Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Great news! Right school fit found! DS "cured"!

Thanks everyone! Your kind words are greatly appreciated.
I'm not aware of this trend of Friends Schools keeping kids on grade level. I think in general Friends Schools are more academically advanced. Our 2nd grade class is working on pretty much the same material as our PS 4th grade. So what is grade level at a Friends School may actually already be above the typical PS level. ??? Of course I can't speak definitively on this as far as all Friends Schools go. In the end it always come down to folks having to do their research.

We feel the same way about the private schools our kids attend.

Is anyone happy with the PS in New Jersey? It is supposed to have such a superb school system, and I am just not seeing it (and I'm in a good district as well). Very depressing.

I've been thinking about FrustratedNJMom's post a lot today. What frightens me is to think of how many kids and their parents don't have the benefit of FrustratedNJMom's expertise. HOw many listen to the schools and let their child be medicated and put into a BD classroom.

Our local friends school is definitely on grade level in general. They do a lot of open ended projects and it is a lovely school environment. It's a school we looked at very closely before and after we found out DS was HG+. Before it was our dream school. Now I couldn't imagine him happy and engaged there for long.

Glad you found such a great fit! Congratulations!

Congratulation!

I am SOOOO thrilled for you that you found the right school!! Knowing that your child can finally be "seen" for who he is has to be the best feeling for you and him! Super HUGS!! I think I would probably fall over from being giddy if we could find the right location.
Dazed&Confused you summed it up perfectly! I was horrified at what the PS's guidance couselor, psychologist and teacher were all telling me was wrong with my son at the beginning of the school year. The psych hadn't even met him yet and she asked whether we had considered medication and that she felt it would be a huge benefit to him....I wanted to just reach out and let her have it! They refused to listen to our concerns or the very thorough testing/private psych report we had done...instead they decided to focus on his behavior that had started to go down hill because he was bored out of his mind.......and then viola one day his regular teacher was out sick and a substitute came in....at the end of the day she said my son was a wonderful young man (and whispered on the side that the teacher left a long note to her concerning my son and his bad behavior and what to do if he "acted up"...she said she saw nothing whatsoever of any issues other than the fact that he was a "very, very smart cookie"), she gave him other work that she had brought in her sub bag of tricks, she said she kept giving him activities that engaged him and she didn't have to say boo to him once all day long. We pulled him the next week. The sad thing is that I know there have to be a ton of parents out there who get caught up and worry that maybe there is something "wrong" with thier child and then they end up being medicated and stuck in a dead end :-(

Wow! I'm shocked at how horribly the ps treated you. I'm sure that there are parents who refuse to acknowledge their child's disability (ADHD, Aspergers or other), but to try to have your parental rights terminated is an amazingly brazen step. I'm glad that your son is doing so much better in his new environment.

Yay! Glad you found a good fit! There might be a regional aspect to the Friends School/ advanced academics thing.... I know nothing about Philadelphia-area Friends schools, but my experience with two in other places is that they're not academically advanced at all. However, they do frequently tend to be smaller schools, and that can mean flexible!

But what really matters is that you've found a good one!

NJ does not budget for gifted ed. From the Davidson site: