We don't want a grade skip, just a differentiated classroom. The gifted/talented class is a pull-out, and doesn't amount to much. And DS still has to go back to his regular classroom and do the 2 + 2 = 4 stuff.
So I'm curious: Does your child's school allow your DS/DD to do advanced work and skip the stuff their classmates are doing that he/she has already mastered?
Hi Orson,
Glad to see you again!
Here's some vocabulary to help keep things clear:
Subject Acceleration often means that the child physically gets up and walks to a different room where older children are getting instruction at the child's readiness level. So think 'Subject vs. Full Grade Acceleration.'
Curriculum compacting is when a child takes the 'end of unit' test at the beginning of the month and is excused from going over work she already knows. It is very difficult for most teachers to keep track of and requires a lot of extra work on behalf of the teacher, so even if it's promised, it may not happen.
There is a form of Subject Acceleration where the child works independently inside the physical classroom with books or online. Some kids don't mind being ignored in the corner - some can only handle it for brief periods. This leads some parents to do 'partial homeschooling' so that they can do a subject or two at home and the child is excused from all schoolwork in that area.
Sometimes the Gifted Teacher, or other Mentor type can be recruited to teach a subject inside a classroom with 'more depth' to a few of the top readiness level students.
A rule of thumb I've heard is that differentiation can work well if the child is ready to learn material that is within three grades of the classroom average, so one thing that you can do is to figure out where your son's current readiness level is, so that you know what to ask for.
If all you want is for your son not to be subjected to the '2+2' stuff, perhaps you might consider pulling him out of school and not teaching him anything for a few years. He sounds like a self directed learner, so you can assist him if you want to, but there is a case to be made for just getting him out of that situation and not worrying about how much or what he learns for a while. You might want to read up on the philosophy of Unschooling, but I'm suggesting that you take an even lower key approach than that,
IF all you really want is to stop the harm from being done. When my son was in 2nd grade, I really thought that he would be more healthy locked in a closet with a TV and a gaming system while I was at work than attending his local public school where things weren't going well. We did stick it out and 3rd grade was a great year, but still! (hyperbole alert: I never did this,nor came close, nor do I recommend anyone else do this, it just represented how miserable DS looked to me at the time, and how desperate I felt.)
Stealth-schooling?
Love and More Love,
Grinity
A good book on Compacting is Susan Brownmiller's Teaching Gifted Children in a regular classroom.
