My children have always tested a few grade levels above their current grade, are intelligent, inquisitive, and excited about school; so when I moved for medical school, I was apprehensive as well. Our previous school wasn't the best in our area, but we moved to "welfare city" for medical school, where the national exam scores are well below average. Yippee. 🙁
We went and talked to the teachers. They were excited to hear from us, outlined materials they had access to for our children, programs they had in place for those few students who wanted challenge, and promised to work with us as a team. With a few momentary exceptions, we haven't been disappointed. We have noticed that teachers LOVE to teach -- and the biggest obstacle to their goal is the children's home life. It's sad to see how difficult it is to teach children when they don't get enough sleep, their diet is poor, and worst of all, their parents discourage homework and learning. Yes, it's true -- there are many families out there who don't have bedtimes for their children and actively encourage their kids to stay up until 11 pm so the parents can "spend time with their kids". Likewise, there are parents who discourage homework because it "takes time away from my time with my kid." No wonder our nation's children have exam scores in the toilets.
I digress. Even in welfare city we have found extra programs for our children: my daughter is in a galley readers' group. They get advance copies of not-yet-published books for reading, they read the books and send reports back to the publisher and editor about what was good or bad about the book. How it was written, the story line, the flow of the book, what they should change to make it a better book, etc. Currently my daughter voluntarily goes through four or five books a month and writes reports on all of them. There are lots of sports things, extra science gems tucked away in odd places to go see and get involved in, etc. And, of course, there is always some sharing of medical school that can go on. The teachers at their school have been wonderful and are pushing our kids. Their test scores are on track from where they were before and they are in advanced classes, sometimes being placed with higher grades for certain subjects.
All this takes effort on your part at the beginning of the year. Every medical school in the country has good school districts and poor ones nearby, depending on the cost of housing, transportation time, etc. Get into medical school first. Then look at options around the schools (if you are fortunate enough to have a choice) for the best schools for your kids, housing, etc.
Good luck to you. It's quite a ride. 🙂
