Decisions decisions

Middle school.  Just the thought of it makes me cringe.  Cringe over knowing all the changes my little guy is about to go through, cringe over knowing that he's about to hit a stage where he thinks he knows more than me, and cringe over the horrible memories of my own middle school years.  If there's any period of my life I would never want to live over, it would definitely be the middle school years.

When I was in middle school, there weren't a lot of choices out there.  You went to the school where you lived, unless you went to a private school.  Period.  Here in Texas, it's a bit more complicated.  You get to choose your school, depending on location, certain programs offered, special invitations based on test scores or academic achievement, etc.

David has never attended the school closest to our home.  His first two years, he went to school with me.  I greatly enjoyed that, but both of those teachers told me that he was above average and may need a different environment.  He qualified for the gifted academy, but I didn't want him under all of the pressure, so we sent him to a Math, Science, Technology Center that he'd been invited to.  That was the best decision we ever made because he has absolutely loved that school.  He's been close by, just a mile away from my own school, so that's been nice.

Unfortunately, he keeps growing up, and his time left in elementary school is coming to a close in just a few months.  With that comes the dreaded decision of middle school.  We came down to three options: 1.  Keep him in the MST program, which flows into the nearby middle school by his current school.  2.  Put him in one of the middle schools closer to home, one that has a pretty good reputation. 3.  See if he can secure a spot at the gifted and talented academy, even though I've kept him out of the academies up until this point.

We went to the parent night to check out the MST program, and we were pretty impressed.  However, he also got accepted into the academy, which is highly, highly, highly recommended by other parents who have children there.  To be honest, I've never heard a negative thing about it.  The school that the MST program is in doesn't carry quite the same reputation as the academy.  David, of course, wants to stay in the MST program.  He's already visited the campus twice and feels comfortable staying on the same track as his friends.  Mike and I know that the academy will offer him so much more, plus we really like what we hear from other parents about it.

David's teacher talked with him to help him see the opportunity he has, plus he suggested we take David for a tour of the middle school so he can actually see it.  So, that's our plan for the morning--to go tour the school.  We have to make our final decision for school by early next week, so I took a half day off tomorrow in order to take him.  We'll see how it goes.  Asking God daily for wisdom.