Montgomery Blair Magnet

bethievt
Sun, 17 Feb 2013 10:15:12 +0000

I can’t and won’t judge what is right for other families. Raising my son in VT, where there are very few options to our good old local public schools, no IB programs that I know of, only a few AP courses at our local high school, only one prep school within reasonable reach, my bright son and his friends were able to find or make challenge anyway and still get sleep. Had they been math geniuses, they might have had to go online or to UVM, our flagship for challenge in that area, but otherwise I witnessed the skill of his bright and dedicated teachers to bring out the best in their students.

I also saw my son and his friends challenging each other. For example, they formed a Philosophy Club where they met weekly to throw around ideas and it morphed into writing poetry that they performed at slams at a local Serbian restaurant. They read interesting books and talked about them. They all got into great colleges. Some areas of the country seem to have become academic pressure cookers.