Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Race to Nowhere- any thoughts?

I couldn't agree more.

The workload (as in VOLUME) is soul-crushing-- not the difficulty of that work-load. (I say that with respect to the expectations that are standard in my DD's virtual high school curriculum. It's insane-- even a reasonably competent and diligent student could easily spend fifty hours a week on just academics.)

In other words, all kids are being asked to do 25 math problems each night because some of them can't learn the material any other way. But what about my kid, who is ready for that level of mathematics instruction, but who is absolutely incapable of producing the volume expected of her?? What about kids that are ready to discuss literature critically... but don't see the point in ALSO writing a four page essay on the same exact subject (or don't have the ability/time to do so)?

I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that Bostonian is right, on the one hand. The movie is right, on the one hand. We are giving students way too much work. And it's way too easy. As in the other thread (the one about struggle/difficulty teaching more than edutainment does), it's not just quantity that matters here. But that seems to be lost on most administrators.

IMO where it also goes wrong is that not all of these concerned parents have kids that are appropriately placed to begin with. When the failure rate on AP exams in this country is now nearly 45%, that tells me that there are a lot of butts in those seats that probably don't have any business being there.

It's a problem, all right. But the problem is mostly with parents that WANT their kids to be... well, <blushes> like our kids.
Not all kids are like that. Why shouldn't they be allowed to be who they are? ALL of them, I mean.