Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» If you are brilliant but all your mentors/teachers/role models dwell in the land of mediocrity do you dumb down to mediocre too?
If you are brilliant but all your mentors/teachers/role models dwell in the land of mediocrity do you dumb down to mediocre too?
Are you very careful with regard to whom you admire? Whom you pattern yourself after? Whom you wish to learn from? How do you know that doing so won't make you less /worse than you are not more/better?
I believe one of the reasons (smart) kids drop out of school, is because they are not challenged. EG: The teacher is teaching at a pace/level that is too slow for them.
Personally, I hated having to listen to the teacher explain and demonstrate a concept (that was simple to me) multiple times. I felt like my time was being wasted. This is probably why I seldom "cracked the book" and managed to graduate with an award for being in the top 10% of students in the state.
Anyway
Some schools have instituted "Advanced Placement" classes ... others work with local colleges to give those kids an ability to take college-level classes while in high school ... some encourage students to take home schooling.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of public schools still feel that sports are more important than a well-rounded education.
In my day I skipped a few grades because that's the only tool they had available to keep kids interested. My son was in AP classes so he stayed with his age group. In 4th grade after school he learned to program computers. Fast forward to today. He is Chair of the Computer & Information Systems Division and Assistant Chair of the Library and Information Sciences Division of the University where he has taught since 2007 . Who knew then where he'd be today? What happened to me was that I was several years younger than the other kids. I entered 7th grade at the age of 10. i think they figured out that while a kid may be advanced intellectually it doesn't translate to socially and I did suffer for because on top of that I was painfully shy. I still tend to withdraw if I'm not comfy in my surroundings. I taught my son to read when he was young and he had a library card when he was 3. I believe if more parents taught their children to read BEFORE they start school the kids would love school, love to learn, love to read. But they don't. They sit back wait for the kids to go to school wasting the most precious learning time for children. They expect teachers to perform miracles. Kids are being formed by age 3 and by age 6 they are whom they will always be. I don't know why more parents won't bother spending time teaching their children rather than giving them electronic devices to play with. I just don't get it. Thank you for your reply Walt. So now we know more about each other than we did before. A good thing I think. :)
My friend has a niece with a kid ... I guess that makes her a grand-niece? She is about 2-3, I think. Anyway, the parents are a doctor and speech therapist at OHSU Doernbecher hospital. They take the kid to the hospital-provided daycare, and spend break time walking the halls with her. She knows all the kids being treated for cancer ... and the name of all the machines. They also taught her ASL, and she could sign before she could talk. They also got her a model of the human body, showing all the organs ... and she can name any organ.
Even if she doesn't grow up to be a doctor or work in healthcare, she will have a far better education than most people.
Wow! Lucky kid that her parents respect her enough to want to share what they do with her. I do believe her future is very bright. Thank you for sharing a slice of your life with us Walt. Learning about thing like that make me very happy. Too many stories of too many parents who don't respect their children and treat them like chattle. Too many children are being shunted aside to play with their electronics so they will leave mummy and daddy alone so mummy and daddy can play with theirs. Sadly. :(
It depends on my strategy. I had to do just that to get out of massage school. I had to go along with some very shallow people who were 1/3 my age and didn't know anything about anything.
It was so tedious to have to converse with them if the conversation lasted more than five minutes. I do not remember being that shallow in my 20's. I liked to engage people and learn from them.
But I needed to associate with them because I needed to work on them and with them. It was a trial, to be sure. The teachers were much better. At least I could have a decent conversation with them.
Walt O'Reagun 