Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Success Stories of HG+ in Public Schools?

DS6 (PG) is in 1st grade at a Private school. He did early entrance into Kindergarten last year. So far so (sorta) good...He has been doing EPGY (currently 6th grade) in a separate room since late September. Still does the math tests for 1st grade with his classmates. He has also been doing other work in-class during reading/phonics class. This seemed to work until recently. He is now complaining how disturbed he gets having to listen to the teacher working with the other kids. He is also VERY bothered by the kids constantly interrupting him asking questions about spelling etc.

So, starting next week he is being pulled out from that class as well. He will be working 1 on 1 with the 5th grade reading/writing instructor 3 mornings/week. The rest of the time she will give him assignments to finish and/or he will do the worksheets I put together for him. He is allowed spelling words on his level, which I choose as well. He is tested on those AND the 1st grade words weekly. The teacher is amazing. She is giving me a lot of control, allowing me to bring in appropriate materials, books etc. He has been studying the digestive/circulatory system in reading class, and then he writes about it.

I am excited about him actually getting INSTRUCTION starting Monday. Another benefit is that this teacher is also the lower school principal. Working with him will give her a true idea of what he is about. I have a feeling this will help with advocacy for the upcoming years. She is truly open to our ideas which is wonderful!

Seems it is a constant tweaking already....and we are only in 1st grade.....

No success stories here in public school, but ds is in 1st grade. Yet, as I have read here before; I think a lot depends on personality. My ds7 just can't tolerate the slow speed and lack of new concepts.

My younger ds just might have an easier time. He's less intense and funny. Time will tell as he gets older.

I also agree the middle and high school have more options for hg+ kids.

Unfortunately, "success" in this context can be a rather subjective term. Parental expectations as well as mental/emotional health of the child can make all the difference.

Personally, I have never expected an institutional education to meet my children's needs completely. Sort of like if you aren't height/weight proportional with standard measurements, you can't expect to buy off the rack and have the outfit fit like it's tailored for you. Having rather low expectations, I picked and chose my battles and didn't sweat what I considered the relatively smaller stuff. There were also many choices that involve the lesser of two evils. It helped tremendously that my children are mentally healthy and well-adjusted socially as well.

I have two 5th graders who have survived public elementary school and are poised to enter an excellent middle school magnet program in the fall. They have learned to pursue their own passions outside school. It helped tremendously that they were both in self-contained GT classrooms from 1st through 4th grade and as it turned out, their K classroom had about double the number of kids who eventually qualified for GT. This year, only the math/science block is GT due to implementation of Common Core in our district. Fortunately, there has been a lot of room for self-differentiation due to the heavy writing focus in the reading/language arts block. DS also had the opportunity to accelerate twice in math so he was able to complete Algebra I as a 5th grader and will proceed to Geometry as a 6th grader. It certainly haven't been perfect, but I don't think that we could have done better with a private school and homeschooling has its own disadvantages for social kids and working parents.

No for us. But then there's no state mandate for g/t where we live and no incentive to offer any differentiation either in the early grades despite the later emphasize in New England with higher education.

Even the private gifted schools around here cannot accommodate a child like 1111's. That's been our experience and why we're un/homeschooling our ds8 (who technically would be in second grade with the public schools). The private gifted schools are aimed at the mg/hg or so - those who may be working a grade, two, or three above levels. They're not aimed at the pg crowd or other outliers.

A lot of it depends on the teacher/s, school, curriculum, other students, etc. There are a lot of variables beyond a child or parent's control with any formal schooling. Some kids are ok or tolerate this lack of control over their education. Others need large chunks of solitude and being alone to function and are not ok without someone else determining their education.

Thank you for all the replies. Because the cost of private gifted schools near us are so expensive, we are trying to figure out if we can make public school work. As others have suggested, I know that once he hits middle school and especially high school things will be better. It is the next four years until then I'm concerned about. I was hoping to get some words of encouragement that it really can work.

I also agree that the right teacher can make all the difference. However, I have also learned that even if you have the right teacher if it is a tough class with lots of behavior problems it doesn't matter how good the teacher is. This year DS got the teacher everyone said would be the best match for him, and even though she is very enthusiastic and has good intentions 1st grade has been pretty much of a waste. Because she has to spend so much time controlling the class and giving extra attention to three or four students to keep them in-line and on task, she has been unable to either adequately challenge DS academically or accommodate his 2e (I'm pretty sure eventual diagnosis will be dysgraphia).

Blessedmommy, my dd will enter kindergarten this fall and I have been thinking of the same question. My mind is almost half made to give the public school a try. The $10k a year in avoided private school tuition could go a long way in providing enrichment activities as well as savings for college education.
Ps. While I believe dd is gifted, I don't think she is pg.

Well said!

I think we are going to stick with public school for next year. The private gifted schools near us are $18k, and it was a good point that another poster had that funds a great deal of outside enrichment. Plus if we did private gifted school we would probably need to cut back on outside activities and maybe therapies to fund it.

We had a very positive meeting with the public school administration last week, and they seem willing to work with us. They don't dispute any of the gifted or 2e findings... But it probably didn't hurt that we had a well-respected by the school neuro-psych there with tests and reports to back things up as well as DS's OT. I guess only time will tell if it will be enough. They did point out that what my DS needs is outside of what is mandated by law (which I agree as our state doesn't have a mandate for gifted ed and even those areas where his 2e come into play are at grade level or above), but they are willing to go outside of that. They seem to have a plan to address his difficulties with writing and spelling, but I still don't feel like he is going to get the academic challenge he needs. His teacher is caught up on the fact that even though he is well past grade level, she wants to make sure he doesn't have any gaps that could cause difficulties down the road. I agree in principal, but I wish she would see she that she could go much faster through the material and he would be much less bored. Also she seems to think since he doesn't know his math facts automatically that he shouldn't have the higher level material.

Thanks for all the advice and thoughts!

My son is in public school, too. They allowed him to skip 2nd grade. I had full support of his 2nd grade teacher-- he was in her class for one month and she saw how he could easily do the work in 4 minutes while the others struggled on. It helped, too, that the principal's wife had skipped a grade, so he was personally open to it. And, I skipped a grade myself. So the conversation went well and it was done.

He is now in 6th grade, first year of middle school. Math is the slowest most "boring" class. Not looking forward to this month's 3 days (2 hours each) of common core state exams. Uprising parents talking about opting out. That's another topic... but I am wondering if I should opt out in math only, just to spare him the pain!

Grade 7 math in our public school will for the first time, offer a combined grade 7/8 curriculum. Science offers an accelerated class as well. So we are looking forward to next year, but I am going to stress all over again as we get closer to high school.

PS.
A few miles away, there is a high school boy, 1st generation American, and he doesn't live in a great district, but is studious and hardworking and was accepted to ALL EIGHT IVY LEAGUES as well as all the NY State schools he applied to.

So a LOT has to do with the home environment, the child's activities, and their attitude about learning and life and what matters to them.

Isn't that the truth!

I think that the home environment and its cultural attitudes to work and study make way more difference than the enormous amounts spent on public education.

After a certain point, that is, obviously if a school is underfunded to the point of not having enough classrooms, books, computers or not able to hire master teachers then all bets would be off.