My daughter
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"Lindsey Ream" lindse...@home.com
It has been figured that my 3 year old has an IQ of around 159 to 164. Her pediatrician was intrigued by what she could do and what she knew last august, so he reccomended her to be "tested." It wasn't a standard IQ test as you all can imagine but they did say she has the intelligence of a 6 year old. Unfortunately she is only 3 and acts 3 and is DRIVING ME NUTS!
(Sorry, had to vent.) My husband and I are fairly intelligent. One of us is left-brained, the other right (me). My question is this, when she comes of age for school should I homeschool? I am afraid to put her in a public education system for fear of the "dumbing down" syndrome. Any input would be lovely. Preferably to my email address Lindse...@home.com. Thanks.
Lindsey
adi ...@aol.com (Adina Sobo)
[cc: to author] First off, congratulations on noting that even if she has the mental age of a 6 year old, she has the emotional maturity of the three year old. I'm always amazed when people expect bright children to act like miniature adults in their decision-making processes and emotional expressions. As to the homeschooling, there are several schools of thought on it.
One major debate is whether you can often get a superior education.
If you have a private tutor (a member of the family, or someone hired) because your individual strengths and weaknesses can be very closely matched with curriculum, and you can easily do cross-
curricular projects that follow the student's personal interests. The flip side to this, of course, is that it's also easy to neglect the areas where the student (or the tutor) is weaker, or to teach a narrow curriculum by neglecting areas in which the student has no interest.
Another major discussion focusses on the social aspects of school; to a great extent school is supposed to teach us to complete work on time, to show up on time, and to work well with others. Some home-
schoolers manage this just fine; many work on social development through sports, clubs, etc. However, some home-schooled children are unable to work well with others from varied backgrounds, and this can be a handicap in higher education.
Personally, I think the best compromise is the one that a friend of mine is usuing. Her daughter is in the local public schools, but on weekends they always do "enrichment" activities. The child not only goes to museums, theater, etc. but also develops projects for non-school-based activities (in her case, this includes a Science Fair project as well as the Inventors Showcase and several other local science-based activities). Personally, this approach makes sense to me; she's learning much more than her slower peers, but she's also learning all the teamwork skills she'll need as a productive adult. Of course, science is her p***ion and her parents' p***ion -- if her only interests in life were boys and make-up (and now that she's in grade 7, that might happen soon) she would not enjoy building things in the garage nearly as much. She's lucky in that her interests and her parents are so close; if she was p***ionate about history or literature, I'm not sure how well this would have worked out. She's also lucky in that her parents are well-educated and have lots of money to spend on opera tickets and trips to Washington DC; they make a cnoscious effort to do activities that will make her well-rounded, and these are more valuable (IMO) than watching a videotape of the Boston Ballet or using the internet to do a virtual tour or the Louvre.
- - -Adina "The fox, when he cannot reach the grapes, says they are not ripe." -- George Herbert, _Jacula Prudentum_ [1640] http://members.aol.com/adinas/
"Ray L" raylnos...@yahoo.com
There must be some children out there who are gifted in the emotional areas, while being of average IQ. Where can they go to fully develop their gifts?
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear lindsey, I would vote for home school. School is a waste of time for anyone with a four sigma intellect. All she will learn from elementary school is how to interact with her intellectual inferiors. This is a skill of dubious value, often obtained at the cost of torture for the child.
I would find her bright kids to socialize with outside of the school world.
She could eventually join a chess club or science club or other venue for the bright.
But, on the other hand, I would not take an IQ test of a three year old very seriously. See how she is at six.
best penny Also, I agree with others, there is no reason that a bright kid should be emotionally advanced--in fact, it is often quite the opposite. She is a child, not an adult. She needs to have kid thingys too.
I speak as someone who was eight years old when she learned algebra, started college at fifteen and got a PHD in math at 22. I really had to fight my parents and my teachers for the right to be a child. They never quite understood that.
jwmer ...@aol.com (JWMeritt)
That is a "welcome to life", unfortunately. Isn't that the GOAL of a lot of school? Remember the "social promotions"?
Concur a great deal, but I'm not so positive on the filter "for the bright".
Unfortunately, much of life (mine, anyway) has been spent without that filter being in place.
Concur wholeheartedly. A kid should be a kid, and it is never too late to have a happy childhood. Children are to be protected and cared for, not pushed, shoved and/or otherwise tortured. Plenty of time for that later.
James W. Meritt, CISSP, CISA
"rian" r...@infocom.demon.nl
to be honest: If I had not failed my exit exam in HS(lousy study habits: read diagonally once- make the test tomorrow That did not work for Physics and chemistry!), I would have been 16 at university, quite normal till 1964 when they made science high school also 6 years like the cl***ical(latin and greek) high school, If I had had some challenges at school and learned to do some work by letting me skip 2 grades, I would still have been 14 to enter uni. I know several kids going to HS at 9 or 10.
Today it is difficult: the state collegestipendia, free transportation and also the loans are from 18 (legal adulthood). I do not know how they fixed that.
--
Darn! an evil hen.
Mary <n...@testweb.us.mensa.org> schreef in berichtnieuws vr563uo9vog97od9g6fiacthsgglaoq...@4ax.com...
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear mary, What was the major reason for the creation of schools for gifted kids? It was not for intellectual stimulation--gifted kids will find that all over the place-like in the library.
It was to prevent the emotional damage caused by the twisted relationships that NORMAL kids have with gifted kids. The gifted is either the local supermind ( And this messes that kid up emotionally) or the local pariah ( which is also no picnic).
At a school for the gifted --the theory was-- the kid will have normal relations with an appropriate peer group. However, for the really smart, this is still not really true. But , it is a step in the right direction.
best penny
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear mary, Kids at schools for gifted students learn social skill by relating to other bright kids.
The skills are the same.
I have spent an entire life ignoring --except in trivial ways--social interaction with dummies. It works--there are enough smarties.
best penny See above.
"rian" r...@infocom.demon.nl
new endexams were around 1972) we had 2 highschools that were univercity streams. The modern school was 5 years, the cl***ical 6 years. As my birthday was end of august and the regisering at uni is on august 15, I would still be 16.
11 in cl*** 7, 16 in cl*** 11. Bingo. One grade skipped would have made it 15.
Last month a man got a PhD on black holes, he is 21. He went to uni at 14.
rn! an evil hen.
Mary <n...@testweb.us.mensa.org> schreef in berichtnieuws e5073uo8aalv39adrbgcubjdvsjq4ce...@4ax.com...
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear mary, I doubt it. Anyway, I have only so much time.
It is like saying that by reading great literature one may miss out on a wonderful harliquin novel. Maybe, but I would take that risk. Too many great books to read.
best penny Stupid people are boring as dust to me.
But, remember I have a very high IQ. In my experience most people with such an IQ think of ordinary stupid people as little white mice. More like pets than people.
( They don't say it, of course.) You have a three sigma IQ. How many close friends do you have with an IQ of 80?
"Cl.Mass?©" clma...@online.fr
An intellectually advanced child has no reason to not be also emotionally advanced, but that may occur. What is essential to know is that smart persons are often very sensitive. They are not calculators as is liked to think, brains in a jar. They are also often very emotional, and all that seems monstrous for many. Through ***ociating with similar people, rather than retreating and restricting them, it opens it to a very wide horizon. Mensa is there for that reason.
It think homeschool or not is a subsidiary question.
--
~~~~ %20clma...@free.fr%20 LPF Liberty, Equality, Profitability.
Joseph josep...@lanset.com
One very serious question before i read any replies, do you and/or your spouse have the time, patience, and/or education to home-school? If so for how long? How well can you provide the breadth? for how long?
Just some questions. You ultimately have to answer them, especially if you home school. What about economic dislocations of trading off who home schools? Similarly is there any school out there, that you can afford, that will do an acceptable job? Guessing the future IS hard.
Do your best, and I'll stand by you.
Joseph
"rian" r...@infocom.demon.nl
They can be very amusing. I rely on those people to get a look into a complete different world. I once had a German lover. Soon I found she was spelling the tabloids, never read the literatire I gave her, but I met her family and friends and was truly fascinated by the things they found important, the trouble they had with filling out forms, the petty crimes they got caught at: car insurance fraude, paying catalogue shopping with bounced checks. It was like living in a Zola book. Her former GF was working in a bar enticing the men to drink more by being nice to them, she was a taxidriver who lost her drivers license for a year because of the insurance fraud (billing all repairs to the insurance of the guilty party while half of the bodywork was from other accideents.)
--
Darn! an evil hen.
PSmith9626 <psmith9...@aol.com> schreef in berichtnieuws 20020103111146.28729.00001...@mb-mj.aol.com...
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear mary, No. The major reason was to provide for the emotional needs of the gifted by isolating them from the disturbing interactions with normal IQ children.
best penny Gifted kids never needed that, as gifted kids went to the library and read. or built things or took stuff apart etc. Only the dull need a cl***room teacher.
"OsageWolf" OsageW...@msn.com
I wish life were as simple as that. Sometimes we have no choice in some of the people around us. Yet by finding ways to decrease the negative effects of these kind of people we can carry on with our life tasks.
Nancy ...
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear rian, Interesting.
best penny
"rian" r...@infocom.demon.nl
Yes, that is why it lasted more than 3 days. I only saw her once a month though. I felt like a sociologist on a field trip!
--
Darn! an evil hen.
PSmith9626 <psmith9...@aol.com> schreef in berichtnieuws 20020104185155.28391.00002...@mb-mj.aol.com...
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear mary, No, because once you have separated out the gifted, you might as well improve the curriculum.
best penny But, if you read the writings of the early boosters of school for the gifted, they really were more concerned about the emotional issues.
One must also understand that the curriculum was at a higher level for everyone back then.
Anyway, once it got created, many of the teachers did not understand the point of the thing, so they pushed a fancier curriculum.
In my experience, the fancy curriculum was still drivel.
There is no reason why three sigma kids can't learn algebra, trig and calculus by the age of twelve, for example.
psmith9 ...@aol.com (PSmith9626)
dear mary, Good. In my experience the students from Georgia do well.
However, we really can teach calculus to twelve year olds.
best penny This is too slow in my opinion. Especially as solid geometry, analytic geometry, and spherical trig have been dropped as year courses.
"rian" r...@infocom.demon.nl
HUh, they are the bulk of our curriculum! Each year a bit more through all grades.
--
Darn! an evil hen.
PSmith9626 <psmith9...@aol.com> schreef in berichtnieuws 20020107163906.20354.00000...@mb-mb.aol.com...
alann ...@aol.comnospam (AlanNC44)
Only about 10% of my postings are making it through. This one is being posted through AOL. My regular account is through netcom.com All this time I thought I was just kill-filed with everyone.
Alan sfeed.wirehub.nl!64.245.249.27.MISMATCH!jfk3-feed1.news.digex.net!dca6-fee d2.news.digex.net!intermedia!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!novia!novia!nntp3 .cerf.net!chicago.us.mensa.
club site: http://www.ibscc.org
dennis curtis curti...@gte.net
I honestly wish I was one of those 12 year olds. --dennis
dennis curtis curti...@gte.net
Life is indeed sometimes as simple as that. You make a hot dog for a group of people. Disgusting, but popular. the other activities are tossing the frisbee, football, watching scantily clad people cavort about, or listening to them talking. Like many others here, I do enjoy observing people. --dennis
dennis curtis curti...@gte.net
rian-- this was cool. life as you describe it can indeed be way cool.
by extention, An everyday day life is all we need to define a given future, or lend inspiration. I never tire of the fact that people i know work here for a while and then work elsewhere for another while. I meet them in a day to day to day basis. I slap silly the idea that life needs a boost.
=dennis
dennis curtis curti...@gte.net
We can really teach calculus to 12 year olds? Dang you are either confidant, arrogant, simplistic, or both. Ok. Let's say I am a 12 year old. Or even nine. I was reading at 700 WPM at 4 years old. but so what In Jr High school at 1200 WPM. These and other\ skills have not done me much good. I have not done much better.
I like math to the point of heartbreak. I don't wanna show off.
I do want to integrate some way bitchin' things and get some good questions answered. Oh! Never mind! I need to retire and ask decent and worthwhile questions. Volunteer for the unknown.
dennis
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