Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Stupid Question - About H.S.

My question is, do HG kids ever go all the way through high school with their age peers, or is grade skipping inevitable?

I assume MG kids can go through high school to age 18 and feel challenged.

Our DS is in 7th grade in a regular public school and we have every expectation that he will graduate with his age peers. He is subject accelerated in math and is in honors classes. He fills his need for challenge through lots of clubs, a few sports,music, and an interests in just about everything.

I think it is his personality and a school that "gets" him that makes this possible. We spent the first several years expecting that a problem would show up that would require drastic changes, but this has never happened for us. But just because it has worked for us shouldn't be taken to mean that it will work for you or that there is something wrong with a HG child for whom it is not a good fit. KWIM?

I guess I should add that many HG kids do go through but it is not a good thing; they leave angry and demoralized because their needs were not met. I think we know a lot of very bright kids for whom school was a failure.

So I would add that one of the things we are always doing with our DS is monitoring. When we had DS tested a few years ago, his pscyh told us to watch for any breaks in his sunny disposition and then address it immediately. The psych said he was the happiest HG kid he had ever seen and that he would hate to see him lose his spark. We take that warning very seriously. We would not keep him at grade level just to make a point.

I agree with acs: in a very supportive school environment with lots of differentiation/subject acceleration for a kid with a certain personality who gets lots of challenge outside of school, it can work.

Obviously I think it's the exception rather than the rule, but I don't think it is inevitable. Every child is different.

Its child dependent. ACS makes some good points.

It really comes down to the rate at which someone learns. If a child is going through a year's worth of learning in a month ( I could read most textbooks in a night), then how much value will be that education be if they spend 90% to 95% of their time twiddling their thumbs?

I was happiest when I was radically accelerated, when it did occur. Looking back, my education from 5th grade to 11th grade was a time of extreme boredom and great isolation. I filled it up by reading heavily and my own interests, and I learned very little during that time period from the school system.

Once I was put in AP-level classes, it was finally interesting, but not a challenge. I wasted 75% of my day instead of 95%. IMHO, an accelerated curriculum at a 6:1 ration through 8th grade material and then a 4:1 ratio to HS vs the normal pace would have been perfect. It would have been fast, but would have given me time to indulge in other things as well.

Having said this, I do know of MG kids who are with age-peers at local private schools that have highly intelligent student bodies. The one other PG adult I know, who went to the same school as the kids I know, was radically accelerated by 4 grades and then stayed with that class to graduate at age 14.

I agree that rate of learning is a big part of this, but it also has a lot to do with where a person's interests lie. DS certainly is academically gifted with test scores to prove it; he could function at a college level based on his ACT and SAT scores. But he is not nearly as driven to do the book-learning that Austin was.

The things that he most craves learning are not textbook subjects. He wants to know how clubs are run; he wants to devise the best strategy for pulling ahead at a cross country meet; he loves trying to figure out why the teachers present the material the way they do, what language they use, why they assign the projects they do; he wants to know why certain kids hang out together; he wants to figure out the best way to disarm the bully. These are the things he comes home bubbling with excitement about. He wants to use his wit and social skills. He is subject accelerated in math and enjoys it and does fine in it. But he says he feels like he doesn't fit in socially with the older kids so just being with them one period a day is all he want.

So I guess I would say that rate of learning is part of it, but also it depends a lot on preferred mode of learning (DS is verbal and kinesthetic), introvert/extrovert, drive to move ahead academically, and interest in "non-academic" subjects.

My brother, who is HG+ and globally gifted, did not skip any grades. He did lots of extracurriculars.

I love the contrast between our two kids! I hope it is instructive to folks who are trying to figure out the best fit for their kids.

The answer does not lie solely in the IQ numbers. You have to know your kid and listen to what they are telling you (verbally or nonverbally). [I would even guess that there are MG and ND kids who have personalities like CFK's DS and for them school probably wouldn't be a good fit either].

Oh, Dottie, I just pulled Austin's name out of my OP because I realized I did know him well enough to "categorize" him. Now here he is in your quote. LOL!!

Austin, if you are around, I'll let you speak for yourself on whether you enjoyed the social aspects of school!

acs, do you think things would be OK with your son if he didn't have the acceleration in math?