Looking for a balance of spirit and academics
Hi All -
This portal has been an amazing resource and I await your hive experience, strength and hope.
My daughter is almost 7 and she's hated school ever since formal learning started. Prior to that she was a kid who got herself dressed for preschool. She's extremely verbal, bright, energetic, excitable and observant. Just for context -- the last babysitter we had came over for three hours and hasn't exactly asked me when she can return. It's not that Olive isn't delightful it's just that she's full of life and very very alert. What school will not crush her spirit but also prepare her for the world? For reference, we have tried Golden Bridges and found that Waldorf is way too rigid. Right now we're in SF public school and found that it is too RACIST. I don't even say that lightly. The board of ed meeting was quite a lesson in power and privilege and its insidious nature. Brightworks offered her a spot for next year but I had to turn it down because $40,000 / year for unschooling? It just seemed absurd. We are in Noe Valley temporarily and though I know my questions are more SF oriented I'm open to relocating within a few days drive if it can offer a safe haven for a gifted kid whose playful nature needs support and guidance. I hope that you will all be able to see my blind spots here and let me know what you think.
Parent Replies
Our daughter is at Park Day in Oakland and we love it. It is a progressive school and the focus is on creating kids who love to learn. There are lots of great supplemental classes (art, music, Spanish, gardening, innovation workshop) and the campus is beautiful- lots of time outdoors in nature. We have found them to be supportive of learning differences— in our daughter’s case, she is reading at a much higher level than her grade; her teacher bought some extra books for her and the learning specialist meets with her once a week to give her additional spelling games. The community is also really wonderful. I don’t know if it’s possible to apply for next year however… I think the incoming classes have been established. Might be worth looking into if it sounds like a good fit!
She sounds amazing! Reading over your post I recommend you have a neuro-psych evaluation done (UC Berkeley does this on a sliding scale) to see what 'gifted' means in this context, as exceptionally bright also often comes with other traits (learning differences, ADD, etc). I'm not trying to diagnose, but your descriptors "full of life, extremely bright - hates school and excitable" make me think she may be 2E, in which case you would definitely want to know moving forward with her education, so you can make informed decisions about what is best for her.
I'm not sure any public school or charter in SF or the bay would necessarily be the right spot, it sounds like some private school would be a super choice, but as you mention, expensive. There are scholarships available at many schools - hopefully another poster has some thoughts as to schools, but I do hope you consider an evaluation just so you know what will work best for her as she moves through school. Good luck!
There are several gifted schools in the South Bay: Nueva (Hillsborough), Helios (Sunnyvale), and Tessellations (Cupertino). I believe the application deadline has passed for all of these, but maybe they would be a possibility for next year. There are also smaller schools that allow kids to accelerate at their own pace. I've heard that Living Wisdom School in Palo Alto is excellent for this. There is also a Montessori K-8 (Bowman) that many parents like, and a Montessori-inspired school in Berkeley (The Berkeley School) that I understand also has more individualized curriculum. You might try joining the Facebook group "Bay Area private school discussion" where you could look up information on a number of different schools in the area.