Quote: You mentioned the school for the arts. What interests does she have there? Is she talented? Any way to boost her PMA by validating her strengths and creating a positive outlet for her?
She's a brilliantly talented singer/songwriter - has written close to 100 songs in the past couple of years, most of them brilliant, insightful, with great catchy hooks. In fact, she had just started doing a little bit of recording and performed at a couple of open mike nights to great response before the ED took over her life. She has continued to write throughout, but not recording or performing.
I think she thinks kids in the PA school will share more of her interests - which is possibly true, altho I think there are plenty of kids right here who do, she's just not gravitating to them. Given her talent, she would be a little bit of an awkward fit into the PA curriculum, which seems to divide between classical music (emphasis on sight reading, which she hates, and clssical repertoire, which she has never liked) and theater arts (she can sing and act, but really, the singer/songwriter gig is her thing, she's performed in plays before but isn't dying to do it again. She used to get all the big villainess parts because she has such a big stage presence and a really loud chest voice).
The main problem with this is the nearly one-hour commute across the city to the school - which would mean 2 hours a day of commuting for her, and 3 to 4 hours for me if I can't find a carpool! I'm just not sure how we would manage it.
I am hopeful that if she goes to the independent study program, she would have more time to focus on getting back into recording and copywriting her music.
