the case is around here).

We're in MA where there is no state mandate for gifted programs or schools. My eg/pg son has been in two private gifted schools. One of them cost $12K; the other one costs $16K.

I've found that the vast majority of students who have attended these private gifted schools are definitely NOT wealthy. In fact, most parents struggle to pay the tuition or receive a partial reduction (1/3 off). Many parents are teachers, librarians, computer programmers, lawyers, shopkeepers, or work a couple of jobs to pay the tuition and other bills. I only saw one or two parents driving a newer Porsche; most parents had old, beat up cars. One parent told me she drove a school bus and cleaned when her son attended one of the private gifted schools! In our situation, my parents have helped us pay the tuition.

Usually parents end up sending their kids to these private gifted schools because their children are gifted and/or have attentional issues and/or have struggled in the public schools. The parents knew the public schools in MA wouldn't accommodate their kids. This is one of the reasons why we decided to place our son in the private gifted school.

Saying this, these private gifted schools (I think most private gifted schools) are aimed at MG/HG kids and not long-term solutions for the EG/PG kid, but this may vary depending on the school and situation.

My neighbor, who was a close friend of my parents and who had a son in my grade who was a friend of mine, was the district superintendent when I was going to school, and it was generally remarkably easy for my mom to get things done at my schools after the first time she called his number from memory in a principal's office...

I agree with this. From what I have seen, the PG kids max out the STEM side by 9/10 grade if not sooner. But at least they find peers and teachers who respect them at these privates.


I agree Val and this is a great point. I was thinking more about the home school side of things. The psychological effect of the right surroundings are really profound for kids.

I've heard things like, to make a good citizen & educated population, to contribute to society, to earn more money/better retirement, to contribute to society/humanity..
Gr8 ideas..every one of them.

I would add that I'm a reverse unschooler. �I want my kids to "follow their bliss", pursue their passions. �But for life. �

Looking @ schooling options ATM. �One private gifted school, child led, robotics, chess, drama. �Gifted grown-ups as teachers. �Mentions SENG.
Benefit: �the video shows all the kids in the class eagerly participating, raising their hands with answers.
Cons: the parent reviews shows the four year olds parents are happy because it's not divided by age but by ability, but the 8-10 year olds, not so much. �It's too loosey goosey and the gifted achievers are consistantly getting bored after a certain age.

One charter school (not here, but we have close family there) has a rigorous classroom. �Some parents complain that they expect first graders to read worksheets & follow directions. �They have art, computer, orchestra, everything the other schools are cutting out. �The rigor is at an advanced pace, not MOTS. �Happy, healthy kids, right.

I'd teach the kiddos up to a solid sixth grade level of output, if I was a homeschooler, then start passing the responsibility to them to pursue an education, believing that I had ignited the fire that they will pursue an education. �That's what's in my heart anyway. �

Am seriously thinking about "the right environment". �I'm meeting a lot of the kids who are one year younger than my late birthday kid. �They're great for playing tag, chase, forts, swords... But for school?! �Zomg. �
Ah, why not? �I'm probably taking it all too seriously anyway. �

So there's a few different takes on "what's an education for.". The one school fosters nerd culture, self-esteem, an the pursuit of your own thing. �One school is a high ability magnet, for those that think "education makes kids smarter" and ability groups to speed up the pace, deepen the approach, and reduce MOTS. �And the other school is the local school and they believe parents send children to school. �Kids go to school. �That's what school's for.

Side note: the argument against the vouchers is that the involved parents in the community will bail, rather than pushing for school reform. Here's my pet peeve. Why should the involved parents have to be pushing?! Why hinder high achievers? (still po'd for being denied early entry to pre-k this year when my kid would have almost fit better).

OP, private schools are not really for the wealthy. Most private schools are for the religious and they're to cut down on bad influences. I had a single mom. I usually went to private schools. There's usually only one or two kids in each class rich enough to own a pony.

This sounds good, except that most private schools will just turn right around and raise their tuition by $9000.

Being unaffordable is kinda the point of many private schools. If they were affordable, then anyone could go there. <shudder>

First you have to ask yourself, what is the purpose of humanity? What is the purpose of parenthood?

Then you can get to the school question, school being a subset of the human experience in general and parenthood in particular.

I have thought the same before about schools for the gifted and/or independent private schools. However, I believe very strongly that the public school systems should be required to provide schools for the highly gifted. I don't even have a highly gifted child, but I still feel strongly about this. These children truly require and deserve a learning environment that serves their needs, as is required by law on the other end of the spectrum. These are our future leaders, inventors, the ones who can solve the problems (potentially)! In my school district, we have a school for special needs/special education that draws people from hundreds of miles away due to it's reputation. Wouldn't public schools for the gifted do the same? It would be a win/win/win for parents, cities, and society in general. I have gotten away from pointing the finger at the high-tuition private schools, and more toward realizing that our public school systems need to take responsibility on this issue. Getting in front of the school board and voicing opinions to the school boards and city leaders through emails work! Keep advocating for these schools and eventually, hopefully a change will happen!