Gifted Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum.

We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.
CLICK HERE to Log In. Click here for the Board Rules.

Links


Learn about Davidson Academy Online - for profoundly gifted students living anywhere in the U.S. & Canada.

The Davidson Institute is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted students through the following programs:

  • Fellows Scholarship
  • Young Scholars
  • Davidson Academy
  • THINK Summer Institute

  • Subscribe to the Davidson Institute's eNews-Update Newsletter >

    Free Gifted Resources & Guides >

    Who's Online Now
    0 members (), 239 guests, and 35 robots.
    Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
    Newest Members
    streble, DeliciousPizza, prominentdigitiz, parentologyco, Smartlady60
    11,413 Registered Users
    March
    S M T W T F S
    1 2
    3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
    24 25 26 27 28 29 30
    31
    Previous Thread
    Next Thread
    Print Thread
    Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
    #228688 03/16/16 09:32 AM
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    PG DYS DD got rejected by some prominent Bay Area independent middle schools last week. (see http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acronyms.htm). Okay, call 'em prep schools. I thought we could be among the 30% acceptance rate, based on her 99th percentile ISEE score, and the great essays from the $4000 private school consultant. Its possible by incompetence or malice her current school screwed up her recommendation letters. The schools say they had unprecedented applicants this year (maybe, though they say that every year). But I think the best theory is that many schools simply want extroverts rather than brains.

    So if I'm ready for further punishment for 9th grade, I have 3 years to put my modest proposal into effect. DD will be fed a steady diet of lead paint chips to dumb her down. Ritalin (essentially an amphetamine) to calm her down. And Prozac to make her into the extrovert the schools all want.

    Just joking, venting here folks. What will really happen is, a dose of the real world at the local public school. And a therapist, for me as much as for DD.

    It does get me thinking about how this gifted road never ends, the transition from 'native ability' to actual accomplishment, and how to fit in to polite society (or not) (being outnumbered).

    Last edited by thx1138; 03/16/16 11:07 AM.
    Joined: Nov 2015
    Posts: 29
    S
    Junior Member
    Offline
    Junior Member
    S
    Joined: Nov 2015
    Posts: 29
    +1 to Portia's comment. Not all independent schools are able or willing to differentiate in a way that is meaningful to G or MG kids, let alone PG.

    Last edited by SFParent2015; 03/16/16 11:10 AM.
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    I had the gifted school reject my DS. Now the prep school rejected my DD. Its hard not to take it personal. Its kind of like getting rejected by a basketball team for being too tall.

    I think your explanations are helpful. Though I did talk to a DYS parent at each school. Maybe I should have not mentioned DYS, that the school might think I feel entitled. Though at a school that offers financial aid example of cutting the tuition in half for parents with $400K income... I'm not the one who's a big risk for acting entitled.

    But yes, at one school the kids all get AoPS pre-algebra in 7th grade, while DD has it currently in 5th grade, and math isn't her strong suit.

    Joined: Dec 2012
    Posts: 2,035
    P
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    P
    Joined: Dec 2012
    Posts: 2,035
    Unfortunately prozac won't turn her into an extravert. The rest might work though. Can you get more info about how the decision was made? It probably won't help now but it might be useful later.

    Joined: Nov 2013
    Posts: 47
    M
    Junior Member
    Offline
    Junior Member
    M
    Joined: Nov 2013
    Posts: 47
    One of your comments really struck a chord with me. " And Prozac to make her into the extrovert the schools all want." I understand the need to vent, but I really do wonder about this. Having a dd12 who is very introverted, I'm wondering how high school interviews will go in another year. Does anyone have any suggestions for helping an introverted kid shine a little more in an interview? Or, otoh, feel that the introversion/extroversion issue is not really an issue for high school admissions? It does feel like dd has been overlooked on several occasions because she is not the kid who is waving her hand high in the air.

    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 639
    A
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    A
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 639
    Originally Posted by thx1138
    PG DYS DD got rejected by some prominent Bay Area independent middle schools last week. (see http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acronyms.htm). Okay, call 'em prep schools. I thought we could be among the 30% acceptance rate, based on her 99th percentile ISEE score, and the great essays from the $4000 private school consultant.

    You are talking about the bay area which is probably the most competitive place on earth with middle school kids already selling their second startup for multi millions while working on finding a cure for cancer and heading up a philanthropic organization to end world poverty - I am only somewhat kidding. The elite "prep" schools here have parents lobbying for their overachieving kids months in advance. They have referral letters and recommendation letters from college professors, VC's who have looked at their kids projects etc. So, a good way to deal with the rejection is to not take it personally and call the admissions director to ask if there was a way for your DD to get off the waitlist and into the second round of admissions - there are many kids who apply to many schools and will turn down some of the seats in favor of their first choice schools. Talk to the admissions officer about your DD's DYS status, her strengths and how you feel that their school might be the best fit for your DD in the bay area. That definitely helps.

    Good luck, I feel for you.

    Joined: Sep 2011
    Posts: 3,363
    P
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    P
    Joined: Sep 2011
    Posts: 3,363
    Originally Posted by thx1138
    PG DYS DD got rejected by some prominent Bay Area independent middle schools last week.

    Was she rejected or was she wait-listed? I'm not from the Bay Area, but I'm also not surprised that there are more applicants than available slots in schools in the Bay Area. In the schools we've dealt with, there is always a wait-list which students are either automatically put on or parents are given the option to put their student on. As ashley mentioned, there are likely students with acceptance to multiple schools, and once their parents have sorted that out and made their turn-down calls, space will open up. When you call and ask about wait lists, ask what # your child is on the wait list, but don't necessarily be intimidated if it's a large # - wait lists can go down quickly when it's the time of year that parents have to make final school decisions.

    I wouldn't assume that her current school "screwed up" her recommendation letters - what would be the reason to do that? Remember that school faculty and staff are professionals - how they represent a student in a letter reflects back upon their school.

    Did your dd have a shadow day at any of the schools, and did you have interviews? Honestly, if it's a situation where there are multiple applicants with equally impressive test scores and recommendations, I'd guess that there would be weight put on the in-person contacts - which isn't a bad thing at all. The private schools I've been associated with used those interviews and visits not to make judgements about students and parents but to try their best to determine if the particular school environment was the right place for the particular child. It's not a negative thing at all to have a school be honest in thinking that they aren't the right fit for your child - chances are if they think that, they aren't.

    And I'm also really curious about the private school consultant - what is the consultant's take on this? And did the consultant really help with essays? Is it possible that was detectable on the application?

    I hope you're able to find a good school fit for your dd - good luck looking forward -

    polarbear


    Joined: Oct 2014
    Posts: 104
    L
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    L
    Joined: Oct 2014
    Posts: 104
    I'm not sure I have anything helpful to say except that we were in a similar position last spring (for k admissions in San Francisco) and that I understand how you feel. I wrote a long, angry post last year, when my introverted son was rejected from most of the kindergartens we applied to. He did end up getting into one school, which has ended up being a good fit for him, but seeing people go through the same thing this year has brought up all of those hard feelings again.

    Would you be willing to PM me and let me know what schools you applied to? I'm not sure that I will be able to offer any help or offer any leads but it is worth a shot and it is good to share information so I know what schools we might want to avoid in the future!

    I hope that you have some options. If not, I will tell you that I had several friends whose kids didn't get into a single kindergarten last spring and within a couple of months, they all had spots at schools that ended up working for their kids. I am happy to share what I know- or to just commiserate- if you want to PM me.

    Fingers crossed that the coming weeks bring better news.

    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    Not waitlisted, just straight rejected, at both schools. Current school is fairly new, has been adding grades and hasn’t really graduated a full class yet. DD's teacher is new (first year teaching) and may not be versed in the nuances of recommendation letters.

    My hypothesis is its unlikely they filled a class with kids who scored 99th percentile across the 4 sections of the ISEE test.

    Regarding essays, consultant just helps with the parent essay. The student essay was entirely the work of DD with no help. Interestingly, the final section of the ISEE is an essay that is not graded but simply forwarded directly to the schools. They use it to compare with the application essay, to confirm the kid really wrote it.

    Thanks Lepa and all for the outpouring of sympathy. Do you have a link to your post? Wondering if I was as long or as angry.

    There was actually a third school where the admissions director said in as many words that they wanted DD. But it was just too far a drive and too small a school (we wanted something somewhat larger for middle school socialization) and we had abandoned our application.

    I don’t know how to develop self-esteem, bravery, extroversion in a child. For me it took an extended battery of psychedelic drugs over the course of a decade. I am reluctant to expose DD’s developing brain to this. Though I more or less came through better and somewhat unscathed.

    I suppose it sounds like sour grapes or venting, but one persistent theory is that schools want extraverts and not too high an IQ.

    If I run into the one admissions director at some event in town I will ask her what happened.


    Last edited by thx1138; 03/16/16 05:29 PM.
    Joined: Aug 2015
    Posts: 82
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Aug 2015
    Posts: 82
    So sorry about the schools. Rejection is hard, for whatever the reason.

    Don't get too hung up on extraversion, though. That's a personality trait that's hard to change. Focus if you'd like on behaviors, which you can change. You can't make an introvert want to party, but an introvert can learn to be assertive, respectful of social norms, and confident.

    Also, I'm not entirely convinced that you can't move along the extravert-introvert spectrum in life. Without psychotropic drugs, that is!

    I hope you do find a good place for your daughter, where she can develop confidence even as an introvert.

    Joined: Mar 2013
    Posts: 1,489
    B
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    B
    Joined: Mar 2013
    Posts: 1,489
    Sorry this happened to you. I suspect this is somewhat what it's like to get into the "top" colleges. You can have what seems like top scores & grades still get rejected from them. Because they are all looking for something "more" or something "special".

    Have you tried looking around some more at other options? The Bay Area seems to be filled with a lot more than where I live. I have a relative in the Bay Area who has gone the small quirky school route. One of the biggest drawbacks for this has been neither the junior high have required annoying commutes.

    I hope you can find something that will work out.

    Last edited by bluemagic; 03/16/16 08:29 PM.
    Joined: Sep 2013
    Posts: 848
    C
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    C
    Joined: Sep 2013
    Posts: 848
    Have you read Susan Cain's book "Quiet" yet? She also has a TEDTalk (maybe more than one) and a website (I think it is Quiet Revolution). It might be very helpful support for you and for your daughter.

    I echo bluemagic in the notion that finding a less intense middle school environment that allows for learning at her pace with less pressure and drama might be a good thing in the long run.

    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    Let me say at the outset that certainly DD has room for improvement, in terms of manners and being outgoing and extroverted.

    It’s important though that I put forward a conspiracy theory here. See for example The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Blacks, women, Jews, were historically discriminated against. And now, Asians. (DD is half Asian, which is probably an even worse sin).

    So the theory is simply that these schools are of, by, and for the 1%. I’m just the 5%, just upper-middle-class, not upper-class. The last thing they’d want is some outsider taking over the debate team… bumping one of “their” kids out of their allocation of 12 slots at Stanford.

    At the college level, there is more public scrutiny, more release of statistics. At the prep-school level there is more room for bias. But still there is a bit of chicanery. They say they select on test score. Certainly the 1% have full scope to pay for tutoring and courses. But even then, Stanford rejects 71% of applicants with perfect scores. They fall back to saying, they want applicants who are “well-rounded”. Who did community service. Certainly, at an elite boarding school, the children are offered easy access to practically a resort with a smorgasbord of extracurriculars. And this is extended to hand holding them into service projects.

    One counselor at DYS warned me off of Ivy League schools. I think it is not implausible that the gifted are suffering some discrimination in private school, prep school, and Ivy League admissions. The goalposts are always moving, with some plausibly deniable excuse: extroversion, "fit", test score, legacy, service, or "well-rounded". In the end, its the golden rule: the people with the gold make the rules.


    Last edited by thx1138; 03/17/16 08:55 AM.
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    Its probably a separate thread, and I apologize if I broke any rules or scandalized anyone, but I did want to bring this to your attention for the sake of parents and children alike "Researchers have found that those with high childhood IQs are more prone to illegal drug use as adults." https://www.thefix.com/content/iq-and-drug-use

    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posts: 3,296
    Val Offline
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posts: 3,296
    Thx1138, what exactly are you looking for in a school? There are many options in the Bay Area. If you wanted a prep school with a brand name, you're out of luck for now, but you can try again for 9th grade. That said, it's a horrible process around here, with acceptance rates around those for the Ivies.

    Alternatively, your daughter may wish to consider Middle College (MC) for high school. MC is a dual enrollment program at a local community college. As far as I know, all the districts around here have a MC program: De Anza, Mission, Foothill, San Jose, etc. The programs are free and a student can end up with an Associate's degree at the end of it. I can provide more information in this thread if anyone is interested. MC has been a wonderful thing for my DYS.

    I have information on other private schools; PM me if you're interested.


    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    Val, my logic was as conventional as, middle school leads to high school leads to university. Combines with this handy if dated chart http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-COLLEGE0711-sort.html

    I don’t want a prep school with a brand name per se. I want my kid at one of the top 5 or 10 colleges in the USA. Again not for the brand name per se. More because, it will give him a better view of the world order. More because, kids are influenced by peers. I figure those universities will have smart peers with good study habits.

    That said, if my child knew who he was and what he wanted from life, I’d take that over Yale. However, the odds of that may be just as low.

    I wouldn’t mind a school that actually nurtures the kids some and helps them with SEL, rather than expecting perfect specimens walking in the door to kindergarten or grade 5 or 9, but maybe that’s asking too much. Ditto for some understanding of gifted.

    Joined: Sep 2013
    Posts: 848
    C
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    C
    Joined: Sep 2013
    Posts: 848
    Originally Posted by thx1138
    I don’t want a prep school with a brand name per se. I want my kid at one of the top 5 or 10 colleges in the USA. Again not for the brand name per se. More because, it will give him a better view of the world order. More because, kids are influenced by peers. I figure those universities will have smart peers with good study habits.

    I know you're focused on this at the moment, but there's a school of thought that the future success stories will be the people who can think independently, function with all sorts of people and make decisions that may not be on the typical paths. I'm not convinced that the only people like this are going to come out of Ivy league schools, because they surely do not today.

    Yes to the peers having good study habits, but will they have good life habits? Or will they by then be standardized creatures, largely as the result of a forced march to making high grades (which does not meaning learning beyond the assignment/test) and for-show projects? That's if they don't crash and burn first.

    Joined: Mar 2013
    Posts: 1,489
    B
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    B
    Joined: Mar 2013
    Posts: 1,489
    Colleges don't know what junior high a kid attends. Yes it might help a child get into a top prep school. And ideally a top prep school will help a kid get into a "top" university. But I think that is a bit of a myth.

    If your one goal in entrance into an elite university I suggest you think outside the box. One thing I've found with 'top' university selection is they are often looking for a geographically diversity as well as as those extra's. Everyone is the Bay Area want their kids to go to an elite university, it's why the stress for the kids is so high. But for example only 2-4 students from my son's H.S. (not in Bay Area but a school/area that might as well be) get into Stanford every year, same with most of the Ivy's. You can look at the number of students accepted and for most of these schools it's only a handful. Yet many many more kids apply and most of these meet minimum requirements.

    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    bluemagic, I agree the specific correlations are not rock solid, there are a lot of variables, but this chart http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-COLLEGE0711-sort.html seems like there's some relationship.

    You make an excellent point about geographic diversity. Maybe I could move to a state that takes gifted seriously.

    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    These prep schools are often just aristocracies posing as meritocracies. What you get is, one such school, after all these years, their most notable graduate is Patty Hearst...

    Meanwhile the Ivy League schools are just hedge funds posing as public good. Disbursing 5% to the faculty is cheaper than paying taxes.

    Joined: Dec 2009
    Posts: 553
    I
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    I
    Joined: Dec 2009
    Posts: 553
    Our experience with elite prep schools is that a LOT of admissions slots are given to legacy students and students whose parents are likely to be large donors to the school. Then there is likely a diversity slice and some athletes -- and a few slots left for everyone else. We applied to the top K-12 school for our kids in another city, and both were rejected (one with a 160+ IQ...) -- we heard from someone later that there were TWO slots in the kindergarten class that did not fit one of those criteria I listed above. A ninth grade class may have more slots, but it is still fewer than you think if you are "unhooked". Hate to say it, but this is good preparation for applying to the very top colleges -- there are a lot fewer slots for unhooked kids there than the colleges like to admit, too.

    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 639
    A
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    A
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 639
    Originally Posted by intparent
    Our experience with elite prep schools is that a LOT of admissions slots are given to legacy students and students whose parents are likely to be large donors to the school. Then there is likely a diversity slice and some athletes -- and a few slots left for everyone else. We applied to the top K-12 school for our kids in another city, and both were rejected (one with a 160+ IQ...) -- we heard from someone later that there were TWO slots in the kindergarten class that did not fit one of those criteria I listed above. A ninth grade class may have more slots, but it is still fewer than you think if you are "unhooked". Hate to say it, but this is good preparation for applying to the very top colleges -- there are a lot fewer slots for unhooked kids there than the colleges like to admit, too.
    You also forgot to add the students of staff members of whom there are a lot.
    In the "elite" school in my area, here is how it goes: if there are 100 seats for K, they try to allocate 50% of them to boys and the rest to girls to keep up gender diversity. If you had a boy, he is automatically competing for one of the 50 seats and not 100 seats. Then, those 50 seats for boys get further sub-divided between - the legacy quota, the donor quota, the staff quota, the sibling quota, the seats for the "notable achievers" (that 5 year old that played in Carnegie hall or has a sky high USCF rating etc), the quota for "financial aid" students (their charter insists on "financial diversity"), the quota for "celebrities" (founder of hedge fund, CEO, politician, potential donor, notable sportsman), the quota for kids referred to them by the school board. In reality, there is hardly a single seat left for a well performing gifted kid without any "Hooks". I was told that many long time staff had to wait for years to get their kids into their schools (staff quota was limited to a certain %). So, a PG boy (or girl) with a sky high WPPSI score or a 99 percentile ISEE score (higher grades) with no hooks might not end up with a seat at all because the real quota for such a candidate is 1 or 2 seats and not the 100 openings that they talk about during admissions events. The K entrance sounded a lot like the Ivy league admissions.

    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    Your analysis sounds likely. Perhaps its more pronounced at the local level than at the Ivies. I heard of one study that said legacy doesn't increase donation. At the college level. Note also that MIT and Cal Tech don't do legacy. I think Harvard and Stanford are up front about, endow a chair ($3mm?), get your kid in.

    But local prep schools might actually need those endowment donations. Not having $20 - 40 billion to kick around. They'll be more enmeshed with local politics.

    I think the big intake years are generally K, 6, 9.

    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 639
    A
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    A
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 639
    Originally Posted by thx1138
    I think Harvard and Stanford are up front about, endow a chair ($3mm?), get your kid in.
    I am off to buy my super lotto ticket ... grin (just kidding). All jokes aside, it is good to know that these things are going on in the Ivy race - I am just a parent of an elementary school kid and these threads are a learning experience for me.

    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    Knowing Stanford, it's probably per child...

    Crystal Springs, after 75 years, their most notable alumni... Patty Hearst. Hmmm. That's what comes of an aristocracy masquerading as a meritocracy.

    Meanwhile, at Menlo School,

    Posted by in the know
    a resident of Old Palo Alto
    on May 16, 2014 at 3:08 pm
    Menlo is going through a huge transition right now, after a period of very rapid growth from its roots as a folksy boarding school for the scions of the old Atherton ruling class to a highly competitive first-tier college prep school. The recent former leadership had serious flaws, and the influence of these flaws permeated the institution. For a while, teacher morale was quite low. There is at least one case of a mid-to-senior level manager being promoted to a truly Peter-Principle-level of incompetence after a decidedly checkered history as a teacher (if you think the Phil Winston affair was tawdry, this one would knock your socks off). There is/was no transparency in the salary "scale" (meaning there is not actually a scale, unlike Sacred Heart, which has a totally transparent scale), and instead salary negotiations with teachers were used as a bargaining cudgel and a weapon. There were several cases of very well-liked and highly respected veteran teachers being run out of a job based on political bickering and petty personal revenge tactics by senior management. (In several cases lawsuits were brought but immediately settled with total confidentiality in order to avoid bad PR.) Certain parents who were wealthy enough wielded inordinate influence with the administration and were able to shield their children from any consequences for truly reprehensible behavior, which in one case led to at least one staff member resigning in disgust. In other cases summary "judgment" was delivered against students based on hearsay and rumor, without regard to the actual facts of the situation. Other students and parents saw this and the message was clear - money talks, ethics walk, influence is everything, and politics is king. A great role model for young people. That model will take some undoing, which may be happening now. There is a new head, who is evidently instituting a new regime, and time will tell whether the overall climate at the school improves.


    Last edited by thx1138; 04/12/16 07:52 PM.
    Joined: Mar 2013
    Posts: 1,453
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Mar 2013
    Posts: 1,453
    Originally Posted by thx1138
    Knowing Stanford, it's probably per child...

    Crystal Springs, after 75 years, their most notable alumni... Patty Hearst. Hmmm. That's what comes of an aristocracy masquerading as a meritocracy.

    Meanwhile, at Menlo School,

    Posted by in the know
    a resident of Old Palo Alto
    on May 16, 2014 at 3:08 pm
    Menlo is going through a huge transition right now, after a period of very rapid growth from its roots as a folksy boarding school for the scions of the old Atherton ruling class to a highly competitive first-tier college prep school. The recent former leadership had serious flaws, and the influence of these flaws permeated the institution. For a while, teacher morale was quite low. There is at least one case of a mid-to-senior level manager being promoted to a truly Peter-Principle-level of incompetence after a decidedly checkered history as a teacher (if you think the Phil Winston affair was tawdry, this one would knock your socks off). There is/was no transparency in the salary "scale" (meaning there is not actually a scale, unlike Sacred Heart, which has a totally transparent scale), and instead salary negotiations with teachers were used as a bargaining cudgel and a weapon. There were several cases of very well-liked and highly respected veteran teachers being run out of a job based on political bickering and petty personal revenge tactics by senior management. (In several cases lawsuits were brought but immediately settled with total confidentiality in order to avoid bad PR.) Certain parents who were wealthy enough wielded inordinate influence with the administration and were able to shield their children from any consequences for truly reprehensible behavior, which in one case led to at least one staff member resigning in disgust. In other cases summary "judgment" was delivered against students based on hearsay and rumor, without regard to the actual facts of the situation. Other students and parents saw this and the message was clear - money talks, ethics walk, influence is everything, and politics is king. A great role model for young people. That model will take some undoing, which may be happening now. There is a new head, who is evidently instituting a new regime, and time will tell whether the overall climate at the school improves.


    Sounds like a true ameritocracy


    Become what you are
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    T
    thx1138 Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    T
    Joined: Jan 2012
    Posts: 115
    As you sit in the wood paneled admissions office awaiting your tour, I recommend you leaf through the old yearbooks. I couldn't help notice a pattern. Every class had the 2 Chinese kids, the 2 Indian kids, the 1 African-American kid, and maybe the 1 Hispanic kid. I can only conclude there is a certain template for each class. Thus your kid isn't competing for one of 30 slots, she's competing for the 1 slot for an asian girl. Currently even the ivy league discriminates against asians. In smaller private schools that aren't as high profile, they can get away with even more bias.

    Joined: May 2016
    Posts: 24
    A
    Junior Member
    Offline
    Junior Member
    A
    Joined: May 2016
    Posts: 24
    I am really glad I looked up bay area because I live in the DC area, and TOTALLY thought you meant Chesapeake Bay area. I was going to tell you to move to Fairfax or Loudun because they have the highest funded school systems in the country, buuut theirs this large thing called the great planes, and its smack dab in the middle of the two coasts. and don't try to make her an extrovert, it won't work. maybe get her tested to see what her grade level is? and then skip to that grade?

    Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

    Moderated by  M-Moderator 

    Link Copied to Clipboard
    Recent Posts
    Testing with accommodations
    by aeh - 03/27/24 01:58 PM
    Quotations that resonate with gifted people
    by indigo - 03/27/24 12:38 PM
    New, and you'd think I'd have a clue...
    by astronomama - 03/24/24 06:01 AM
    For those interested in astronomy, eclipses...
    by indigo - 03/23/24 06:11 PM
    Son 2e, wide discrepancy between CogAT-Terranova
    by astronomama - 03/23/24 07:21 AM
    Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5