Subject-Specific Offerings

Editor's note: I asked Melissa P. Earls, Head of School of Academy Hill School in Springfield, Massachusetts several questions about teaching gifted children. She very kindly offered the following answers. (I will disclaim that my youngest grandson attends Academy Hill School.) - Rob Kennedy

1. Why should parents consider sending their child to a school for gifted children?

Not every school is right for every child. And, even if a child is academically advanced, or gifted in any number of ways, a school that offers an enhanced, enriched curriculum with high expectations and increased rigor might not be the right fit. I would never push any school on any student. But, for our learners, and other students like them, Academy Hill is a terrific fit. We offer several programs that set us apart.

When looking for a school for a gifted child, it is critical that parents seek out an environment that will continuously engage the child in creative, student-driven tasks. It is important that the school allow core curriculum time and opportunities for students to pursue areas of interest in depth. It is imperative that the pace of instruction matches the student's ability to comprehend content, apply knowledge and acquire skills at faster speeds and with high proficiency. Because these children are usually eager learners, formative assessments, while necessary in any educational setting, may not be as frequent and certainly do not look the same as they would in other environments. For example, monthly, quarterly,

What About a Foreign Language School?

In the United States, a foreign language private school is a school in which the primary language is not English. 80% of our population speaks English. Therefore, it follows that private schools that teach in other languages are few and far between.

I also want to point out the difference between a K-12 private school that uses a language other than English for teaching and intra-school communications and proprietary schools that offer instruction in foreign languages.

• K-12 private schools that teach their students in German or French, for example, offer a comprehensive academic curriculum with specified goals and objectives for their graduates.
• The proprietary foreign language schools generally aim to have their students achieve fluency at varying levels in a foreign language.
• For example, you could learn how to speak Spanish in a business setting, starting at a beginner's level and working your way up to advanced proficiency.

Reasons Why You Would Consider Foreign Language Schools

Now, back to our original question.

• Why would parents consider a foreign language school for their children?
• For several reasons, the first of which is job-related.

Let's say that you are a German national who is an executive with a German firm with locations in the United States.

• Your firm decides to post you overseas in the New York office.
• Your children are ages 10 and 12.
• What will you do about their schooling?
• You know

Why would anybody want to teach girls in a single sex setting? Aren't girls' schools quaint and out of touch? Aren't girls more likely to succeed in a coeducational setting? Are there advantages to educating girls in a single sex setting?

The answers to these and similar questions are varied, contradictory and subjective. Furthermore, the amount of research into girls' education is fairly limited. With those caveats in place let's explore some sources and resources for those special corners of the education world which are girls' schools.

Organizations which promote girls' schools

A good starting point for our exploration of girls' schools is the National coalition of Girls' Schools. Just like the International Boys' Schools Coalition is one of the major umbrella organizations for boys' schools, so the National Coalition of Girls' Schools is one of the major umbrella organizations for girls' schools around the globe.

The NCGS champions girls' schools. And it champions them better and more vigorously than any other organization I know. The NCGS encourages research on the education of girls. It offers an Advanced Professional Certificate in Girls’ Education. "This unique blended learning program, which includes a separate track for STEM and for humanities faculty, helps teachers gain the expertise needed to forge a contemporary approach to teaching girls. It is intended for girls’ school educators who have distinguished themselves in classroom teaching and learning and wish to both learn from experts in the girls’ school community and connect with fellow

Why teach boys in a single-sex setting? Aren't boys' schools archaic and out of touch? Aren't boys more likely to succeed in a coeducational setting? What are the advantages of educating boys in a single-sex setting? The answers to these questions and many more are contradictory and subjective. Furthermore, the amount of research into boys' education is fairly limited. With those caveats in place, let's explore some sources and resources for the special corners of the education world: boys' schools.

The research

A good starting point for exploring boys' schools is the IBSC. Just like the National Coalition of Girls' Schools is one of the major umbrella organizations for girls' schools. Hence, the International Boys' Schools Coalition is one of the major umbrella organizations for boys' schools around the globe. It champions boys' schools. It encourages research on the education of boys. The IBSC terms its research papers Action Research Projects. Papers such as Teaching Boys at the Coal Face: Mining Key Pedagogical Approaches, Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing, Volumes I & II, Journeys into Masculinity, Positive Relationships, Positive Learning, Boys and Digital Literacy and Boys and Reading give you and me valuable insights into teaching boys. As you read these papers, you begin to realize that the secret to boys' schools is that they are appropriate for many young men. Not all young men. But many. Boys' schools offer an approach to learning and character building without most of the distractions inherent

Should Latin be Taught?

Does a dead language have any place in a 21st-century curriculum? Is it useful? Is it relevant? Does it have value as an enrichment to the core curriculum? I think it does, and for the following reasons.

1. Latin offers young people a glimpse into the life and times of the ancient Romans.

Yes, they can read about ancient Rome and watch videos. They can learn about the expansion of the Roman Empire under Julius Caesar. All that information is readily available. But it is filtered information. The whole point of learning a language is to be able to read source materials. I don't want somebody telling me what Julius Caesar said. I want to read it for myself. I want to understand what Caesar said, why he said it, how he said it - the works.

With that assumption in mind, it makes sense to allow students to experience the language by learning how to speak it. Perhaps Latin may be a dead language because it is no longer the lingua franca of commerce and world affairs. On the other hand, Latin is a beautiful-sounding language that will delight young listeners.

I will disclaim that I learned Latin back in the 50s and 60s when it was taught in the rather old-fashioned way languages were taught back then. You learned endless conjugations and declensions. You struggled with Latin's nuanced sense of tense. Et cetera. It would have been rather dry and dull had