[LMB] Prep and Finishing School OT:

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Tracy MacShane wrote:

> And frankly, I think the richer, better resourced and *more
> intelligent* pupils can make do without more readily.

Well, that's just not true.  It's true that the richer can make
do more readily, but the *more intelligent* without those things
are usually lost at sea early on.

See, when people think of gifted children they think of Hermione
Granger, who probably is in the 120-140 IQ range and studies a
lot--the student government kids and all.  (The three years we
had gifted program, which didn't do much for us because it was
mostly taking us to museums rather than teaching social skills or
discussing career/life planning, we took to calling them "Betas"
after Kathie and I read BRAVE NEW WORLD.  Rude, but there you
have it, and it didn't hurt that one of their big school
hangouts was the Beta Club.)

Once you get above 150, you get kids who don't have to study till
they're 18-25, depending upon where they go to school--and don't
learn to.  Often they get B's because they can do it in their
sleep, if they're not watched over.  They tend not to get on well
with their peers.  Teachers frequently actively dislike them
because they're far ahead of their classmates in subjects they
like and sometimes know more than the teacher.  If the parents
aren't wealthy, have little free time, and don't know how to
manipulate the system, they either invent Yahoo and end up
becoming millionaires, or they barely get by in school, end up
underemployed, and rant on the internet lots.

I know a lot of people who tested in the 150+ IQ and above range
as children who are barely making ends meet, myself included,
because they had no real educational guidance and didn't get into
the schools where they would have been challenged and supported.
Of course, most of this is because they had no money.  Real
gifted students require as much support as any other kind of
student, often substantially more because there tend to be
deficits in social skills that go along with high IQ--you're just
not able to communicate well with anyone, as people on your
intellectual level are older and dealing with hormones you
haven't had long with experience you don't have (I survived my
sex life as a gifted female teen, but you know, there were lots
of close calls), and people your own age can't talk about
anything that matters to you.  Some very gifted people barely
manage to stay in school.  I practically flunked out of graduate
school (got my masters by the skin of my teeth) in part because
of untreated mood disorders but also because in my 20s I had to
learn to study--nothing in public school or in my lousy
undergraduate school had required me to!

And I think society loses an awful lot when someone who could
have been a medical researcher ends up working as a bank teller
(and having a hard time staying employed because their co-workers
think they're a snob, being as how they never want to talk about
American Idol and what not and spend all their free time reading
sci-fi magazines and playing games on the internet).

~malfoy (this is one I can rant long and loud on)

**************************************************************************
"That wickedness weltering around inside of you, inside of everyone, is
sacred somewhere.  There's a deity out there who digs it.  You can respect
and love your darkest side, disposing only of what is obsolete or
impractical.  It's all about giving yourself permission." --Jack Darkhand

"It is better to be cruel for love than for hate." --Thomas Burnett Swann