“Now here’s the clincher: parents of 6 of the 30 removed their kids from contention because they were afraid that society would regard their children as nerds.”
I’ve met parents like this, and it makes me so sick.
If you are concerned with the child’s social acceptance, then know sending them to a regular school is not going to help that at all. I was a nerd and I got pushed around and beat up and I went to a regular school. At least, if I had gone to a special school, I would have been allowed to excel to the best of my ability. But I did not get that chance. Don’t hold your kids back, but instead teach them to love themselves and be confident in themselves.
My son is enrolled in the gifted/talented program here, and is just finishing 3rd grade. The program here requires they stay in the same class for two years, so 1-2 are together, 3-4 together, etc. He would be completing 4th grade right now, but we thought this program was important enough to hold him back a year.
My daughter is just finishing kindergarten and is in the process of testing for the same program. She’ll likely start it next year (she seems to be the smarter of the two).
I want my kids to learn to work to their full potential and to have every advantage they can get growing up. I really, really don’t understand the logic of people who refuse to allow their kids to do this. Denying them this kind of opportunity just doesn’t make sense at all.
Fucktards. That simple. If your child seems to be performing above average (which isn’t that difficult in America from what I hear), it’s only logical to put them in a class that taps their potential.
When I was in JR high school I would leave all my friends when they were off to the Mall for lunch to shop.
And I would go hang out in the math room and play dungeon and dragons.
Swear I loved it, hehe
As far as “nerdy” kids go, my son is 5 and he loves National Geographic!
Friends of mine send him links to Mummification sites. I have to fight him for the computer.
They are like gold to him. I could not understand a parent?s neglecting a Childs drive.
For his birthday I got him an encyclopedia of ancient cultures.
He loves Egyptian, Hindi, Aztec, and Mesopotamian information, spend hours just staring at all the different pictures, and asking me to read every thing 3 times over.
And guess what, I do.
I can’t get enough of it.
Well, if you grew up in Saskatchewan and didn’t play hockey, you were pretty much considered to be a “nerd”. Then, add the fact that I played saxophone and did drama. Did I get cornered by the “jocks”? Yep. My academics was always at the top. Every year. Solution: Stay at the top. Used the sax to play in a few rock and jazz bands for self confidence. Used the drama for public speaking. Got a double degree in math, science, then a dental degree, now an orthodontic master’s degree. The guys who played hockey are managers of the meat department at the broken down grocery store back in small town Saskatchewan. I look forward to seeing them at my highschool reunion.
I’m not bragging, just agreeing with the above posts that adversity often breeds success if a man/woman doesn’t let themselves get beaten down.
I’ve always liked being a nerd. “Normal” people have very little to offer the world. Intrusive and overprotective parents prevent kids from developing their sense of self. The types of people who would hold their kids back to protect them from failure are the same types who will take hardest their childerens’ failures which result from parenting of this sort. It is too bad their kids have to be the agent of their punishment, but once the kids have been tainted by that sort of parenting, they will be whiny asses themselves.
Ron Manix’s hotel room?..You know, I just HATE those souvenir gluttons, I really thought that the signed Directory for Moosejaw Saskatchewan that I gave him (Dear Ron, our time here was wonderful, Please take your hand off my Ass ~ 'Cake) would have been enough and now I find out he heisted my pants?
BTW if you are ever in Moosejaw, avoid the “Lazy J” motel, contrary to Ron’s and the street banner’s assurances the beds are not actually “Now 100% cootie free”
“Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business”
