Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
Originally Posted by Dude
It's not like we needed a study, though, because this point is self-evident on this site. Raising high-IQ children is EXPENSIVE, and failure to provide certain interventions can set these children up for failure. For a family that can't afford the investments in time and resources...

I think that this confuses "raising a high-IQ child" with "grooming for material success."

It's not necessarily "expensive" to enrich a PG child. Even living in a non-urban, fairly blue-collar environment, there are libraries, the internet, and homeschooling opportunities, open source resources, etc.

But it is expensive to TigerParent. What costs so much, ironically, are those things that appeal not solely to PG children and their parents, but the things which are also trappings of high SES: private music lessons, travel, competitions, golf/polo/fencing/rowing/horses, designer camps/classes, etc.

I'm not dismissing the value of those things. Well, maybe I am arguing the value of those things-- from a purely monetary standpoint, I mean. I'm not sure that they do deliver "value" but I see why they are appealing.

I'm just stating that they aren't as strictly necessary as many of us have been conditioned to think.

For example: one can spend thousands each year on just math enrichment/education for a PG 3rd grader. OR... one could spend about $25 USD for Singapore Math's Primary Mathematics (2 full years, even!) and a few hours a week of a parent's time, which is less (by far) than even most standard packages from American textbook producers, and is certainly better quality pedagogically speaking.

Is the larger expense "necessary?" I don't know the answer, but I do know that we chose the $25 route. Maybe we're just 'cheap' that way.

"Expensive" is a relative term. The median household income in the US is around $52k a year, and that's with a whole lot of two-income families mixed in. For such a family in a non-urban, blue-collar environment, the internet is usually an option, though speeds can be an issue. Library trips are limited by time available. Open source is only an option if you have the technical savvy to support it. And homeschooling, for a two-income family, is a non-starter. Such families may also struggle to find the time and money to take their children to extracurriculars, especially if they have more than one child. This means those lessons of learning to fail and growing from it, of doing something hard and not giving up, can be left out... lessons which can help all children, but are VITAL to gifted ones.

I'm definitely not talking tiger-mom, Yale-prepping here. That's a game I refuse to play, but I still see how much I'm spending on my DD, and how it would be impossible for us to do on the median household income.

In your example above, the $25 Singapore investment is probably not a deal-breaker, but a few hours a week may be.