Your Decision
In the end, this whole decision of joining JEHP rides on whether you want to and whether you think you can benefit from it. To face the numerous people with other opinions of their own, you'll need to know which choice is right for you, for what reasons, and stand your ground. Studies show that for most gifted students, acceleration is the best method of education. The question is though, are you most gifted students? Can you handle...
- College level classes
- Seeing your peers for at least one period less in a day
The JEHP program's purpose is to help make the transition into college as easy as possible. So unlike your average college student, you'll still get a college counselor to whine to if you have an "unfair" teacher. Until the drop/add date, you can leave the program and go back to high school, they'll have a class waiting for you there. The list, if you noticed, of good, solid reasons why it's frightening to join JEHP is intentionally made small is because they know what the biggest reason is, and there's nothing they can do to make that go away. Nearly every JEHP student I've talked to also reports that while contemplating joining the program, they too were faced with that thought of, "I'm about to grow up a year sooner than I thought I was going to."
I don't know why that's as bone chilling as it is. Maybe it's, even for that one period, leaving your friends behind in "Neverland." The instant you get to college, you realise you've only grown an inch, but the anticipation of that inch coming sooner can't be denied. So the biggest question is not so much, "Can you handle the work?" because with your grades you've proven that. And the question is not, "Can you leave your friends for a period?" because if you can't, you should probably talk to a therapist. But the question is... can you handle growing up a year sooner?