A Smarty Pants

Chase got some great news in the mail today. He was accepted into the P.A.G.E. program at Kalles Junior High. P.A.G.E stands for Puyallup accelerated gifted education. Puyallup pulls all of its advanced learners from all of its schools and clusters them all in one school to focus on offering them an accelerated education. Chase took a six hour test a few weeks ago in order to apply for admittance. It was grueling. They administered verbal, spacial, and then regular kinds of tests (math, vocab, reading comprehension etc..). He also had to produce a writing sample. I couldn't believe how intense it was. Six hours was longer than I spent taking my ACT exam to gain college entrance! I still remember peeking at him through the window while he was working on his writing sample and seeing him sitting there with a dictionary checking all of his spelling (his kryptonite).

This was all Chase's idea. Depending on the day I feel differently about it. He will not be going with any of his friends and classmates onto Ferrucci Middle school. But then on the other hand what an amazing opportunity to go to a school where all of your peers are on a similar page and teachers are focused on pushing you to be the best you can be. So we will leave the decision up to Chase. But I am pretty sure, judging by how excited and persistent he has been thus far, that he will choose to attend Kalles.

I hope the school is strong in other areas other than just academics. I hope it has a strong student leadership program. I also hope that they offer good extra curricular programs. We will see.

But we sure are proud of our son. He is a real go getter this one! And ever since our last trip to see Great Grandpa up in Provo and having Papo talk to the kids about what a great school BYU is and how difficult it is to get admitted, Chase has had a mission. So...only time will tell. Do you think when he is 21 that he will still want to stay with his Great Grandpa while attending college?????