I'll also add that I think encouraging kids like me into magnets that seem to suit their abilities is fine... BUT... not if it limits their ability to fully develop unrelated areas of potential.
That's something that my parents did really right, but only because they didn't know any other way. If I'd had a way to get into a STEM high school, I'd have been there, and it would have been sad in the end, if I'd missed out on some of the truly exceptional material I was exposed to in the social sciences and in English literature and composition during those three years.
For this reason, I'm not a fan of early specialization in a child with multipotentiality.
Development of multiple areas is too important to their ability to sustain work-life balance in the face of all that life throws down at us.
I'm not working in my field anymore (special needs parenting can do that in a heartbeat, by the way). But the other things that I had as areas of giftedness and the other potential that I took the time to develop (musical, social, and service/leadership) continue to give my life meaning and satisfaction.
