"I am wondering if you really believe this? It hasn't been my experience at all, and I wouldn't want my children thinking so either."
It has absolutely been my experience. I won't put my CV on here but essentially, since the recession started, I haven't been able to get work at even 75% of what I was earning before, no matter how hard I try and how many side-projects I do. I tried to get investors for a business but I just didn't know enough people--leads were dry within a day. I work in the public sector so 75% of a salary is about half what people with my skills make in the private sector. Only the skills are parallel skills: all the software is different so I can't transfer laterally.
As for my kid, she got 99th percentile (they don't use decimals) on both math and verbal on the subject tests. However, her CogAT tests were low--very low. Just as I thought: she is very, very smart, but she is not the type of thinker they are looking for in the program.
Four more years of supplementation and extra homework until middle-school when she can choose her classes and they take performance over IQ scores. Sigh. It could be worse. At least I know the education system. I can get her to that level, no problem.
Then she will be in with all the gifted kids anyway. The trick will be getting her to stick with it and not think she's stupid until then. My stepson, in the same school, says that the gifted kids call the general education kids stupid on the playground, and he himself has said 'I'm not one of the smart kids' to us... he is 99th% math performance, 95th% verbal. 'If I were smart I'd be with the smart kids.' There is no advocating for this. He's not gifted, he's just really smart and quick.
I might move her to immersion for that reason alone.
