I've been lurking on this thread. The perspectives have been great and I really thank you all for sharing your experiences and your thoughts on this issue.

My daughter started middle school today. I'm actually more worried about the social aspects than the educational. Girls can be SO rough on each other.

My daughter is very bright but she can be lazy. I know that I will need to push her to read extra and do extra projects. I don't think they have "advanced" classes in the 6th grade level here - she only got her teacher/class list a couple of days ago. I'm in wait and see mode....