OK, In the endless hunt for appropriate academic options for DD, I've spoken to a couple of what I call boutique schools. Basically, these are very small, non accredited, admit based on IQ, etc. Here are the reasons we never considered these schools:
1. They were started by a single parent or small group of parents who were sick of not having anywhere for their smart kids to learn. Sounds nice, but my concern was that the school was created for those specific gifted kids and not lots of different kinds of gifted kids.
2. The schools didn't have a history of longevity. I got the feeling that I'd never feel secure from year to year whether the financials would work out and the school could keep running. It's one thing to leave a school that isn't working. It's another to have to shut down a school at any moment.
3. DD was also on the boundary of grade and middle school and, surprisingly, these schools seemed very unprepared to deal with older kids. Like it's all smart fun and games for the little ones, but what happens when you need algebra or middle school LA or whatever (which can be years earlier than expected). I found this lack of planning, disturbing (the one guarantee at a school is that your client base will get older with time).
Basically, I got the feeling that some mom with energy and time decided to build the perfect school for her little kid, and got other kids' families to pay to be a part of the kid's peer group.
This is a really valuable perspective. Thank you so much for sharing it, Ivy!
