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From: lmc@denelcor.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Catch-22 for gifted...
Message-ID: <342@denelcor.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 01:31:46 EST
Article-I.D.: denelcor.342
Posted: Wed Mar  7 01:31:46 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Mar-84 22:53:36 EST
Organization: Denelcor, Aurora, CO
Lines: 40


        Schooling the gifted has been on my mind a lot lately.  I have
        a son who is two years above his school class academically,
        and we have priced ourselves out of the market.

        Jon managed to skip two grades, and is now in fourth grade.
        Academically, he is doing very well; all A's and B's, even in
        arithmetic, which he dislikes. (Not forever, I hope.) He's
        attending a small private school, since Colorado public
        schools at their best aren't terribly good (particularly in
        gifted work).  However, The school will be combining 5th and
        6th grade next year, and the principal thinks that he may
        suffer from the social-maturity problems, since he still
        *acts* like a second grader.  Even if he did continue on, the
        school teaches only up through 6th grade, at which point we
        face the same problem.

        The question is, what to do?  Some other private schools in
        the area, which excell in providing needed discipline, refuse
        to take him as a fifth grader; he has to redo work that bored
        him the first time around.  Others, with enough staff to
        individualize, cost too much (~$2500/yr and up).  Public
        schools, as mentioned above, don't *really* care (public
        policy to the contrary notwithstanding).  We could keep him
        home for a year, perhaps.

        Has this kind of Catch-22 situation happened to anyone else on
        the net?  Any imaginative solutions?

        A mild warning, against skipping grades; I felt it was the
        best way to allow Jon to not be bored in school, and it did
        just that.  But with current educational institutions being
        what they are, you are going to get squeezed somewhere along
        the line, unless you plan ahead.



-- 
		Lyle McElhaney
		(hao,brl-bmd,nbires,csu-cs,scgvaxd)!denelcor!lmc