to G&T or not to G&T?

There are parents whose children will have a wide variety of experiences in elementary school, including students who have had mixed experiences in G&T and gifted kids who have flourished in gen ed classrooms where teachers are skilled in differentiation. I don't dislike the environments in many gifted classrooms. I just want families to understand the full picture as well. G&T isn't the only path for a bright, talented or hard working kid.

There are many students at Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, or Bard who have never seen the inside of a G&T classroom and there is no "feeder" aspect in admissions to gaining entry at coveted middle and high schools from a gifted elementary classroom. G&T essentially ends in 5th grade. Do not be fearful that a bright child from a supportive home who is attending a safe general ed elementary filled with talented teachers can find their way to rigorous high schools and highly selective colleges. I have watched thousands of kids follow these various paths. LIfe is long, and kids grow in many different ways on their own timelines, academically, physically, artistically, and emotionally. The NYC G&T admissions process has a significant random aspect to it and it doesn't follow conventional timelines. In most places in the world, G&T would begin at 3rd grade and move into middle school. We start at K and it ends at middle school. Odd to me.

It is an alternative option and you are right to do your due diligence in investigating what is out there. A G&T classroom is not inherently a higher quality classroom, although it can be an interesting alternative to your local zoned program. There is no NYC Public School "G&T curriculum." What happens in that classroom goes teacher by teacher. They are not generally smaller classes, they don't necessarily have 'better' teachers (although there are lovely teachers in many of those classrooms) and they are not all accelerated in the way that parents may expect. In my experience the one thing that they do have in common is that they are a curated classroom of parents. They are parents who understand how to apply and can navigate going to a school that may be far from their home. The programs generally end at 5th grade with the exception of the very few seats available at the Citywide gifted programs like NEST+M, Anderson, BSI, TAG and Q300. Hunter is a different thing altogether and while free, is not part of the NYC Public School system. Generally the DoE describes these classes as "accelerated" but in my experience the strongest G&T classrooms are more enriched than accelerated. Deeper investigation in an enriched classroom is often more productive for gifted children than faster investigation in an accelerated classroom. Good G&T classrooms can do both. Good differentiated general ed classrooms can as well.