Originally Posted by MonetFan
Perhaps, and perhaps this is where my idealism shows. For me anyway, the end goal of education is to produce an enlightened individual, not to gain entrance to a particular college. Yeah, I know...

Me too. And this belief is precisely why I've argued what I have here. Unfortunately, a very large number of parental units (and many kids) don't see it that way. For them, college is about certification and status. These attitudes, plus the push for everyone to go to college, are important factors in the packing of AP and honors classes with kids who aren't prepared for the material, and for the rush to get kids into algebra and geometry classes at earlier ages.

There are two bad outcomes:

1. These classes are getting packed with kids who are there for reasons very different from wanting to learn. This creates problems for the ones who are there to learn. I think of the first group as as the "Is this going to be on the test?" crowd.

2. Kids who really aren't ready for these classes are being forced into them by tiger parents, tiger schools, or other reasons. The result is that they end up spending hours every night on homework so that, as a few have noted on this thread, they can look HG+ on paper. It's destructive and a form of child abuse IMO.

I see your points about different motivations among different people and that IQ isn't everything. I agree that there's a lot more to talent than IQ. But at the same time, it's still a big deal.