Backgammon Part of Gifted Program

With four year olds doing fourth grade math and nine year olds opining about the dangers of end-times global warming, the folks at Dunham Academy seem to be keeping their gifted students on their toes. There are 52 students in the San Francisco school, which opened in 1998, range from 4 to 13 in a year round schedule (with a few weeks of vacation per year). Mixed age relationships are encouraged, as is free form instruction, and students are able to partake in plenty of mind-sculpting activities such as chess and backgammon along the way in the highly individualized curriculum.