Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How asinine is the US educational system?

My ds11 is a hodgepodge of that chart. I would have no way of nailing him in anyone one of those catagories.

You don't have to. People can be all three!

If you dig around a bit on the site linked, you'll find an explanation that this chart was developed with the idea that Val mentioned - people can be all three or a mix of each. The person who developed the chart did so because she felt a previously published comparison on high achievers vs gifted individuals was too black and white, saying things like all gifted people are creative thinkers etc.

I'd say that each of my children is a mix of all three!

polarbear

My kids aren't as dumb as I make them seem. Middle kid typically could figure out Algebra before it was taught to her (teacher would let them try before she taught something, and middle kid could figure it out with no instruction). Same for when she was forced to take a Chemistry final without taking the HS Chem course and wasn't allowed to borrow the HS Chem textbook - she figured out how to do the pH problems just by taking the logical route and applying what she did know. But I don't think that makes her gifted or anything special, just rational and logical. We have never tried to accelerate her and she wouldn't go teach herself math on her own...she probably would watch Netflix.

There have been a few odd reactions to her. One kid wouldn't go out with my eldest because his younger brother said middle kid was scary (not in looks, in intelligence). And some kids kind of avoid her because of stuff she likes to discuss, though she certainly has friends that are like her.

I deal with enough politics and drama in sports. I have had to deal with some school politics (including that Chem final), but I try to avoid it. She is bored out of her mind in HS, but I think that will change once she gets to college - I have seen it change for the PG kids I know (who went where there were others like them). Only two more years - she can just concentrate on improving the athletic skills for her two sports.

And as for the OP's original question - delving more deeply into other subjects - unfortunately there is only so far you can go in certain subjects in US high schools. Maybe the kiddo can take a few foreign languages, since they might not have the chance to do that if they go into a STEM college degree program. Or take additional history courses. My older two always have/did take six core courses - one more than normal - to keep themselves busy.

They have no natural athletic ability, but they have certainly worked on their skills. They weren't absolutely awful at athletics, just nothing special. Eldest worked at it and had some DIII interest and made Honorable Mention All-State for her position. Sure, we're proud of that, and that middle kid was just accepted to one of the well attended college recruiting camps for one of her sports. But that didn't come easily to them. Not like academics.

I didn't vilify you.

There seems to be a use of "just my opinion" to imply "you are not allowed to argue". That might, I suppose, be a useful usage when attached to something that is a matter of taste "just my opinion, but this soup needs a touch more salt"; this could be heard as leaving open the possibility that someone else's taste might differ and theirs might be just as valid as yours; it's a qualia issue!

Children's education is not a qualia issue. On a forum where it is a central topic, if you make a statement applying to other people's children and others disagree with the statement, they're going to say so, even if you preface your statement with "just my opinion". If you don't like that, you should certainly go elsewhere.

A good thing about this forum is that boasting isn't a thing, and I hope you won't read this as boasting: it is unlikely that your "smart kids I know" include even one child as mathematically exceptional as my son, let alone enough of them for you to have observed a pattern in the consequences of different ways of educating them. Because this place is such a honeypot, the same applies to several parents who may be assumed to be reading what you write. Please be aware that there are variations in parents' experience beyond those you can easily imagine.

Wikipedia says that the nature and existence of qualia are controversial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia

Well, we might rather say that the usefulness of the word is disputed. I don't think anyone disputes that I may feel that my experience of eating some soup might be improved by adding some salt, and that (assuming we are concerned only with my pleasure and not with my health!) it would be incorrect of you to assert that I am incorrect in saying that I should prefer the taste of the soup with more salt.

Well-- I'm going to save Jon the trouble here and point out that such a notion deprives others of that valuable sense of deep, though non-abiding self-worth that only comes with WINNING.

Ergo, someone needs to be wrong, so that someone else can be righter than the rest.

Oh, and for anyone curious, DD14 is a eye-watering mixture of all three types, with heaviest emphasis on the right and center columns (gifted and creative)... and I completely agree with MoN's post on the preceding page-- there does seem, for many of us here, to be a point at which "least worst" looks rather unthinkable to outsiders who don't know our children personally (or can't see them for their biases, in the case of educators).

Heck, my child's own grandmother was an educator like that. She truly felt that if we'd just quit treating DD like she was unusual, she'd be more "typical." And that we HAD to by lying and, I guess, teaching DD phonics on the sly as a baby... or something. Because CLEARLY she didn't really believe that DD2 had every single sign of reading "readiness" that my Mom looked for in 6-7yo first graders. She expressed in no uncertain terms that we should keep her from learning to read. Truly not kidding. What is more astonishing is that we listened for nearly two more years.

I can definitely see some of the harm that such things have done to my DD, who will now struggle with task-avoidance and perfectionism her entire life. She hasn't learned that WORKING to learn is normative, because for her-- it isn't.

First you have to get to the point that the other person thinks that there is an "you" who can "experience" or have "preferences".

I'm pretty sure that there are people out there who dispute that.