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This. I had very loving parents but i often wish they had shut up with the telling me I was special and smart and stuff. It was definitely a detriment to my lif

This. I had very loving parents but i often wish they had shut up with the telling me I was special and smart and stuff. It was definitely a detriment to my life to be essentially taught that i could "IQ" my way through everything.

Viliam1234 5y ago
Ironically, this is the reason why I support schools for high-IQ kids. When everyone is special, no one is. If you are a high-IQ kid surrounded by high-IQ kids, the only way to get ahead is to work hard. This builds the right habits naturally. (Also, prepares you better for a career where you will be competing with other smart people.) If you are a high-IQ kid surrounded by average kids, regardless of what your parents told you, you probably will notice that you can get the best grades without actually trying hard.
- meristohm 5y ago
  Might this indicate a problem with the grading scheme? I see your point, am a beneficiary of such efforts in elementary school, and we’re all on this earth together, so learning how to collaborate across the spectrum seems important. I want everyone to have timely intervention in school so they can all be engaged with their education.
  - Viliam1234 5y ago
    Grading is just the tip of the iceberg. Perfect grades are easy when there is little to learn. Kids with high IQ are wasting their time at school, because they could be conveniently learning at much greater speed and depth. So, on one hand people are happy "yay equality! no elitism!", on the other hand we deprive the smartest people of the next generation of knowledge and good working habits and we make them suffer from boredom. Collaboration is also important among the high-IQ people; that's what they'll later need to do at the workplace, won't they? Here again, being the only high-IQ kid in the classroom leads to some bad habits. You learn to be the one that almost always comes with the best solution, and the one that usually has to do the hardest parts if you want them to be done well. At workplace, that translates to inability to follow other people's proposals ("too many chieftains, and not enough Indians") and inability to delegate. Allowing high-IQ kids to be surrounded by other high-IQ kids means giving them the same chance that the average kid is given at the average schoool: the chance to learn how to socialize and cooperate with their intellectual peers. Sadly, this is considered controversial by many people... although I am sure that if you tried to transfer their average child into a school where all other kids are low-IQ, they would strongly object and call it an abuse, and give you pretty much the arguments I gave here (the need to socialize with peers, unlock the full potential, prepare for future career).
    - 2cb 5y ago
      > Perfect grades are easy when there is little to learn. Kids with high IQ are wasting their time at school, because they could be conveniently learning at much greater speed and depth. In the words of Rick Sanchez: “school’s not a place for smart people.”
    - meristohm 5y ago
      I relate to that, as a student who always had a book to retreat to after completing whatever busywork, and am fortunate to have made and kept a few close friends since middle school, bonding over shared interests and resonant mental frequency. I want this for everyone, at least to the degree that they want it for themselves, regardless of intelligence. Perhaps if early childhood education is done well (where parents are guided to help teach the children emotionally and intellectually, to minimize trauma and promote a sense of being part of the whole world), we can all be in school together, interrelating on more levels than simply IQ.
  - licebmi__at__ 5y ago
    Well, I think grading is not really that bad, you have to set a bar somewhere. But I do believe school and grading are just seen as a knowledge transfer scheme, where we could do better. Maybe if grading on PE class or Art, or some projects where team work is important, we could stimulate the kids to do better on a whole array of skills.

Viliam1234 5y ago

Ironically, this is the reason why I support schools for high-IQ kids. When everyone is special, no one is. If you are a high-IQ kid surrounded by high-IQ kids, the only way to get ahead is to work hard. This builds the right habits naturally. (Also, prepares you better for a career where you will be competing with other smart people.) If you are a high-IQ kid surrounded by average kids, regardless of what your parents told you, you probably will notice that you can get the best grades without actually trying hard.

meristohm 5y ago
Might this indicate a problem with the grading scheme? I see your point, am a beneficiary of such efforts in elementary school, and we’re all on this earth together, so learning how to collaborate across the spectrum seems important. I want everyone to have timely intervention in school so they can all be engaged with their education.
- Viliam1234 5y ago
  Grading is just the tip of the iceberg. Perfect grades are easy when there is little to learn. Kids with high IQ are wasting their time at school, because they could be conveniently learning at much greater speed and depth. So, on one hand people are happy "yay equality! no elitism!", on the other hand we deprive the smartest people of the next generation of knowledge and good working habits and we make them suffer from boredom. Collaboration is also important among the high-IQ people; that's what they'll later need to do at the workplace, won't they? Here again, being the only high-IQ kid in the classroom leads to some bad habits. You learn to be the one that almost always comes with the best solution, and the one that usually has to do the hardest parts if you want them to be done well. At workplace, that translates to inability to follow other people's proposals ("too many chieftains, and not enough Indians") and inability to delegate. Allowing high-IQ kids to be surrounded by other high-IQ kids means giving them the same chance that the average kid is given at the average schoool: the chance to learn how to socialize and cooperate with their intellectual peers. Sadly, this is considered controversial by many people... although I am sure that if you tried to transfer their average child into a school where all other kids are low-IQ, they would strongly object and call it an abuse, and give you pretty much the arguments I gave here (the need to socialize with peers, unlock the full potential, prepare for future career).
  - 2cb 5y ago
    > Perfect grades are easy when there is little to learn. Kids with high IQ are wasting their time at school, because they could be conveniently learning at much greater speed and depth. In the words of Rick Sanchez: “school’s not a place for smart people.”
  - meristohm 5y ago
    I relate to that, as a student who always had a book to retreat to after completing whatever busywork, and am fortunate to have made and kept a few close friends since middle school, bonding over shared interests and resonant mental frequency. I want this for everyone, at least to the degree that they want it for themselves, regardless of intelligence. Perhaps if early childhood education is done well (where parents are guided to help teach the children emotionally and intellectually, to minimize trauma and promote a sense of being part of the whole world), we can all be in school together, interrelating on more levels than simply IQ.
- licebmi__at__ 5y ago
  Well, I think grading is not really that bad, you have to set a bar somewhere. But I do believe school and grading are just seen as a knowledge transfer scheme, where we could do better. Maybe if grading on PE class or Art, or some projects where team work is important, we could stimulate the kids to do better on a whole array of skills.