Originally Posted by ultramarina
The interesting thing about this thread is that in the end, not all of us in this forum are parents of PG kids.

So, I think I'm going to close this tab now, having been reminded of the general opinion of what my kids are doing to the education of yours.

I do realize this is the Davidson board. I guess I forget that sometimes.

My apologies, UM, if anything that I have said (playfully or otherwise) has given you cause for offense or hurt.

I do assume that the vast majority of us are here because our kids are HG+, and really-- IF, as Old Dad noted early on-- IF everyone's kids were given reasonably good educational options that didn't mean competing for an "appropriate" (or perhaps just "more appropriate") education, much of this problem would vanish all on its own.

Sadly, I understand what motivates TigerParents of bright-but-not-gifted students to try to make them appear to be HG/HG+. I do. I just wish that there were somewhere that were functionally off-limits to them so that HG+ kids could be themselves without a lot of holds barred intellectually. frown I consider that to be akin to making sure that penguins and emus don't wind up on the tarmac where they are likely to get run over, and if there are enough of them, they'll prevent the other birds from managing a nice take-off.

Not all of us live in places where HG+ magnets abound. In fact, I'd venture to guess that the majority of us do NOT live in such places, ergo the high rate of homeschooling parents here. For many of us, this is the ONLY way to get our kids appropriate educational opportunity, but it comes at the expense of our kids ever really enjoying a deep discussion with peers. For some kids that is okay, and for others not so much. The kids who are mostly mathy probably have a lot less trouble this way.

That isn't my daughter. She desperately wants peers who are equally bright, and she is endlessly disappointed to find that the majority of the kids she runs into are doing what they are doing because someone ELSE thought they should... or because of how it will look to someone else. frown That's rather sad all the way around-- but it's not a surprise that they don't want my DD to get the teacher/leader going on something even more nuanced/difficult if they aren't passionate about it to start with. Therefore, she gets told to "shut up" when things get (in her mind) most interesting and engaging. By TigerCubs and the teachers who have learned to cater to them.

I really, really doubt that anyone here is a TigerParent like that. SERIOUSLY doubt it.

But my apology is sincere if anything I've written stings. I would like it most if educating children didn't feel so much like a zero-sum game in this country right now.

Right. Back to Nihilism, Beliebers and USN&WR.

Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.