Got some info from the school, regarding the girl.
Evidently, the government, had been, unbeknown to us, had been conducting secret tests on the girl.
Turns out, there was some "gifted and talented" testing going on. So they give you a whole page of blah blah, testing, blah blah, testing, final tests completed, blah blah, the results are on the next page.
So down at the bottom, under a bunch of graphs and checks and columns, are two check boxes: one for super genius, one for super normal.
But it's phrased as: qualifies, does not qualify.
The long and short of it is, she does not. Fine by me, for reasons I'll get into in a minute. But what's funny is 1) We had no choice in the matter (for instance, I was tested, my sisters were not), 2) the checkbox system is basically a "nope! Your youngun' ain't all that smart!!"
I heard this from a friend who was in one of those programs, that the reasons it's great not to be in one of those G&T programs is this: 99% of the time, what they do for you is give you extra work. Think about it: the smart kids see the tards going to baseball games, but your REWARD for being a little sharper is something like "Okay, here, have 50% more to do".
And, it doesn't take long for it to dawn on you that they don't want you to leave high school early unless you're so wildly gifted you can't even be in a normal school. What if instead of afterschool programs or extra work, you actually got an advantage: leaving school as soon as you had acheived a certain level of proficiency. Why not put kids who aren't going to college out in the workforce sooner? Why not put the kids who would just as soon be done with the whole mess into college that much sooner?
Furthermore, from my own observations, being sort of gifted is like being pretty. Nice, but it doesn't show how hard you work, or any other much more important characteristics that allow one to acheive sucess. So as for me, I love having a normal (within a few sigma anyway). Anything beyond that is gravy.
1 comment:
amen brother! nothing is more frustrating than when I'm judged solely on my good looks.... HA!
actually, this whole thing reminds me of some game show that was on a few months ago where a woman talked about being a former mensa member. She said her husband asked her one day "who's smarter? the person smart enough to be in mensa but not a member or the person who's smart enough that spends their money on a membership"
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