Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Middle School Community College

Our Middle School Principal and I have had a tough relationship - and I have only known him for one year.

I wanted my daughter in 8th grade English as a 7th grader and he refused. He said that she would be fine. Well, she has her pronouns down - again. She cannot stand the bullies in the regular courses. For some reason, they have a grip on the math program, but no other.

I work at the Community College and had her tested - accuplacer. She placed safely into College Comp. She will be taking the last developmental course this summer and I had to go through a lot to get the Principal to agree. He had to sign the form.

I decided to not put her in the college course, but the last developmental course - mostly for the teacher, and the class times. I think she will like this instructor - and for her, that is important.

So, she is the youngest student ever registered at this cc - 12 years old.

Good for your DD.

I wish that was a possibility for us. Oddly enough, we have several universities in the area that will allow high school seniors to take classes, but the community college doesn't. Even so, there are no local options for us before high school.

I hope your principal learns something from your DD's experience - many gifted kids don't fit the one-size-fits-all mold of the standard curriculum.

You can get your child tested for college level courses. We take the accuplacer. I actually pushed this through. It helps that I work there and know the staff, but I had to get signatures.

Her instructor used my daughter's papers to illustrate imagery. My daughter was a little embarrassed because the rest of the class is adults.

That's wonderful. Good for your girl!

She asked me yesterday what she should call her new "peers". I told her that we call them students. So many adult instructors try to call them kids and that is a huge no-no.

Glade that your daughter is doing well in the community college class.

My daughters were in a local community college when they were in 6th and 7th grade (they were 10 and 11 at that time). They were allowed to take the French class because school district did not offer French in middle school. They had gone through a host of placement tests, interview, principal approval, etc.

It was a pretty funny sight. The class contained mostly college age students, a few high schoolers and a number of adults in they 50-60. DDs soon realized that adults were not that 'smart' (sure, a person in 50s can hardly compete with kids in learning a new language).

Since then, they took French and other subjects to suppliment their high school classes. Although their passion for French had faded, the early experiences with college were definitively positive.

Thanks for the input. She is enjoying the class. The reading material is more adult - and she likes it. It is good to hear from someone who has done this. This is the only opportunity I have since we are in the middle of nowhere.

Hi Ellipses,

The discussions and assignments in community college could involve adult content which could be problem for kids this young. I remembered that I have to search all over for a French movie (their assignment) that does not have nude scenes.

Another word of caution is about grades in community college. The college application is just around the corner. My daughters ended up sending separate transcripts from cc in addition to their HS transcripts during college application. The transcripts from cc include everything that they took. It is not clear how seriously universities look at their early grades (before high school). But you don't want Cs or Ds in there.

I've had experience with the transcripts. Mine were mostly A's, some B's, but it didn't seem to matter to the colleges at which I applied. The only problem was when I applied for medical school and needed to send in transcripts from every college attended, and they did not understand that I had been in middle school and high school when I took the classes (and had part-time enrollment with some gaps, depending on what my district allowed).

DS11 has been very happy with his math courses at the CC. I still think they've been some review, but he only has 2 classes/week and doesn't have to sit in an hour every day of middle school math. He scored perfectly on the final, which the teacher said had never happened before. Next semester he'll have entirely new material. I'd like to have him take other CC classes (science, e.g.) but it would disrupt his middle school classes (already he's pulled out twice a week and misses 2 social studies classes). It would probably work well with homeschooling, but he wants to finish out middle school, so we're sticking to math.