Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research What High School Courses ?

Please assume there are 7 core course series:
English, Science, Math, Social Studies, Language,
and I added Arts; and Programing, to open things
up alittle. After 4 years what courses should
a gifted child have under their belts.

Serena will have 4 years of English (2 honors,
2 AP) 4 years of Math (ending with 2 honors &
2 AP; Calculus AB and BC) 4 years of Social
Studies (1 honors and 3 AP ) 5 years of science
( 3 honors and 2 AP) and 4 years of Foreign
Language (3 honors and 1 AP) And a few other
semester courses that are required.

My question is; is this good, bad or indifferent.
Thank you for your time in any answer.

My oldest son just graduated from high school with a pretty similar schedule (actually, he didn't have quite as much foreign language, and he took a couple less AP courses in social studies/science). He was accepted into every school to which he applied, and two of them were the top-rated in the country for his major.

Obviously, it depends on a lot of other things (school and community activities, grades, etc). We've often been told that activities are at LEAST as important as courses/grades--EVERY high school in the country has a valedictorian, and the prestige schools (Harvard, Princeton, etc) turn down many of them.

My daughter will be a sophomore, and her schedule will be virtually the same as your daughter's. So...I'd guess this is a fairly typical gifted course load. It also depends on what your high school allows...my son transfered after sophomore year (we moved to a new state), and we found that the new district would not have allowed him to take certain AP classes as a sophomore that the old high school allowed.

You also have to know your child. We know of one girl who desperately wanted to become valedictorian at the old high school, so she plotted as many AP courses as she could to maximize her GPA (she was a straight-A student, and the AP courses were highly weighted). Unfortunately, she became so burned out from the heavy course load that her grades tanked. She'd have been much better off with a few less AP courses so she could keep her A's (but, that must be balanced against colleges' desire to see kids challenge themselves in high school--some schools would prefer to see students get B's in AP than get A's in lower-level courses).

Probably the most important factor to consider is whether your daughter enjoys these classes--if she really wants to learn the subjects, she'll be willing to do the work required and probably will succeed.

I'm not sure I've answered your question, I've probably left you with more questions than answers. These are the "answers" we've gotten over the past couple of years as our son prepared his college applications.

Hope that helps.

You have been the most help. I am very thankful
that you took the time to reply. And you said
several things much better than I did. And I
am in agreement with all of them. There seems
to be many more younger kids on this site. But
for sure will run into the high school problems.

AP courses are hard to understand. Serena was
allowed to take AP biology as a freshmen, but
we turned that down and she took and honors
course then the AP course the next year. I think
we thought the AP courses were really college
level and now think they are a little under that.
But we would do the same thing again. We wanted
to be sure she really understood Biology. We
are doing the same thing with Chemistry. This
does not lead to the best GPA but a much better
job of learning the materal, and more likely a
5 on the AP test.

You are right about enjoying the courses. We did
not want her to take French; Latin for sure; but
she wanted French. That was the best thing we
did, let her do what she wanted to do. If you
enjoy the course you will do better and study
more. She loves French; and only now we decided
to let her take 5 years of French with the last
year the AP course. Again hard on the GPA but
much better at learning the language.

I know burnout can occur in college and I am
sure high school too. So again thank you.

Richard,
Welcome! My son is much younger, but hopefully will be in your daughter's footsteps someday. I read a book called, "doing school" and it was very frightening - showing how children sacrifice their love or learning and their integrity for a good GPA. I hope we can do better for our children in teaching them to balance nurishing their souls with nurishing their future bank books.

Welcome again, and please let us know how it's going.
Trinity

Thanks for your reply Trinity. We started to
look for a good high school in the 7th grade.
Then moved to get into the right district. We
didn't know Serena was gifted until about then.
The right school has made a very big difference.
Not just the right courses, but good parent
involvement. We are from central Florida and
only one in ten high schools are good.

We feel the same way about the GPA. The three
examples show we feel it is better to learm the
course well and give up on the high GPA. This
comes because of the feeling that the AP courses
are not really college levels; and if you want
your child to skip those courses, they had better
know the materal well.

Quess I am caught up in the high school planning.
I have been at it for four years and I think I am
understanding it better. Do hope this helps you.

1) you can not beat a good high school; Seems
about 20% are good. Either AP courses or IB.
Ihe AP are a little more science/math, and the
IB may be a little harder, but less choice.
The IB are more in the field of languages.

2) I prefer learning the course material well;
as opposed to a higher GPA. You may take Bio,
Chem , Physics and other AP courses without
taking the same course at the honors level. You
can get and "A" either way. But the child is
not as mature in the subject as one year later.
And you would be more sure of a 5 on the AP.
Maybe more important is the fact the the AP
courses are not at the college level. And these
courses are fundimental to the the rest of the
field that the child will follow. One can not
measure the differences, you have to believe.

3)For sure I believe that mastering the subject
matter is better. Here are four examplies that
we are following. Honors Biology before the AP
course. Honors Chemistry before the AP course.
Physics honors and not physics AP until college.
Because you need the maturity for a good under-
standing of physics. And 4 years of French before
the AP French course. She started in the 8 grade.
Same for any language.

4)Outside courses are of interest too. But it
seemed better to take courses that were not core
courses. Those summer courses,(ie) that are fun
and not involved with graduation or the school.
There are a lot of these and will help the gifted
child into many other areas besides the core ones.

5)GPA: you can work backwards to calculate it;
assuming all "A"s. If you take 10 APs courses;
that's 50 points. 12 Honors is 54 points. And
some required courses; 3 is 12 points. That is
a GPA of 4.64. Still not bad for learning the
course work well. Hope this helps ! Oh; science
courses require a lab and therefor 25 courses is
about right for 4 years of high school.

6)For those going into science or math; it is
great to take the two calculus AP courses. You
must get ahead start to complete them by the
12th grade. They will help the general under-
standing of the rest of the sciences courses.

This is only one point of view; I do hope it has
been of some interest.