Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy can a PG kid stay in public school & get needs met

Exactly! And if we had used the experiences of others as our only guide, we may have missed out on what is probably the *best* option for our family in our community.

LOL, there is a vast difference between "using the experiences of others as our only guide" (which no one asked you to do) and discrediting others' authentic lived experiences if/when they do not match your own, by stating that they are "out of proportion to the reality in the school."

For future readers of this thread, here is a brief roundup of a few related discussions on public school experiences:
- Our local public high school (May 2015)
- Success Stories of HG+ in Pubic Schools? (March 2014)
- Public or private school? (Nov 2013)
- How do you feel about the public school system? (Oct 2013)

Here are some posts with expert resources on "school fit" including choosing a school, and advocacy.

Our experiences are similar to yours, amylou. It must be the Twin Syndrome! I totally agree that it is prudent not to take other parents' opinions as gospel and be open-minded and make an informed first-hand decision. Of course it is always helpful to consider a range of input from others, but ultimately each kid/family/school/extracurricular combo may yield a different outcome.

I have a pair of boy/girl twins who are incoming freshmen with nine years of public school experience. They are both in the DYS program although I don't use the PG label. I think it is important to point out that short of excellent private tutors for each subject, you likely won't get a consistent good fit; however, you may get a good enough fit that may well be the "best" available option.

Some factors that has helped in our situation include GT programming, magnet programming, single subject accelerations, stronger than statistically predicted cohorts, large schools, highly rated schools, early (dual) college admission program, great extracurricular opportunities, online supplements, educated parents, auto-didactic kids, and competitions/contests.

If you mean, the typical local school district, then in my experience, no. There are other types of specialized programs such as gifted schools or charter schools that are also considered public that may sometimes be a better fit.

I don't think schools are a great fit for anyone. I also think fit at high school in particular is more about personality and extra curricular interests. My brother did well - he is extroverted and loved drama and was OK at sports. I was introverted,severly asthmatic and depressed so not a good fit.

It will vary by child, family situation, grade, school, teachers, and political climate in education.

In our case, no.

This is what I think too. Our public schools offer one or two years of acceleration in core subjects. But, there are overachieving PG kids there - because of the environment in my general neighborhood (plentiful resources in the area, DE/CC, motivated parents, PG peer groups, industry mentoring for STEM subjects) as well as tutoring/afterschooling etc.

In our case, we do not use the PS. Things were not hard enough for my child to put forth a meaningful effort in order to learn and he was developing a poor work ethic as a result. How my child was spending his days from 8:00 AM-3:00 PM began to matter to him at a very young age.

This was our case too - it was DS at 3.5 asking us to take him out of daycare/preschool and either stay home or change environments where he was not so bored.

It is definitely going to be dependent on your family, your school district and what is important to you and your children - family values vs what is taught in school, what is offered for acceleration, and the administration of the local school.

Wishing your DS a happier school year.

If it's their reality then that's ok but sometimes it's not reality but opinions, passed along social networks, based on only the skimpiest of details of what's really going on.