Does private school allow grade skipping?

[Anonymous]

Two students in my DS’s high school class “skipped” a grade - I put it in quotes because they discussed at the end of ninth grade and effectively did a combined 10/11 year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what it’s worth I went to HYP and knew exactly one person who had ever skipped a grade. And later in graduate school at Yale I had a friend who was designated as “profoundly gifted” as a child, and skipped at least four grades and graduated from University of Colorado with his BS at age 17. He then ended up at graduate school at Yale with the rest of us, where he was not any more gifted than the average Yale PhD student and had had the unfortunate situation of never having had a “normal” childhood or adolescence. I always felt so bad for him, and he constantly expresses how he wished his parents had known more about what other families with smart kids did (they don’t typically skip grades if they’re well off - they challenge in other ways).

I think the question about WHY you would accelerate a child is the right one. A good private school will engage and challenge a child by going deeper, not by accelerating. Those kids can then rise to the top of their class and end up at a top college and top graduate program - all without denying them the opportunity to have an otherwise normal childhood with his or her peers.

I think you should save your pity for someone else.
That child would have been bored to tears if they had not worked ahead. They don't know for themselves how awful it would have been to be stuck with well off high achievers working ahead one grade level instead of actually working at their capability. Sidwell does not meet the needs of a highly gifted child. Feyman and schools that actually cater to this very small group will.
High achieving students--yes, even at Yale, gasp!-- are not all highly gifted and never will be. Many there just work really hard.

I realize there are many undergraduates at Yale (or similar) that are not highly gifted. I mean, I remember them. But most of the PhD students in molecular biology at Yale - and other top programs there - most certainly are highly gifted. "Working really hard" only gets you so far. Most (not all, but most) of those students are both highly gifted AND very hard workers.

Feyman is a fine school, But it really doesn't do anything that other top schools can't, other than appease parents who are desperate to be told their child is special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what it’s worth I went to HYP and knew exactly one person who had ever skipped a grade. And later in graduate school at Yale I had a friend who was designated as “profoundly gifted” as a child, and skipped at least four grades and graduated from University of Colorado with his BS at age 17. He then ended up at graduate school at Yale with the rest of us, where he was not any more gifted than the average Yale PhD student and had had the unfortunate situation of never having had a “normal” childhood or adolescence. I always felt so bad for him, and he constantly expresses how he wished his parents had known more about what other families with smart kids did (they don’t typically skip grades if they’re well off - they challenge in other ways).

I think the question about WHY you would accelerate a child is the right one. A good private school will engage and challenge a child by going deeper, not by accelerating. Those kids can then rise to the top of their class and end up at a top college and top graduate program - all without denying them the opportunity to have an otherwise normal childhood with his or her peers.

I think you should save your pity for someone else.
That child would have been bored to tears if they had not worked ahead. They don't know for themselves how awful it would have been to be stuck with well off high achievers working ahead one grade level instead of actually working at their capability. Sidwell does not meet the needs of a highly gifted child. Feyman and schools that actually cater to this very small group will.
High achieving students--yes, even at Yale, gasp!-- are not all highly gifted and never will be. Many there just work really hard.

I realize there are many undergraduates at Yale (or similar) that are not highly gifted. I mean, I remember them. But most of the PhD students in molecular biology at Yale - and other top programs there - most certainly are highly gifted. "Working really hard" only gets you so far. Most (not all, but most) of those students are both highly gifted AND very hard workers.

Feyman is a fine school, But it really doesn't do anything that other top schools can't, other than appease parents who are desperate to be told their child is special.

? My kid doesn't go to Feynman, but I was told when we looked at it that you need at least a 135 IQ to be accepted, and that a kid can work up to four grade levels ahead if they need to. That is not the norm at the other private schools in the area. And saying that parents who send their kids there do so because they need to feel their child is special is obnoxious.
My child tested higher than 135, went to another well known private school in DC and looking back it was not a good fit academically for him as they make the curriculum fit the learning style of an above average, highly motivated learner, rather than someone whose brain works differently and faster and who will get bored(not surprisingly) if they have to work on multiplication for a month in 3rd grade when they knew how to do it in 1st, for example, or who could figure things out faster than the teacher by 4th grade. Kids are happiest when they learn at the pace that is the right fit for them. The very nature of the IQ bell curve means that those above 140 are a small number of those you encounter regularly. Yes, more often at grad programs at Yale then at private k-12 schools in DC.
There are very smart people who get PhDs in molecular biology. I am sure you are one of them. So is my cousin, as a matter of fact. She is *incredibly* smart and very hard working. But even she was not like the child you described who graduated from college by age 17. That sort of child needs more, and faster, even if they end up with others who were grade level but "advanced" during school. Just because two people end up in the same school and program later doesn't mean they should have had the same things prior or that they learn in the same way.

[Anonymous]

The average PhD in STEM has an IQ of roughly 145. The difference between such a person in adulthood -- especially in the subject of their specialty -- and someone with an IQ of 160 may not be notable.

Honestly, I'm of the opinion that the objective of raising a PG child is to keep them on an even keel that doesn't result in them feeling suicidal, and that prepares them for a happy and productive adulthood. Every PG kid's strengths and weaknesses are different, and therefore there's no one right answer for how to achieve that objective.

I am PG. I was accelerated by three grades. I was miserable before acceleration -- bored, frustrated, and socially out of place. But after acceleration, I had a positive high school experience -- livable academics (not challenging, but not impossibly boring either) and a great social life. (It helped that my best friend drove and didn't mind giving me rides, so I didn't feel out of place for not being able to drive.)

When I reached college (an Ivy), I did not feel particularly more academically adept than my classmates. (My public high school was a mediocre suburban high school, though, so I was arguably somewhat underprepared. Certainly I felt like that compared to the East Coast boarding school crowd.) But I blended in, socially and academically.

In my professional life, the people I deal with frequently tell me that they think I'm exceptionally smart, but I otherwise blend in with the plenty of other smart people in my field on a day-to-day basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child will be in good company. Plenty of kids are well above grade level.

Such a tired response and simply not true in regards to what OP is talking about. No, most children at Sidwell, GDS the Cathedral schools and the like are profoundly gifted. No they are not.

OP, NO, most will not allow skipping grades or even working at a higher level than the class in even one subject. You will have to supplement with programs out of school. Or get your child into a program for gifted students, which can be better in public school sometimes.

Please. OP’s child isn’t profoundly gifted either. She mentioned algebra and then pulled back to “algebraic concepts” in 4th grade math. Two grades ahead in reading and math concepts is not out of the ordinary. Private schools aren’t going to skip grades for that.

[Anonymous]

There are significant disadvantages to skipping and reasons it is nit done as much any more. Really look into whether this is a good idea for your child, socially as well as academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are significant disadvantages to skipping and reasons it is nit done as much any more. Really look into whether this is a good idea for your child, socially as well as academically.

I agree but to the OPs question, if one feels this would be necessary fir their child DC privates are not the place to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are significant disadvantages to skipping and reasons it is nit done as much any more. Really look into whether this is a good idea for your child, socially as well as academically.

+1000 I graduated high school at 13. It was a miserable experience, and I spent years in therapy recovering.

I have a profoundly gifted son. I would never let him skip grades. Ever. Emotional health is far too important.

[Anonymous]

^^this. Many people with gifted children really the balance in life is most important.

[Anonymous]

There are some very different scenarios being floated here, and skipping should really be based on all the available facts about the individual child being considered and the environment in which he or she would be placed.

There's also a big difference between the extreme Doogie Howser scenario that some PP's are describing and, as in our case, placing a child whose birthday is just a couple of months after the cutoff into the older grade where redshirting is not a part of the school culture at all.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. One grade is very different than many.