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[quote=Anonymous][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]

THIS.  The school is way too small.  The kids are in the same classes basically like elementary.  There is no wide course selections.  The sports and extracurriculars are very limited like elementary.

We passed on ITDS because we wanted a much more comprehensive experience for our high performing kid with courses, sports, and extracurriculars.  Plus the facilities is lacking also and like an elementary school.

Might be a better fit for some introverted kid who doesn’t care about things above but not our kid who is active and social and outgoing.  It would be stifling. [/quote]

Did you look at it this year? There are way more sports this year. My DCs, who are definitely active, social, and outgoing, have done soccer, cross-country, and track. There are other sports too. My DCs love being in the musical as well. They are also busy with outside activities that aren't offered by bigger schools anyway, so we don't feel the lack. Not everything needs to be through the school as if you live in a small town somewhere.

I do agree the facility is not great, but they make good use of it and recently renovated the basement to have more space.[/quote]

The new sports offerings still leave it behind many DCPS elementary schools extracurriculars-wise. I think you need to look at what somewhere like Stuart-Hobson or Eliot Hine offers (I'm not even talking about Deal here, which is another league entirely) before getting so defensive about folks saying ITDS is like an elementary school offerings-wise.[/quote]

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