Considering putting your child in a gifted-talented program?

A parent in another district asked me about putting her child in a new program for gifted children in their district.

I have a question. If one of your children had had the opportunity to go to an exceptionally-gifted program within your school district, would you have sent him/her? Even if it meant you had kids at another school?
I'm facing this decision and my pro/con list seem to balance each other out. The curriculum for Adam [not his real name] is amazing. Classroom laptop, Spanish every day, twice as many field trips, inquiry based, Skyping with countries, global discussions, and a math/reading/etc curriculum that's two years ahead of grade level.
But it means leaving his sister at her school. She could go to the same school as Adam, but she doesn't want to, nor would I make her.  Plus I worry about socialization, even though they integrate the students for lunch, art, recess, strings, music, p.e., and field trips. (Plus, it sort of disturbs me that our district spends so much on this academy for such a few students when their general gifted programs need work)



I will try to respond with the proviso that I don't know your children nearly well enough to respond!  Nor their current situation nor the new school :-) 

Having said that, I get excited when I hear "inquiry based."  Done right, that can be wonderful learning.  Spanish every day -- if primarily oral -- would also be exciting.  American schools are ridiculous for teaching kids a foreign language but never learning how to speak it.  The other points I'd ask questions about: Is this a one-to-one laptop program (each child has their own)?  Those are exciting too, if done right, but I don't have first-hand experience and I'd want to know if it's been shown to be useful for kids Adam's age.  The Skyping and global discussions can be good spurs for inquiry learning.  And great motivators if the kids present their projects to an "audience" of students in another school.  Heck, any audience does wonders for student motivation. 

Is this a daily program or would he just go there a few days a week?  The socialization question is an important one but only you can answer that.  I guess I'd also want to know what is the attitude within the program.  I've seen GT programs that talked explicitly with the kids about how they were unique, which I think has the potential to foster an elite attitude.