Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Rising scholarship funds to rising college costs

That is a negative way of putting it. "Tiger Parents" may refer to hothousing parents in general, but I think it also carries an ethnic connotation. At the math camps and after-school programs such as Russian School of Math that my children attend, there are indeed more Asians (both East Asian and South Asian) than whites, and the white children disproportionately have immigrant parents. The math studied is harder than that taught in the public schools. Is this "pampering"? Or is it sustained hard work leading to success?

There is a large disconnect between what is reported for scholarships awarded and what will actually be used by the students. Our newspaper publishes the scholarships for local students, but you can see that many of them are mutually exclusive.

For example, one of this year's local students was awarded $12,107 nonresident waiver for Utah State University, $9000/yr renewable from the University of Arizona, $8500/yr renewable from Baylor University, $3000/yr FLC Merit Scholarship, $2500/yr renewable CSU Alliance Partnership award, $2000 FLC First Generation, $7500/yr renewable Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award, and $6000 in miscellaneous scholarships from local banks and organizations.

It says she is going to Utah State, so Arizona, FLC and Baylor money is out the window. I *think* the CSU Alliance thing is something among certain colleges that trade money around, so she may be able to use that -- I'm not close enough yet to have made a study of that one. But that's a lot adding to the total reported scholarships for our local schools, and much of it won't be used.

Of course it's pampering. Tuition at those schools around here starts at $1,000 annually for a very basic package and goes up to $3,000. The kids may be tigered and working hard (hard enough to give them long-term misery in some cases). However, compared to kids whose parents don't have an extra $2,000 for after-school enrichment, which is most parents, yes, they are absolutely pampered in the way that HowlerKarma was referring to.

I suspect that most of those kids also have stable lives in comfortable homes and lots of nutritious food. They probably have plenty of new clothing, toys, and electronic equipment. Many or most of them probably get to go on nice vacations every year.

So yes, from that perspective, they're pampered (and primped and hothoused).

Nautigal's post is what I was getting at-- only she's put it much more succinctly than I did, by using an example.


Bostonian, put it this way-- it's pretty darned hard to earn a music scholarship if all your parents can afford (or know to do) is public school strings/band. No private lessons, no professional-quality instruments.... probably no competitions (travel and $) all add up to a high school student who has almost no hope of competing for a scholarship with a student who has been prodded into a standard of performance (via lessons, a SAHP pushing, etc.) that allows for competition wins. KWIM?

So yeah-- in that instance, there are probably a LOT of kids who are that capable. They just don't have TigerParents. And no, I do not mean that term as any kind of ethnic commentary. Frankly, I see far more of this sort of thing locally from UMC Caucasian families than I do from immigrant families of any ethnicity. And yes, my family is considered "honorary Asian" by most people who know us-- but it's not because we're TigerParents, per se, but because we are pretty strict about boundaries, and we set pretty high expectations, and we follow more or less Confucian idealogy-- but only because that seems more or less right and proper to us.

We are not spending thousands annually on music teachers, tutors, etc. etc. the way that some of our peers in our community do. Can my kid compete with theirs? Well, yes-- but only because she happens to be PG. If she were HG instead, their bright-to-MG kids would probably look "better" than her by virtue of all that endless prepping.

Silicon Valley was built on the backs of electrical engineers.

$2,000 a year?

2K is a lot if you're earning the median ($51K in 2012). It's even more than a lot if you're below the median.

It's a lot in my mind and our household income is theoretically enough to make it "fine" as a discretionary expense item. I'm also convinced that 2K annually is rather at the low end of things when you're discussing genuine-- er-- brinksmanship.

Some of the folks that we know, it's more along the lines of 1-3K monthly. Not kidding.

Some of those parents work doing manicures and pedicures. They will spend the money on math programs but do without so their kids accel and don't have to do the same. It is all about priorities with immigrants.

I see it as sustained hard work leading to success... although not necessarily to being a recipient of college scholarships.

Families often choose summer camps, online programs, or resources and support for independent study to provide their students with appropriate learning experiences and the challenge of curriculum and pacing to match their readiness and ability. Parents provide such opportunities, often at great sacrifice, because many schools are working toward statistically uniform achievement among all students, therefore are not interested in providing advanced academic opportunities which may widen the "achievement gap" or "excellence gap".

In not providing the curriculum and pacing appropriate for these students, schools may provide a lack of mental stimulation which sets in motion brain-based changes which may lead to underachievement and difficulty learning new material when it may be presented years later.

Best practices may be those in which a school strives to provide the appropriate level of curriculum and pacing for students during the regular school day, not just for students entering high school as C students (as mentioned by the OP, if I understood correctly), but also for those who may have already mastered much of the grade-level material and need other curriculum/pacing to continue their development.

Working to increase opportunity may serve the gifted community better than labeling students as "pampered" whether they are C students having in-school support which has been reported as leading to tons of scholarship money, or whether they are students seeking advanced academics who attend academic camps/classes on their own time.