Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments The New Global Student; anyone reading this?

The New Global Student: Skip the SAT, Save on Tuition, and Get a Truly International Education

I learned about this over at SwitchedOnMom's blog: http://themorechild.com/2009/07/12/the-new-global-student-kicking-my-dragon/

It is a great resource for anyone disenchanted with the hullaballo of making sure your child takes the right high school classes, does well on the SAT, and does all the "right" extracurriculars. Maya Frost advocates a study year abroad during high school, which gives your child real life experiences that seem to me much more important that playing the high school game.

I am wondering what the gifted community thinks about this. Many of us are already facing the fact that our kids will not have mainstream schooling throughout. Study abroad seems a great option for anyone, not just gifties, and for me I wonder if a family sabbatical abroad even earlier than high school (maybe the dreaded middle school) might be in our future.

Of course, many young gifties will have other reasons for taking the SAT (and they'll be taking it much earlier than high school).

Wow - what an interesting book...I just emailed DH to hit the local bookstore and pick it up (is in stock) :-) We have made joke after joke about just packing it up here and heading out into the world....my father just about did that 3 years ago....he and his wife had had enough of the rat race and decided to hightail it to New Zealand...they have just completed their citizenship and never plan on coming back (other than to visit) and now when he is not teaching medical students at the local college, they are galavanting around the world :-)

DS6 is learning chinese and has already informed us that he intends to visit as soon as he is old enough. Not sure how he's going to get there without me but knowing him, he'll have a plan.