Testimonials on Gifted Programs

“All our students have been identified as intellectually gifted,” says Barbara Rosenberg, Director of The Academy for Gifted Children–P.A.C.E., in Richmond Hill, Ontario where all of the students undergo a psychosocial assessment to determine their abilities. “But once they enter the building, it’s a very normal environment, which is important.”

P.A.C.E. focuses on teaching higher level thinking skills such as applying, analyzing and evaluating information, while nurturing students’ creativity and intellectual curiosity.
Students learn a broad mix of academic and creative subjects, and the school also offers extracurricular programs to engage students’ imagination, including puppetry and a rocket club. Students also enthusiastically participate in competitions with other schools, testing their skills in math, writing, chess, improvisation and theatre—even Lego architecture.

Rosenberg isn’t just the school’s director, she’s also a parent. She founded the school 15 years ago, unsatisfied with the choices out there for her gifted sons.

“I wanted a program that was appropriate to their needs,” she says. “I just wanted what every parent wants: A good solid education for my children.”

— Megan Griffith-Greene

“I felt bored, and I was getting in trouble a lot of the time. I didn’t fit in and I didn’t have a lot of friends,” says Jamie, 11. At Choice School for Gifted Children, in Richmond, British Columbia, that has all changed.

“When we get kids who have behaviours that are inappropriate, we certainly don’t allow those behaviours but we understand where they’re coming from,” teacher Karen Noel-Bentley explains. Teachers redirect energies into “Choice Challenges” and “Passion Projects” that allow the kids to pursue their own interests during the school week, whether it be dinosaurs, insects or The Chronicles of Narnia.

“It challenges me in a way that makes me want to do it,” says Jamie. “Everyone accepts you because you’re like everybody. In Choice, everyone’s like you.”

— Heather Greenwood Davis

Age 16 and an aspiring doctor, Indu has already travelled to China, worked in a teaching hospital and studied politics in Ottawa. The mandatory external studies program at St. Mildred’s-Lightbourne School in Oakville, Ontario made it possible. “It gives all of us a chance to broaden our skills and knowledge and do really interesting things,” says Indu, who spent a month working with genetics researchers at two of the top hospitals in the country. “I can’t even express how much I learned from this experience. You really get to know the field.”

— Heather Greenwood Davis