It seems incredibly cruel to the child to be pushed so aggressively. Why any parent would want to make their child look more gifted than they naturally are is a total mystery to me. The underlying message is, "You are unlovable just the way you are."
If you are in NYC, and the choices are
(1) get your 120-IQ child into the 130-IQ threshold public school gifted program with some preparation
(2) pay $40K annually for private school
(3) put your 120-IQ child in a public school where the average IQ is maybe 90
You forgot one more option:
(4) Leave.
Sorry Bostonian, I see your point about bad schools in big cities, but two wrongs don't make a right and all that. No one is forcing anyone who can afford expensive test prep to live in a city where the competition for the gifted program is insane and many of the regular schools have serious problems.
It's the selfish attitude that bugs me the most. "I'll coach my kid into an extra ten points because
I don't want to leave Manhattan. Who cares about kids who actually
are gifted and don't get into these programs because of my little snowflake and others like him?
Too bad for them." If people were just buying a little $10 book, it wouldn't matter. But if that was all they were doing, the test prep industry there wouldn't even exist. And it's huge.
