Honors classes in a different school district were definitely a better choice and much more demanding work. A teacher had to recommend the student each semester or they couldn't get into the program.
Our public school's "gifted" program was what made me decide to pull my eldest daughter out and homeschool. It was a joke, using make-work to keep the gifted from getting bored in class while not actually enhancing their education.
That was our experience, so we chose to homeschool. Having our evenings filled with inane busy work was NOT my idea of education.
We found the Gifted/Talented program to be a complete joke - not really learning at a higher level, but instead doing projects that parents ended up doing at home.
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Please read post #27.
This was our family’s experience. The teacher and principal completely ignored our requests to have my son ( then in first grade) tested. My son finished his work so quickly that the teacher would merely give him **more** of the same.
Another problem was that I simply could not stand to see him stagnate. So....I was essentially homeschooling my son on the third and fourth grade level in the morning, and he would go to school an be adding digits from 1 to 10. Unbelievable!
Motivated gifted children need to be allowed to **accelerate**! I honestly believe that institutional schools merely keep kids behind so they can guarantee themselves a paycheck.