<p>Kelowna:</p>
<p>We found that scheduling was the biggest concern. Both the k-8 school and the high school had rotating schedules; alas, they did not rotate along the same axes:(. But the teachers were very supportive, as was the principal, who wrote a letter to the high school principal on S’s behalf as required by the district. It also helped that AP-Physics was in the afternoon, so there was no going back and forth between the two schools; but that involved tweaking the k-8 schedule to make it happen.
As for pushing a kid or trying to make him “smarter,” we were just trying to prevent S from being bored. And it was the 7th grade science teacher who told us that 8th grade curriculum was going to bore S. The Physics class did not appear either on his k-8 or high school transcript, but that did not matter to him or us.
Regarding the high school atmosphere, S went straight to the Physics class, and from there, straight to his after school activities. So he was not jostled about or bullied by bigger high school kids. </p>
<p>As for geology, I don’t know why it’s taught in middle school. Students would get a whole lot more out of the course if they took it after they had learned some physics, chemistry and biology. The year my S skipped 8th grade science was the year a substitute was hired. He did not have a background in science but he was fascinated by hurricanes and tornadoes, and I understand that he got the students hooked on science through his discussion of meteorology.</p>