Gabriel

I am a former student who attended Shady Grove for my 5th grade through 8th grade years. I am now 27. My advise for parents considering placing their kids in a small country school such as Shady Grove is to consider the dramatic change of going from a class of only 10 kids for several years until 9th grade having to move to a highschool with 300+ kids in your grade and most of them grew up together. It is a culture shock and would make the most confident child question everything about themselves or change to fit in with some group. Shady Grove didnt prepare me or my fellow classmates for this change and over the next 4 years we watched each other struggle with coping on a intellectual and social level as other students in the same grade. I did graduate highschool but I absolutley hated every moment of it. I didn't hate the experience because I was picked on or because I missed my old school but because I knew I wasnt smart enough or ready to take on the classes I was given. I dont blame Shady Grove for these failures completley but knowing now what I didnt know than I wish more than anything my parents would of placed me in school at Tahlequah Central.