Best school for gifted kid? Looking for differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who knows a bunch of people who skipped 3+ grades.

I skipped 3 grades myself. I was tested PG, both WISC and SB (~170 IQ). That background might mean that I've ended up meeting more people who have been radically accelerated, or perhaps more people who were once accelerated end up talking about it in my presence. (Otherwise you'd never really be able to tell in an adult.)

[…]
My experience is that most radical acceleration is either three grades, or something totally off-the-charts, like going to college at age 11. There doesn't seem to be much in-between.

Kids who are accelerated by 3+ grades generally have individual IQ testing done as part of the justification for that acceleration. I don't think a grade skip that large is likely to be done for kids who have less than a 160 IQ. If you're at 145, you can probably do all right with sufficiently challenging curriculum in your grade or maybe one grade up (I have a sibling with a high 140s IQ, did great with a single grade of acceleration).

PP from overseas. Extremely interesting. We were just offered to accelerate DS by one additional year. We are still debating and may defer until next year as we would like DS to settle a bit on the social emotional side. The main challenge we are facing is really the asynchronous development and we try to adjust accordingly based on what we see in DS's development. As you rightly point out, it really does matter at this age as it hurts to feel so different (not to mention teenage years). Did you skip one grade at a time or two/ three at once?

PP, this is OP. I skipped three grades at once. I know it’s different for every child, but I am not a big proponent of skipping. I suspect when you skip also matters. I finished 4th and skipped into 8th. That’s during a critical developmental period, i.e. the onset of adolescence for most kids. Being out of sync with your peers emotionally during that period can be hellish.

I think one year at a time over a few years would probably have been better for me. I think it’s great that you are valuing your chuld’s emotional development. I think talking to him and getting his sense is important, too.

Who let you skip from 4th to 8th grade?! Any school administrator would have to be a moron to let a kid do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not the OP. PP reading your post makes me feel better about my decision to move my kids to Nysmith. I know they are highly intelligent kids per IQ tests, but their school works just didn't show. I am sure not all kids in Nysmith are gifted, but it really does not matter if the school is willing to work with the individual kids that need more. Did your DS just spent 4th and 5th grade in Nysmith before moving overseas?

PP from overseas. Sometimes gifted children "just" comply with the requirements as they do not feel that doing/showing more would matter. Teachers at our first private school in DC told us DS was doing great but was not exceptional. They could not see the boredom as he did not show "more". The first year, Nysmith offered a tentative placement one grade above level in math. All children get a test around 10 days after the school starts to adjust the placement in case of need. DS was actually placed two grades above his level in math (nothing outstanding at Nysmith). And after the first year at Nysmith, he was placed two grades above the level he completed in math. So DS was able to show and give more in the right environment (assessed and graded) while he delivered the bare minimum (still enough apparently to be ahead of the class but it was not graded) when he had no interest. What and how they learnt in English was nothing comparable with the previous school. Science courses were just a blast. It is as much about the material as the way the teacher delivers and interacts with the group and each individual. People think gifted children are always successful at school while they can easily fail or drop out because they have no interest whatsoever in what happens in their classroom. DS also loved the after school activities at Nysmith, all delivered by the same teachers and not outsiders. I wish you and your children the best of luck at Nysmith.

This is very true -- practically a quote from our DS.

PP, OP here again. We are eager to learn more about Nysmith.

Can you share what the social life is like? I imagine the schools has many commuter kids. How often do kids get together for play dates after school? Is there a close-knit parent community? Are kids who live farther away less apt to be part of the social life of the school?

We will have a significant commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not going to sit here and analyze the tone of various posts. You conveyed (or someone claiming to be you conveyed) the impression that you had met more than a few PG people in your everyday life in this area. That’s all I was responding to.

The poster who said they met more than a few PG people in their everyday life did not claim to be me. They also explained that they worked in a STEM industry. Makes perfect sense to me that they would run into more PG people in that context.

- OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not going to sit here and analyze the tone of various posts. You conveyed (or someone claiming to be you conveyed) the impression that you had met more than a few PG people in your everyday life in this area. That’s all I was responding to.

The poster who said they met more than a few PG people in their everyday life did not claim to be me. They also explained that they worked in a STEM industry. Makes perfect sense to me that they would run into more PG people in that context.

- OP

Yeah, of course. I was referring to a different post.

Anyway, hope you find what you’re looking for.

[Anonymous]

Has no one mentioned DYS?

I don’t like rattling off my child’s IQ number either. I get that.

If you have an IQ over 145 you can qualify for DYS. Actually, my 9yo’s fsiq is below that but she has a sub score above that and achievement scores. We live abroad too. We have a similar story to other overseas pp.

Also, anyone over the age of 20 can stop quoting their IQ scores. They don’t correlate. An iq of 145 is about as high as it goes statistically speaking. There are no 170s anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has no one mentioned DYS?

I don’t like rattling off my child’s IQ number either. I get that.

If you have an IQ over 145 you can qualify for DYS. Actually, my 9yo’s fsiq is below that but she has a sub score above that and achievement scores. We live abroad too. We have a similar story to other overseas pp.

Also, anyone over the age of 20 can stop quoting their IQ scores. They don’t correlate. An iq of 145 is about as high as it goes statistically speaking. There are no 170s anymore.

Yes it’s stupid to tell people your IQ in general conversation. That’s idiotic. However, this is a conversation specifically about services for an allegedly high IQ child. In this case it’s relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who let you skip from 4th to 8th grade?! Any school administrator would have to be a moron to let a kid do that.

I agree. My parents pushed for acceleration, i.e. more challenge for me. The school district said they were not equipped to offer more acceleration than in the standard gifted program. The “solution” was to accelerate me three grades.

I’ve known other PG people who were similarly accelerated, and it worked out well for them. Clearly some kids deal better with the skip than others, perhaps because they had more emotional/psychological support. For me, it was crickets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has no one mentioned DYS?

I don’t like rattling off my child’s IQ number either. I get that.

If you have an IQ over 145 you can qualify for DYS. Actually, my 9yo’s fsiq is below that but she has a sub score above that and achievement scores. We live abroad too. We have a similar story to other overseas pp.

Also, anyone over the age of 20 can stop quoting their IQ scores. They don’t correlate. An iq of 145 is about as high as it goes statistically speaking. There are no 170s anymore.

OP here. I remember hearing about them a few years ago. Thanks for refreshing my memory; the institute sounds like a helpful resource.

For others who might be interested, here’s the link: https://www.davidsongifted.org/Young-Scholars

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who let you skip from 4th to 8th grade?! Any school administrator would have to be a moron to let a kid do that.

I agree. My parents pushed for acceleration, i.e. more challenge for me. The school district said they were not equipped to offer more acceleration than in the standard gifted program. The “solution” was to accelerate me three grades.

I’ve known other PG people who were similarly accelerated, and it worked out well for them. Clearly some kids deal better with the skip than others, perhaps because they had more emotional/psychological support. For me, it was crickets.

I’m sorry that happened to you. My parents’ solution was prep school for me and a combination of prep school and Juilliard pre-college for my sister, who also has unusual musical talent. I think we both would have suffered if we had skipped 3 grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not the OP. PP reading your post makes me feel better about my decision to move my kids to Nysmith. I know they are highly intelligent kids per IQ tests, but their school works just didn't show. I am sure not all kids in Nysmith are gifted, but it really does not matter if the school is willing to work with the individual kids that need more. Did your DS just spent 4th and 5th grade in Nysmith before moving overseas?

PP from overseas. Sometimes gifted children "just" comply with the requirements as they do not feel that doing/showing more would matter. Teachers at our first private school in DC told us DS was doing great but was not exceptional. They could not see the boredom as he did not show "more". The first year, Nysmith offered a tentative placement one grade above level in math. All children get a test around 10 days after the school starts to adjust the placement in case of need. DS was actually placed two grades above his level in math (nothing outstanding at Nysmith). And after the first year at Nysmith, he was placed two grades above the level he completed in math. So DS was able to show and give more in the right environment (assessed and graded) while he delivered the bare minimum (still enough apparently to be ahead of the class but it was not graded) when he had no interest. What and how they learnt in English was nothing comparable with the previous school. Science courses were just a blast. It is as much about the material as the way the teacher delivers and interacts with the group and each individual. People think gifted children are always successful at school while they can easily fail or drop out because they have no interest whatsoever in what happens in their classroom. DS also loved the after school activities at Nysmith, all delivered by the same teachers and not outsiders. I wish you and your children the best of luck at Nysmith.

This is very true -- practically a quote from our DS.

PP, OP here again. We are eager to learn more about Nysmith.

Can you share what the social life is like? I imagine the schools has many commuter kids. How often do kids get together for play dates after school? Is there a close-knit parent community? Are kids who live farther away less apt to be part of the social life of the school?

We will have a significant commute.

Sounds like the problem with this bolded comment is with extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation, not with gifted education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not the OP. PP reading your post makes me feel better about my decision to move my kids to Nysmith. I know they are highly intelligent kids per IQ tests, but their school works just didn't show. I am sure not all kids in Nysmith are gifted, but it really does not matter if the school is willing to work with the individual kids that need more. Did your DS just spent 4th and 5th grade in Nysmith before moving overseas?

PP from overseas. Sometimes gifted children "just" comply with the requirements as they do not feel that doing/showing more would matter. Teachers at our first private school in DC told us DS was doing great but was not exceptional. They could not see the boredom as he did not show "more". The first year, Nysmith offered a tentative placement one grade above level in math. All children get a test around 10 days after the school starts to adjust the placement in case of need. DS was actually placed two grades above his level in math (nothing outstanding at Nysmith). And after the first year at Nysmith, he was placed two grades above the level he completed in math. So DS was able to show and give more in the right environment (assessed and graded) while he delivered the bare minimum (still enough apparently to be ahead of the class but it was not graded) when he had no interest. What and how they learnt in English was nothing comparable with the previous school. Science courses were just a blast. It is as much about the material as the way the teacher delivers and interacts with the group and each individual. People think gifted children are always successful at school while they can easily fail or drop out because they have no interest whatsoever in what happens in their classroom. DS also loved the after school activities at Nysmith, all delivered by the same teachers and not outsiders. I wish you and your children the best of luck at Nysmith.

This is very true -- practically a quote from our DS.

PP, OP here again. We are eager to learn more about Nysmith.

Can you share what the social life is like? I imagine the schools has many commuter kids. How often do kids get together for play dates after school? Is there a close-knit parent community? Are kids who live farther away less apt to be part of the social life of the school?

We will have a significant commute.

Sounds like the problem with this bolded comment is with extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation, not with gifted education.

I am the PP who has highly intelligent kids but their school work did not show. Yes, I agree with the above bolded statement that sometimes gifted kids just comply. For my kids, when the music teacher said up to 4 mistakes are allowed in playing one song, then they just put in enough to get the 4 mistakes requirement. They will not try for less than 4, because that require more efforts and they don't deem worthwhile to work hard for that. Very frustrating. For school work, the attitude is that "I am not the slowest/lousiest student in class". They can do so much more but they wouldn't. I really hope that Nysmith will change that for them.

[Anonymous]

PP who has met numerous other PG people here.

To answer another poster's question, I skipped one grade, and then, a few years later, two more.

Three grades of acceleration (essentially skipping middle school) was enough for there to be real content I was learning every day in high school. My parents didn't care if I got good grades as long as I knew the material. (In other words they allowed me to ignore my homework as long as I got an A on the test.)

I actually had a great social life in high school, did a lot of extracurriculars, and learned an instrument to a level where I could have gone to Juilliard.

I attended CTD (Northwestern, much like CTY) during some summers and loved it there, but I'll say that I was an oddity even amongst the gifted kids there. Ironically, I didn't meet another kid like me, but I did meet one in a math class that came from that talent search. (He "only" skipped two grades, but he ended up being a brilliant quantitative trader in the early days of that, and I think he managed to retire by age 30. I forgot about him when I was thinking about other PG people I've met.)

I agree with the poster who noted that PG people aren't evenly distributed. And assortative mating means these days that PG people are much more likely to be able to meet and marry other PG people, thus significantly upping their likelihood of having PG kids.

After all, if you just look at Fairfax County AAP, a vastly higher percentage of the kids have IQs of 130 than would be expected by pure population size, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP who has met numerous other PG people here.

To answer another poster's question, I skipped one grade, and then, a few years later, two more.

Three grades of acceleration (essentially skipping middle school) was enough for there to be real content I was learning every day in high school. My parents didn't care if I got good grades as long as I knew the material. (In other words they allowed me to ignore my homework as long as I got an A on the test.)

I actually had a great social life in high school, did a lot of extracurriculars, and learned an instrument to a level where I could have gone to Juilliard.

I attended CTD (Northwestern, much like CTY) during some summers and loved it there, but I'll say that I was an oddity even amongst the gifted kids there. Ironically, I didn't meet another kid like me, but I did meet one in a math class that came from that talent search. (He "only" skipped two grades, but he ended up being a brilliant quantitative trader in the early days of that, and I think he managed to retire by age 30. I forgot about him when I was thinking about other PG people I've met.)

I agree with the poster who noted that PG people aren't evenly distributed. And assortative mating means these days that PG people are much more likely to be able to meet and marry other PG people, thus significantly upping their likelihood of having PG kids.

After all, if you just look at Fairfax County AAP, a vastly higher percentage of the kids have IQs of 130 than would be expected by pure population size, right?

You could have gone to Juilliard ... ok ... you realize you sound like a pretentious ass when you say that. You have no clue what Juilliard’s standards are.

- Someone whose sister DID go to Juilliard

[Anonymous]

And if you question me: she went to the Juilliard pre-college program for double bass. She was taught by bassists from the Met Opera orchestra and the NY Philharmonic. These included Homer Mensch. She went to Tanglewood over the summers.

Hopefully that’s enough detail to convince you I know what I’m talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And if you question me: she went to the Juilliard pre-college program for double bass. She was taught by bassists from the Met Opera orchestra and the NY Philharmonic. These included Homer Mensch. She went to Tanglewood over the summers.

Hopefully that’s enough detail to convince you I know what I’m talking about.

You are the ridiculous one. How would you know what her music abilities were. Just because you have a sister who was a music prodigy and you weren’t, doesn’t mean this poster wasn’t a prodigious music talent either.

For someone who claims to have a IQ in the 140s, you sound amazingly closed minded.