Long Island School for The Gifted, Huntington Station NY

I am very grateful for the education my children have received at LISG. The school has nurtured their intellect and enabled them to think outside the box. We also love the cultural diversity of the school.

Excellent school. I have two children ages 9 and 11 attending since pre k. Both love it. My husband and I feel the school provides the best education on Long Island. Safe, nurturing environment. Very strong academically. Keeps children challenged. Teachers and administrators seem to really care and take an interest in each child.
New head of school very dedicated and extremely receptive to concerns of students and parents. Willing to think outside the box and tailor education to individual needs. Wouldn’t trade this school for the world.

Okay, having gone to this school for a very long time, I have a few things to say.

First, something interesting I thought I might mention is that I've changed my review a few times over the years. Maybe by explaining why I can explain something about the nature of this school.

The classes are excellent and the teachers actually teach their own course rather than teach the textbook. You learn things for the sake of learning, not for the tests.

So, in terms of academics, this school does go above and beyond, but what LISG often misses the mark on is the social aspect of a healthy school experience.

The school is small, which definitely helps in terms of academics, but can go very, very wrong in terms of social interaction.

When I first entered the school, in maybe second or third grade, I enjoyed it a lot. There were these new people I could be friends with, the classes were finally a relief from the public school curriculum where I was stuck below my grade level, and the teachers seemed nice.

Except, after a few years, everyone had their friend groups and I wasn't really in any of them. Thirty kids isn't many, so there weren't a huge amount of people I could meet for the first time and be friends with.

Because LISG is a private school and I lived sort of far away, I rarely got to see the few friends I did make.

Sure, I did activities in my hometown, and made friends from there, but there's nothing worse than being a nine or ten year old who spends seven hours a day in a school with no real sense of childhood. It sucked.

Quite a few times, I thought about leaving the school, but stayed because of the education I was getting.

Once I got older, things started to change a little bit. It'd been 5,6,7 years, and people were starting to reform in their friendgroups. Yes, for the most part everything stayed the same, but a few things shifted.

I was no longer crushingly lonely. The small group of kids that had once kept me out of the social circle pushed me into it. I had people to study with, and school became actually a little bit enjoyable.

If you can, send your kid to LISG. It's not perfect, but it's more than worth it.

I think that this is a highly prosperous school. When it comes to the academics part, they hit the nail on the head. While I didn't think there was quite enough social time when I was there (09-14), I don't think that that should be a top priority of a school, and this school is very good overall.

I went to this school for 7 years. 3rd grade through 9th grade. 1992-1999. So it was a formative and scarring experience. Could've changed since then. I have no idea. Never been back. Basically teachers who can't make it in public school or who are easing into retirement. Extremely rigid teaching structure in a spartan physical environment. The only thing that makes it "gifted" is the classes tend to be 3 years accelerated above grade level. Draconian punishments from Tropper like silent lunches for everyone because of some minor infraction. Or silent lunch detention for missing a homework deadline for a 9 year old. They would announce the lunch detention attendees before lunch started to the whole school so there was an element of social ostracism thrown in for good measure. Lots of joy! My last day there before graduation the entire school had to spend the entire day in the gym on the floor in silence, staring at the walls because someone put an unflattering picture of tropper on a bulletin board. Anyway recess would last like 12 minutes on the days you were lucky enough to escape detention and silent lunches and I'm socially scarred and awkward because I spent my entire childhood cramming for tests instead of learning to socialize. Entire weeks would pass were I would just have a perfunctory few seconds of communication with my peers before classes started. If you can- pay up a little more and send your kid to a classy prep school like Friends or Greenvale. The only good teacher was Mrs. Shukla. Lots of wierdo teachers. But you don't have to take my word for it. Just look up "Michael Reiner". He was always quite open with us kids about his predilection for juvenile cannibalism but he taught there for over a decade. He wasn't even the weirdest just the one doing the most blatantly illegal insanity. Place should be shut down and save a lot of kids a lot of heartache. I don't understand why Reiner got 100% of the heat for his actions and this place got off scot-free.

The teachers and administrators are nice we have awesome iPads in science and we learn a lot in all our subjects, it's an amazing school and should not be getting one star reviews people don't appreciate nice things.

I am a student here and these one star reviews are bs. This is a great school and one will learn a ton 1-3 grades above one's level. The only downside is that there is not much physical activity. Recess is 5-15 minutes long and one has gym only twice a week. The math and science programs are off the charts amazing. I definitely recommend this school! Just that it's all brain, no brawn.

The school made a student take down a review just because the student was speaking his or her mind.

LISG was the bright point of my childhood. We all still talk on Facebook, and we share an espirit de corps that is very.familial.

Don't stress about the negativity: LISG is full of caring teachers who could easily teach at the college level. The focus should be on our children's education, and LISG teachers always allowed us to find our own level.

Much love to all, Issy