Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions
which differ from the prejudices of their social environment.
Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
Tweet of the Day
Trump is surprisingly competitive for a candidate with such a high disapproval rating, & that has more to do with Clinton's own unpopularity— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
Many contractors with clearances viscerally loathe Hillary Clinton over the email scandal. They see it as a violation of equal protection.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
Cleared individuals can get written up, even discharged, over accidentally bringing a cellphone into a facility or saying the wrong acronym.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
In the case of Clinton, we have a trained lawyer who had access to the nation's biggest secrets, knew about federal records laws.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
I still think, with less than 2 months before the election, the race is Clinton's to lose. But she's not reaching the 50% mark in the polls.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
Trump still benefits from a change year election. Only one time since the 1940's (Bush 41) has a party held the White House for 3 elections.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
Image of the DayTrump may not be hurting the Senate GOP as much as feared. Some of the GOP incumbents in swing states are polling competitively.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 12, 2016
The basic idea is that many if not most parents and educators worry about things like social maturity in terms of advancing kids who perform consistently above grade level. But I can identify with the author when he says, "I spent most of my time during primary education being bored." I didn't necessarily do straight A's throughout primary school. It really wasn't until I had an English teacher in sixth grade who taught a rigorous course that my competitive spirit was sparked. I went from just making the top 10 in my homeroom to the top of the class by the end of the year.
I was already younger than my peers. Under school policy at the time the enrollment qualifications were that you had to be a certain age by the end of the calendar year--and I barely squeaked in (late December). They threatened to hold me back in kindergarten, mostly because French was my first language. They tested my intelligence and relented; my folks overreacted and went English only at home (and to this day my 6 younger siblings blame me for their not speaking French). Apparently every once in a while I was bored enough in school to get up from my seat and walk around class; to my horrified devout Catholic mother, I declined an invitation from the nun teaching class to lead the class in prayer one day. (She asked, "Would you like to lead us in prayer, Ronald?" Not particularly. I thought I was given a choice, like "would you like to sample our jalapeno ice cream?" She should have simply directed me.)
By high school it was clear that the courses were not challenging enough for me. Not just for me; I had befriended a fellow freshman Kathleen whose older brother Patrick had dominated the district science UIL; he would eventually win acceptance at MIT during his junior year, and I replaced him on the science team. One day my biology teacher kept me after class and told me I didn't have to come to class anymore; if he taught the class to my level, he would lose most of the class. The high school counselor told me it was a waste of my time to stay in high school because I was ready for college and recommended some correspondence and summer classes to get the credits I needed to graduate in 3 years: high school graduate at 16, and then I earned my first college degree at 19 (and entered graduate school). But to be honest, I would have been capable of doing college-level work at a much earlier age, at least 12 if not earlier.
Were there drawbacks to acceleration? Well, like a lot of geeks, I didn't have a typical dating life during my mid to late teens, but I don't blame that on school. If anything, geeks often get bullied in lower school, and college students are more mature.
I do think that the educational system for the most part fails to cultivate gifted students, and only God knows how my career would have advanced if I had been mentored along the way. The author of this piece does a good job in pointing that educational research does not support misguided concerns of student age segregation.
Founding Fathers and Christianity
Sowell On Discrimination and Public Policy
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall |
Rita Coolidge (with Kris Kristofferson), "A Song I'd Like to Sing"
