Homeschooling the gifted teen

I just finished writing my notice of intent to withdraw my son, Mad Scientist, from Charlottesville High School and teach him at home. Public high school has been a disaster for him. In general, I like CHS, and Mad Scientist has an impressive set of teachers. He is, however, a textbook case of the gifted kid who does poorly in school. He currently has F's in all his classes except gym and history.

Public school was probably never the best option for him, but he thrived in the early years, first because back when we lived in New York he tested into a magnet school for the gifted, and his kindergarten teacher was a close friend of the family who'd known him since he was a toddler. We moved to Charlottesville where I considered homeschooling (and also looked at Charlottesville Catholic School, but was utterly unimpressed, especially when I asked what resources they had for gifted students and was told, "All our students are gifted.") I went for a tour of Burnley-Moran, our neighborhood school at the time, and it was so friendly and seemed a pleasant environment, so I decided to give it a try.

He entered their Spanish Immersion program which had a truly excellent teacher who happened to be specializing in gifted education. Mad Scientist was lucky enough to have that teacher every year he was at Burnley-Moran because she moved up with his class. So it seemed he was thriving in public school. Again, at Walker, some excellent teachers in the gifted program plus a highly organized environment kept him challenged and doing well.

Things fell apart when he got to Buford. He did have some good teachers, and was allowed to start high school algebra as a 7th grader, but the environment at Buford seemed to be more focused on forcing all kids to fit the same model (and pass the SOLs) and less on the individual needs of exceptional students. My son quickly became bored and disgusted, although he maintained decent grades while expendinf almost no effort--which only made him even more disgusted and also set him up for a terrible work ethic and left him unprepared for high school.

At CHS, the combination of teenaged angst, social pressures, a heavy homework load, his frustration at having few friends who function at his intellectual level has made the last year and a half an utter nightmare for both Mad Scientist and Jon and me. Things have degenerated to the point where he is now deliberately handing in blank tests in order to purposefully fail all his classes. He spends class time reading books of his own choosing--lately his passion is political theory and economics. His attitude toward school hasn't been helped by the fact that he's been reading a lot of Libertarian writings that criticize public education in general. (I, on the other hand, think that public education is a vital resource, but that, like all institutions, has serious flaws.)

We have met with the guidance counselor. We have met with his teachers. Everybody agrees that he's super smart and just needs to apply himself, but no one seems to know how to make him apply himself.

I've turned to homeschooling as a solution because it gives him some control over what he is learning (although I'm insisting he keep up with his math at the level he's at now--pre-calc and I've found a source for home instruction for AP calc, which he'll take next year.) Homeschooling relieves him of the group projects which he hates so much (and which I see absolutely no use for) and will allow him to learn a lot, yet not have six hours of homework every night.

This year CHS let the sophmores take the PSAT, just for fun, so to speak, and Mad Scientist got a perfect score in the verbal section and nearly perfect scores in writing and math. I've no doubt that his real PSAT and SAT scores will be equally impressive, and I'm hoping the homeschooling will be a rescue from the terrible fix he's in now, and combined with good SAT scores, will given him a second chance at getting into a good college. Because if we keep him in public school, and he continues as he has been, he won't get into any college.

I'm not a stranger to homeschooling. I taught my two younger children at home for two years, and it was a wonderful experience. The only reason I stopped was because I needed to get a job, and since they were in the primary grades, it was a labor intensive process for me as well. With high schoolers, much of the work can be done independently.

How am I supposed to handle homeschooling my child and attending nursing school myself? It won't be easy, but I think I can manage it. Mad & I may be forced to continue some study into the summer.

What makes me hopeful that this can work is Mad Scientist's intense desire to learn. He is constantly reading and researching what interests him. He's an extremely self-motivated learner, he just rebels against the institution of school itself.