For me, the stories are helpful. I know they aren't studies...but the studies, by conflating the experiences of lots of different kids, can only give me an average idea of what happens in a skip. Supplementing the studies' general approval of grade skips for HG+ kids with stories about specific people's experience lets me try to think of ways that a skip might or might not work well for my specific child. And hearing about more people's experiences makes me feel less that I'm getting swayed by any one anecdote. Just hearing that studies support the skip makes me feel pushed to skip. Knowing the experiences of family members and close friends, who had what AmyEJ mentioned as problems of decision-making, makes me feel against skipping. The additional stories help me mediate that and decide what I think might be good for my son without feeling either pushed or rejecting without consideration. So I hope more people post - especially if there are stories about men's experiences. My husband tells me all the time that it's harder for a smart boy, and I can't really know what that's like. (though how he'd know what it's like for a smart girl to make the comparison....)
I mentioned my experience on another thread, but to have it here for people searching in future, I was subject-accelerated, mixed-age classroomed, independent studied, pulled out, mentored, talent-searched, and basically pretty happy. The older I got, the more my school let me do what I wanted. I was a comparatively late developer, and really hated that. I felt happier with my age mates and allowed to work independently than I did in classes with people two years older, b/c I felt too out of place socially to enjoy the instruction. (I am perhaps excessively socially oriented - too much thought for other people's opinions). If Hoagie's comparison chart is right, I'd have been an EG/PG kid. My last two years of high school I did not have great teaching in many subjects, but that had to do with the available teachers, not the grade I was at. Good teachers kept me challenged, poor ones didn't. I did a lot of things like AFS that took me out of school for months at a time. I kept myself busy with music, plays, sports, etc. I never dated anyone in my town/school, but I did date people I met at various activities in other towns (or states! which kept my social life pretty tame). I was different, but not picked on.
The pros were, I had time to really enjoy developing non-intellectual talents, as well as plenty of time to pursue my own writing and reading. I was with kids I felt more comfortable with. I did not develop my grade-skipped mother, BIL, and friends' apparently life-long social anxiety. I got into a very good college with scholarships and was happy with my activities, friendships, and general A- studenthood. I felt the activities I had time for helped me get into good colleges and have given me a happier, broader life.
The cons were, I definitely could have learned more and been better prepared for college...but I think that is likely rural school, not not-skipped. But it's true, that if there HAD been AP classes available, then being skipped would have let me take more, and then I could have taken more classes in college than I did. I did feel strongly I wished I could have had a fifth year of college b/c I was not 'done.' People who came to school testing out of language and full of APs had an advantage in college course flexibility. Probably it was unideal to have me spend so much time in classes just writing in my notebooks or reading something independently, though those two skills are central to my life now! It is also true that I did not have a challenge that required me to work consistently until my dissertation, and that being so hard made me tearful and self-doubting. I am career-stalled right now and unsure what direction I will take when the baby's a little older. It's possible that this stall and all the end of grad school misery would have been easier if I'd been working hard all along. Or, as this is all unknowable in what Kriston says about one life to live, maybe I'd have burned out long ago.
