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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]ITDS is lovely but like elementary school being extended 3-4 years. For high achieving kids in any domain (including extracurriculars), this is likely not the optimal model. For a middle of the road introvert, on the other hand, it’s ideal.[/quote]

This thread has been interesting for me, a parent of two self-motivated, high-achieving kids who went through ITDS. One of my kids, now in 11th grade, is prepping to apply to T20 colleges. They were well prepared for everything they've encountered at SWW, even though, yes, ITDS didn't challenge my kids as much as I would have liked. (And as you'll read on other threads here, too, SWW is not the be-all-and-end-all--I bring it up just because it's the only high school my family has had experience with, and it's a school a lot of middle-school kids aspire to.) DC was able to catch up to the geometry-in-8th-grade types because of the option to take two math classes at once or do a summer math course.

Do I wish DC could have taken geometry in 8th grade? Yes, I do. But there were a load of other things that ITDS had in its favor that made it the right choice for our family.

[b]ITDS is not perfect. Anyone who thinks it is is fooling themselves. However, ITDS's middle school is also not anything like "elementary school being extended 3-4 years" nor is it uniformly poor for "high achieving kids in any domain." 
[/b]
Please, potential ITDS parents who are reading this thread, take everything with a huge grain of salt. None of these all-or-nothing statements would hold up to even the tiniest amount of pressure.[/quote]

I disagree. I don't think PP meant that the substantive work was akin to elementary school, but that the experience was... and I think that's correct. When you have a school as small as ITDS middle, it really does feel a lot more like an elementary school (as many small privates' middle schools do as well) than a standard middle school experience. That can absolutely be a good thing for many kids, by the way. Middle school is the worst time of many kids' lives. But a school that small is never going to have as many options for outliers in any direction/in any domain.[/quote]

True, but understand that ITDS isn't a random sample of middle school aged kids. It has high-ish achieving kids, and it has [b]kids who are twice exceptional[/b] and need a small middle school but are academically strong in various ways. Kids whose parents feel like they stand a decent chance of Walls/Banneker/McKinley/selective private are more likely to stay for middle school. Kids whose parents don't see that happening are more likely to exit before 8th grade. And then there's kids who are below grade level, sometimes several years below, and go there for the small size and individual attention. There's a wide ability range. But it's not the case that there isn't a significant group of high performers. I wish it were bigger, but it does exist even after the exodus in 5th to Latin and Cooper. The way a Pk-8th fits into the DC landscape produces this weird effect. [/quote]

What does this mean?! Almost afraid to ask.[/quote]

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