re: The US is Neglecting its Smartest Kids (NPR Article)

quote:

---

. one 2 years after me was torture.

---

I'm trying to think of any gifted kids in the 03 class and am coming up blank, apart from Becnel.

quote:

---

Grew up in St. Gabriel just south of BR. If my parents hadn't been able to afford to send me to St. Jude and Catholic I would have had to go to East Iberville.

---

You could have crossed River on the ferry to Plaquemine for St. John at a cheaper rate than those schools I'm sure. Though, I'm sure you had better opportunities at St. Jude and Catholic than what you would have gotten at St. John.

quote:

---

well that's the issue with the US (another poster alluded to it earlier). our bottom is just BAD. it drags down pretty much all of our rankings

other countries either find a way to remove their "bad" groupings or just don't have the same societal spread. their cultural gumbo lacks okra, in other words

---

That sounds like you are insulting okra.

Them's fighting words

quote:

---

AP/honors classes have always been good, and available since high school.

---

My high school didn't offer AP classes and the Honors classes were barely harder than the regular version. There were maybe 12 of us that should have been in an honors class, but others took it to get away from the trash and they slowed us down.

In nature, the stragglers and the slow get picked-off from the heard. In America, we slow down the entire heard to match the slowest among us.

We have coddled the wrong group. Years ago, the dumb died off... it was natural selection at work. Stick a paper clip in an outlet...boom, you're dead. Cross the street against the light...flattened. Bike helmets, reflective clothing, seat belts, booster seats, child-proof medicine caps, GFI outlets, etc... All of these improvements, have allowed the stupid kids, to reach adulthood. When they reach adulthood, they reproduce at higher rates. Their dumb kids bog down the education system

Being in the EBRPSS environment taught me how to relate with others and serve under any authority regardless of intellect. I worry my kids have lost that.

quote:

---

In nature, the stragglers and the slow get picked-off from the heard. In America, we slow down the entire heard to match the slowest among us.

---

quote:

---

All of these improvements, have allowed the stupid kids, to reach adulthood.

---

Congratulations.

quote:

---

when you have a group of gifted kids who have been together for years it can get really bad. my class was psychological hell. one 2 years after me was torture. our teachers would readily admit that they weren't as smart as us and they often grew paranoid b/c we could almost talk in code or make comments that seemed legitimate for the discussion but were really serious insults towards the teacher or other students.

---

This happened with Scruffy's senior class. We were the GT students, but when they cancelled the program, we were dumped back into the honors class. We were all more intelligent than our honors teacher, and we didn't hide that notion either. We sat in the back and didn't pay attention, played cards, talked, cut up, etc., and we all made A's. The only ones who actually tried in that class were the people who were already in honors prior to us being dumped in there.

That teacher hated us. Like Scruffy said, we knew we were smarter than her and she knew it too.

quote:

---

. No Child Left Behind

Thanks, Obama

---

Not sure if serious.

all I know is that if you show up at a public school and talk about "I think my rising kindergartener is smart. He can read at a second grade level," they don't go, "Oh, good. let's set something up to push it and see what he's got."

INstead, they go, "Well, they all learn how to read eventually." and that's it.

In my experience, they are just relieved a kid is smart and not a problem.