Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Any PG kids never skipped a grade?

I was skipped and when we moved I was un-skipped.

I felt a great relief when I was skipped. I felt like I could learn again. I enjoyed my classes. When I was skipped I spent a lot more time socializing.

Most of the time when I was unskipped, I just zoned out or snuck books in. Or went to the library to read during lunch. I was so starved for knowledge, I would grab an encyclopedia and read it. Or get a math book down and look for the hard problems. Or I would just daydream. Except for sports, I had little in common with my age peers.

I had run ins with teachers. To the point where I would get up and walk out of school - as early as the 3rd grade. I was reading at a HS senior level by then. I could do any type of arithmetic in my head. And I felt trapped, hungry, and very, very bored.

Eventually I ended up unskipped in a high school that served kids of a local research community. The classes were all honors classes with a torrid pace with high expectations with some bright kids. Everyone in those classes later became MDs, JDs, or PHDs. The program was essentially what you would find today at a top Magnet school. I was very fortunate to land there.

I ran out of classes to take, won just about every writing or math contest, and nearly maxed out all the tests, by the end of the 11th grade.

The short exposure to this rigor and the fact my mother and grandparents indulged my interests, made me what I am as an adult.

In my mind from a formal education perspective, the years from 9 years old to 15 years old, and my last year of high school, were partially or totally wasted.

I do not think you can have a master plan for your kids. Something like that would not have worked for me as my interests waxed and waned. I needed a lot of un-programmed time to discover stuff on my own, too.

In retrospect, if I could design something to fit me or someone like me, I'd move to a district with objective requirements for skips, a supportive staff for GT kids, a GT set of schools, a rigorous Jr High/HS program with AP and/or IB, and then also find tutors in the specific areas I liked the most - creative writing, math, astronomy, and computation.