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Listen to your language: "...suffering through K-12." Why would we want our kids to be unhappy? My son, at the age of 8, was happiest when he was at an adult computer users' group. He could talk with his real peers who understood what he was talking about and help him learn what he wanted to learn. He's a well-adjusted adult himself now, and he's just started mentoring a 13 year old that reminds him of himself. He's not some anti-social nerd. Kids can be cruel with anyone who is different. He was much better socialized at the age of 13 when we put him in college. He likes people and he's got lots of friends. But in grade school he suffered, as you say, and it wasn't a positive experience for him.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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I have read in here a lot of comments from people who think TAG parents are pushing their kids for their own egos' sake. You aren't listening to those of us who talk about being dismayed at how lazy our kids have become in comparison with their classmates. My son tried to dumb himself down because he wanted to fit in with his classmates. What finally convinced me to pull him out of school was a creative writing piece he wrote about how frustrated he was with the pace the rest of his class was going at. He was so bored in school he used to act up. I also suspected he was becoming increasingly depressed. He got to the point where he refused to do any homework. We were able to give him some stimulating experiences outside of school, but for 6 hours a day he was bored out of his skull and he wanted nothing to do with it once he was home. We put him in community college when he was 13 years old and he once again became a happy, productive kid. He wasn't allowed to take the GED until he was 16, so until then he didn't qualify for financial aid. We had to pay for it ourself, but it was the best investment we could have made for him. I don't think even psychotherapy would have had as positive results as stimulating his mind in college did.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Sandy McCroskey is a retired ESL teacher. She keeps her hand in it by training new ESL teachers. Contact me if you want to get her contact info.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Back in 1989 when my son was identified as a TAG student in Kindergarten, the TAG program was a pull out program. The teachers were, as often as not, local business people who had experience and enthusiasm about teaching young kids. My recollection is that the teacher's union put a stop to it several years later because the teachers were not certified teachers. Instead, they came up with the idea that kids should be "challenged within their classes". My experience with this system was that a teacher, who had 25-30 kids in his/her class, would propose that my son do more of what the rest of the class was doing. It almost felt like a punishment. My son would have preferred to go to a whole school of pull out TAG programs rather than have to do an extra amount of boring work. We ended up pulling him out of school altogether half way through his 7th grade year, and a year later we started him in college. He was much happier there!

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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