Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion High Expectations and hard Work

Thought this would be appreciated.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1169801.ece

Gosh, I found that sort of sad. I don't know. Mixed emotions.

Not sure that the push for perfection will serve him well in the long run... but it is thrilling that he will get the chance to "leave his room" for a place like Dartmouth with all the costs paid. Hard to blame his parents for keeping such a tight leash in that kind of neighborhood environment. All in all, I think it is a very good story.

Very sad. The saddest thing that hit me about it was that it took 18 lonely years to find people he had something in common with. I guess so many of our kids don't find "their people" until college and many never do.

That really strikes a chord because My DD17 just found her perfect fit college against all odds and when I saw her there with the other bright engaged students, well, her light just came back on. It was like the she came out of a coma that she had slowly slipped into throughout the last 6 years of a lousy school fit. I had had no idea how lonely she had been.

I teared up reading it. Thanks for posting the link.

This is what I meant when I said it was sad. There was clearly so much pressure on that kid, and it sounds like he didn't get much chance to play. I can understand the parents' POV, and yet sometimes I think these kids who are compelled to achieve by family pressure crash and burn later on. It can get to be overwhelming, and I worry that a kid like this is going to go off the rails when a failure happens.

Hauntingly sad to be that alone, not fitting in anywhere. I hope that he already knows/will learn that there are many people out in the world who will warmly receive him and help him along his path. He doesn't have to do it alone.

I sort of wonder about the reporter's take. The article has such a strong tone about him being locked in his room that I really wonder if that is even accurate. He was playing football and he was class president, it isn't like he had no life. In the video he comes across as a self assured, happy young man who is highly motivated. Hope he has a good life.

I didn't watch the video, but I absolutely see your point, ptp--a lot of this piece is potentially reporter slant.

Everyone is under pressure. His peers in his neighborhood dealt with the pressure by conforming with the status quo, as most people do, and their parents dealt with it by letting their kids do what the other kids were doing.

I think its sad to think that most of the kids in his area did not have high expectations put on them. And are now basically lost.

I heard a term once, "The Tyranny of Low Expectations."

At least no one tried to beat him up - but mainly because he was a star athlete.