He sounds like a very intelligent guy! How are the public schools where you live? I think what happened in the Amish community shows that no place is safe even when isolated as far as random acts of senseless violence goes.

I never had any abnormally bad experiences with public school in a large city, different schools at times. In fact, overall school was pretty good. There were lots of "magnet" schools in my area so I was able to get my kids into elementary school where arts and literature were the preferred focus.

Later one of them got into a High School for Performing Arts. The schools are public ones but this last one you have to have a portfolio of works of art to get into it and interview and be accepted. Yes, he dropped out of that but got into a university a few years later.

Sometimes I think there is so much adrenaline rush in life in the Family, often of the bad variety as in too much negative stress, or too much excitement and travel, that school seems very boring and tedious and hard to do.

I think it is your child's intelligence playing a large part in his boredom.

For mine, the sacrifices of travel to the school that was outside of his district, the hardships of getting up extra early and having to work extra hard were things he was not willing to do at the time. He got his act together after "camping out" with friends who ripped each other off and he saw those friends bailed out by parents getting worse and worse.

He got serious with his life, I helped him get a portfolio together in part, his art teacher from high school helped some too and he got his GED then went to this really great university where he EXCELLED.

Like you said, if it is a subject of interest, your son just cannot quit asking questions about the subject. That is GREAT. Is there a teacher he likes, maybe one of them who can help him and inspire him? IF not in the private school, maybe in a public or magnet school setting? I hope so.

In any case, we are all in your corner, and in his.

Gin, your post is very encouraging to me.
> Thanks for giving me a bit of hope in this
> dark time. Mine was never in the
> Family,so....
> He is bored most of the time, thinks he is
> wasting his time on topics that seem
> irrelevant for him. He is a bit annoying, I
> must say,because when he is interested in
> something, he will ask questions until
> someone drops dead )) and we were hoping
> that the school that we had chosen was
> exactly what he needed. It was a big
> sacrifice for us,but we were ready to do it.
> Anyway, now he is out of there and we have
> to find something else for him,even though
> he is not too enthusiastic about going
> anywhere else,but we have no choice by law
> in the country where we live. Correspondence
> courses are not an option until sixteen.