

Kindergartner Becomes Mensa Member (has IQ of 147) - Egregore
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/04/25/kindergartner-becomes-mensa-member/

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incision
_Dorman has lobbied his school district to provide special advanced education
for his son. But Dorman said it’s unlikely Gus would receive special
treatment._

 _“I know there’s no money for gifted programs in Illinois,” he said._

That's unfortunate, I count testing into a GT (gifted and talented) program in
elementary school on the short list of the best experiences of my life.

What I don't understand is why general public education isn't structured more
like the GT program I went through?

~~~
astrodust
Kids like this are usually doomed unless they can get proper mentorship. In an
academic environment where the outliers are picked on relentlessly, they'll
develop a talent for appearing "adequate" and nothing more. Being unusually
smart is just as big as social liability as being unusually stupid.

"Gifted" programs are a start, but these often include children with wildly
varying skills, from extreme right-brain thinkers (highly artistic, under-
developed math and language skills) and left-brain thinkers (highly
analytical, poor artistic skills) means it's very hard to keep all members of
that group sufficiently challenged. What is effortless for some students, is
nearly impossible for others, and vice-versa.

I went through a program like this. The learning experience was terrible, but
at least as a collective group you didn't have to be too concerned about being
an outlier. You were in a whole group of them, safety in numbers and all that.

Unfortunately, the best plan for the parents is to move to a better school
district.

~~~
incision
_> Kids like this are usually doomed unless they can get proper mentorship. In
an academic environment where the outliers are picked on relentlessly, they'll
develop a talent for appearing "adequate" and nothing more. Being unusually
smart is just as big as social liability as being unusually stupid._

Maybe.

I came up through the public school system and worked in it for a while as an
adult. Based on my experience, I'd say you're overstating that that liability
a bit.

 _> "Gifted" programs are a start, but these often include children with
wildly varying skills, from extreme right-brain thinkers (highly artistic,
under-developed math and language skills) and left-brain thinkers (highly
analytical, poor artistic skills) means it's very hard to keep all members of
that group sufficiently challenged. What is effortless for some students, is
nearly impossible for others, and vice-versa._

Again, I I'm not sure how you would qualify saying "often".

 _> I went through a program like this. The learning experience was terrible,
but at least as a collective group you didn't have to be too concerned about
being an outlier. You were in a whole group of them, safety in numbers and all
that._

Of course we're different people and programs, but that surprises me.

My social experience was miserable at times, but the teaching was great with
few exceptions.

~~~
astrodust
The liability depends entirely on the academic environment and the attitude of
the faculty and students. I had to switch schools to get into a better
environment.

It takes an exceptional teacher to be able to deal with an exceptional group
of students. The class sizes need to be smaller, the material needs to be
broader and often disconnected from the content strictly required by
standardized testing.

I really would not want to be in a class that's subjected to the insane No
Child Left Behind standards. Nothing is more demotivating than having to do
something remedial in order to pass and where absolutely no incentive is given
for moving ahead of schedule, learning at your own pace.

Maybe with distributed networking being so prevalent, where a video conference
call or distribution of video lessons is a practical reality, that alternate
channels of education will open up.

Many of the school systems out there, under-funded as ever, can barely keep up
with the 80% of the kids squarely in the middle. The 10% outliers on both ends
with "special needs" are just left to fend for themselves.

How can we avoid things like the allegedly "World's Smartest Man"
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Langan>) working as a bouncer in a
bar? Is something like the Khan Academy a step in the right direction?

