The point is that school shouldn’t be a place where they are constantly bored and need to find things to do to occupy themselves.
School is supposed to be an engaging place to learn – not a drudging bore to sit through while thinking of other things.

Yes, many students can go through a boring 12 years in a mediocre school and go on to great things. But that same student in a challenging environment has a much better chance. Just because something *can* work isn’t a reason to go with it if a much better opportunity exists.

I’m not saying she should quit her job to cart the kid to the farther school, but that she should take a good look at the school, and if it seems like it really would offer the kid a lot more challenge and a lot more extracurricular opportunities, it would be worth trying to find ways to make it work.

Do you really think it’s a great situation for a person to see schools as places where you are forced to go and sit, be bored, and try to occupy your brain by sneaking books under the desk?
I’d much prefer school to be the place where you go to learn neat things.
You don’t get that in a school with no challenge.

The problem is “yearly test.” I bet that if a kid tests less than proficient, but is doing well otherwise, they are allowed to stay. Have you investigated that?

I’d look at finding something that has the two elements – that isn’t a church. Some type of community center or service organization, maybe.

My Dad and his family are long-time Masons, and my husband is a Mason and a Shriner (as was Dad); our lives have been enriched by knowing a network of men of significantly above-average integrity who are interested in working to make the world a better place.

I think the most impressive thing for me was when I went off to live in New York City; before I left Colorado, Dad told me that if I ever found myself in trouble, find a Mason, tell him that I am the daughter of a Mason, and the Masons had an obligation to help me out (as long as it was not to their personal detriment) even though I was a stranger. Generally, Masons don’t bother to ask if you are related to a Mason — they just pitch in and do what they can for you.

The idea of getting involved with your local community is a good one — Masonic organizations provide that, and also a world-wide network, which the local PTA and Neighborhood Watch don’t.

They may be teaching the same students year after year, though, so they don’t really have to learn 500+ new names every year.

And really, if a child is showing any kind of passion for art, music, or sports, these are precisely the sorts of things for which an involved parent should be looking into enrichment activities outside of school. Even the best elementary school music program is probably not going to be enough, by itself, for a child with true musical interest and talent.

My two cents:

The one phrase that really concerned me: “the school is unable to challenge her much, and she has already begun to find school boring.”

Bored students are not interested in learning, and if she remains bored, she could eventually completely lose interest in school. Why bother to try hard when just being a lump in class is enough to get an A?

It is true that extracurricular programs could help, but she spends the majority of her day in school. Are a couple extra hours each week in after-school programs going to make that much of a difference? Why not switch to a school were far less of her time is wasted and far more of her talents and skills are engaged?

I’m not disagreeing with those points. Yes there are alternatives to making a nonperfect school work and someone needs to quit their job cause their 9 year old kid is a little bored. Yes I know the schools are 20 miles apart.

But exactly how those 2 schools matter is pretty important and my point is that we don’t know much about that. I’m not even assuming the charter school is better.

I think Annie should find and compare the state achievement scores for the schools.
Are we talking 1-5% points difference or 50% points difference?

I have some friends who were unhappy with their daughters elementary school cause their daughter was bored. Their daughter is 5 years old and the school is in the top 10% in the state. So Annie could be like that. But maybe the current school is far worse and has problems with crime and signification drop out rate and totally fails any standardized test.

We really don’t know how good or bad the 2 schools are.

@Kristine – Thank you. I am proud and very happy for him. We are from Oregon and, interestingly enough, his high school is a small charter school in a rural district without much resources. Still, they are committed to imaginative learning and providing advanced classes for all their students, as well as art, music and physical education. We, too, had considered moving to get into a better school. (Another idea for Annie?) But were unable to sell our house.

@Johanna – I feel very strongly that a child shouldn’t have to figure out how to entertain/challenge herself in school. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. I am glad it worked for you and some of the others commentors here and that you were able to succeed so well. However, there are many, many gifted people who are not able to do that and never achieve their full potential because of a system that is not designed to accomodate them. It makes me sad.

I wouldn’t fund a 525 for your children unless/until you are funding TSP and Roth’s to the max.

- Learning to cope with boredom is not as important as learning to put in a real effort, which can be lost on a gifted child for whom everything is easy. Learning to fail or even study hard because you have to (rather than as icing on the cake) is essential to success after school, in the “real” world.
- A child who finds school easy will still be tired after a long school day. Burdening her with a busy schedule can lead to exertion and rob her of precious play/fun time (there is so little of that these days!).
- Children who are given more responsibilities in class can have a much harder time fitting in – I know I did. I was branded as the teacher’s pet, and the other kids were either jealous or could not relate to me. This makes having genuine friends that much harder. People resent others who make them feel stupid, and that kid in the corner who does twice better AND still has time to help others will do just that (!).

To summarize, I would have done anything to go to a more challenging school as a child. The only reason I couldn’t is that my tiny town did not offer any option. God knows my parents tried…