Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:One of my kids is a high achiever and profoundly gifted, so trust fund. They literally teach themself by reading, observing and asking a million questions. They learned multiplication and division in kindergarten by begging for math story problems at bedtime. The other is average and needs the advantages of a better peer group and smaller classes, so private.
I agree with this. If you have a very bright kid, it does not matter where they go. They will seek resources and thrive in most places. Private is best for average and above average kid.
We have a bright kid who tests very highly and grasps new info well, but unfortunately is very very VERY influenced by peer group. That meant he was coasting through public and spend most of his school time learning from other students' behaviors. We put him in private and he still copies other students' behaviors, but more of them are in line with what we want for him. Public school had a lot of nice kids and we met so many nice families, but the rudeness, low-class behaviors and language, and actual violence of too many of the kids made us leave. Similarly, we had some nice and caring teachers in public, but too many had a "school is jail" mentality and just leaned on apps and learning videos. We picked a private with a traditional curriculum that is writing heavy and he is thriving.
I'm the PP with two different kids. We put our profoundly gifted child in a public magnet school, and they let her to go to the library during math to work on AOPS. She finished Beast Academy level 5 online at the end of second grade and then moved on to regular AOPS, but missed the comics, so that hasn't been as much fun. Also, dual language immersion and the challenge of a foreign language were helpful. Private didn't have the same accommodations. Our public is in an affluent neighborhood, so we don't face the same issues you describe with peer group, though the peer group at the local private is better and more social, especially for the parents. The writing is better at the private, too.