It's all about the effort

For those of you who have young (i.e., 4-10 years), intelligent children, take a look at this pretty good synthesis on the topic of effort in Scientific American. In short, it states that children who coast through grade school, being highly praised throughout those years, will often struggle in later years as they have not learned the benefits of effort. Once something gets hard, the student begins to think they are not capable, and like a domino effect, effort declines substantially. This lack of effort reduces overall motivation and grades. The simple solution - emphasize effort over non-essential praise.

At Golden Tree, we search for students who are willing to put in their utmost effort. Sure, not all students will come to us willing to put in that effort, but we'll try to help them along. As far as the material being boring? Well, unfortunately, most of the stuff that students are mandated to learn in middle school and high school is boring, whether the child is gifted or not. As a private, independent school, we can do more than the traditional school, and mix in some interesting into the mix of mandated boring, but sometimes useful, curriculum. Just a few things Golden Tree will be known for include frequent educational trips, night time lessons, appropriate and interesting electives, and enriched academics, spotlighting the topics the students deem interesting.