One of Davidson's consultants confided to me that there are parents who join davidson YSP hoping to finally feel at home, but have the experience that the kids being talked about on the email lists seem 'not at all like' their own children to the point where they don't feel welcome to share their family's experience for fear of people thinking that they are fibbing.
That's a shame! The top end of the curve--the very VERY top end--should be able to talk freely there of all places!
I certainly wouldn't doubt what another parent was telling me.
After receiving his IQ & AT results, I was stunned. "This is not my child!" I said to myself... and others. But I said this because I was comparing him to descriptions of the EG/PG kids described in various articles (esp. Miraca Gross) and was certain that unlike many of the profiled kids, mine wasn't up in his room working on particle physics in his spare time.
I hear you.
I experienced a bit of "imposter syndrome" for DS8 at our first DYS event. I realized later, however, that I was comparing DS to kids a year or two older than he was. In the "real world," that comparison is close enough to work. At events for HG+ kids, however, even a few months matters a lot! A year or two apart is MILES apart! I realize now that he is now where those kids who seemed so "out there" and were a bit older were. Just because they can play Pokemon together doesn't mean they're the same age!
DS8 is not the smartest kid in the DYS program by a longshot, but he fits in there, I think. Certainly he had the sorts of fitting-in problems at school that required special attention beyond what the "normal" gifted kid would need.
I think that much of what we're talking about is personality and interest more than ability. DS8 is a laid-back kid, and he likes Star Wars and Legos, so he can look like a "normal" kid (whatever that means!). But he learns things seemingly through osmosis, he learns things deeply and responds creatively, and he needs to be challenged or he is miserable. When something strikes his fancy, he pursues it vigorously.
So no physics lab in the basement for us, but I wouldn't bet against its presence a few years from now! MILES away!
