My son was just identified GATE and just missed Seminar if you can believe the raven percentile. (I knew he was smart, but didn’t know it was that close.) Our school, Curie Elementary, is top ranked… but we’ve had a few ‘bad fits’ with teachers – twice my older son has had teachers who didn’t ‘get’ him and held him back to the class level in math and science. The result was a lot of boredom and resentment… not something I want going forward. I’m hoping 3rd grade will be a better experience because at least he’ll have a teacher that has some training in GATE kids. In theory, he won’t be held back to the grade level in the subjects he’s good at. I think our situation was teacher specific because friends’ kids, who had different teachers, did not have the same teacher, and their kids were encouraged to move to their level in the various subjects they were strong in.
(SDUSD requires GATE certification for GATE cluster teachers – but since the GATE program doesn’t start till the 3rd grade…)
I have a good friend who’s kids are, I’m certain, seminar level. She was a product of seminar and her husband is also off-the-charts smart. They’re moving back sunny San Diego next year. I was trying to figure out what advice/experience I could glean from the Piggs here about school districts for exceptional kids.
It’s not in my future to do private schools – not unless I give up the idea of retirement. I do supplement educational stuff after school – my sister is a teacher who gives me materials to work with.
