This is interesting to me because DD's gifted magnet makes a big deal of emphaszing "leadership." It strikes me as a bit odd. Just because you're very bright doesn't mean you're a leader.
I almost feel like they are trying to create some sort of weird sense of "noblesse oblige" in these kids.
They may in fact be unapologetically grooming kids for Ivy League colleges, which are at least as much about hooking into the power elite as they are about getting a good education.
Here's a very interesting piece that speaks to this:
http://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/ The first several paragraphs are rather dull, "educated people don't know how to talk to the plumber" kind of stuff, so I recommend starting at the 12th paragraph ("The political implications don't stop there . . .")
"Leadership," just as much as ability, is exactly the point at some of these universities, and at the feeder schools that start the culling process.
