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>which got me into a different social group and even though I continued to find some trouble, I did not continue to find ever worse kinds of trouble I think th

>which got me into a different social group and even though I continued to find some trouble, I did not continue to find ever worse kinds of trouble I think that was the most impactful part. I'm curious what you think though. If you were to dissect what makes actually makes a gifted and talented program different or better is it actually anything to do with the selection part of it or is it a result of being surrounded with peers from better socioeconomic backgrounds who are more likely to make it through the selection in the first place? Take another step back and also consider if you had a twin with virtually the same upbringing as you up until your mom forced you to try out for the magnet program, would they benefit more or less from the g&t school existing or if that funding had been distributed to their under-funded schools? Would more kids on average benefit from the existence of these programs than not? Obviously there are other confounding factors here but I'll enter this in as a counter-anecdote, I went to a small suburban school district in the north east that had a single, well-funded public high school, our graduation rates, testing outcomes, and college acceptance rates were comparable with g&t schools in other states.

lbayes 5y ago
It's an interesting set of questions and as you point out, it's hard for me to narrow down to a single thing. I'm certain my social circle saved me, but my closest friends in high school were mostly from similar, or less fortunate financial circumstances. For me, I don't think it was the curriculum or the socioeconomic background of the kids so much as the little sliver of hope it gave me/us. It was the remote possibility that I just might be able to build a life that did not look like the adult lives I could see. A life that wouldn't be a decades long, living nightmare of hypocrisy, low-wage slavery, overwhelming debt and silent desperation, which is what I could see in most adults I had ever met, even (maybe especially?) the "wealthy" ones. I'm not sure regular public schools generally offer that kind of possibility or outlet to basically hopeless, misguided (but creative) kids like I was. My previous schools only offered extra discipline in the form of regular beatings [1] which mainly just triggered and reinforced my lifelong distrust of authority figures. [1]: I (wrongly) assumed corporal punishment had long ago been outlawed or at least effectively banned in Florida's public schools decades ago, but alas our government officials will never permit anyone to besmirch our earned reputation as an ignorant backwater. Corporal punishment is apparently still permitted to this day: https://www.the74million.org/article/kids-keep-getting-hit-at-school-even-where-corporal-punishment-is-banned/ https://www.the74million.org/article/kids-keep-getting-hit-a...

lbayes 5y ago

It's an interesting set of questions and as you point out, it's hard for me to narrow down to a single thing. I'm certain my social circle saved me, but my closest friends in high school were mostly from similar, or less fortunate financial circumstances. For me, I don't think it was the curriculum or the socioeconomic background of the kids so much as the little sliver of hope it gave me/us. It was the remote possibility that I just might be able to build a life that did not look like the adult lives I could see. A life that wouldn't be a decades long, living nightmare of hypocrisy, low-wage slavery, overwhelming debt and silent desperation, which is what I could see in most adults I had ever met, even (maybe especially?) the "wealthy" ones. I'm not sure regular public schools generally offer that kind of possibility or outlet to basically hopeless, misguided (but creative) kids like I was. My previous schools only offered extra discipline in the form of regular beatings [1] which mainly just triggered and reinforced my lifelong distrust of authority figures. [1]: I (wrongly) assumed corporal punishment had long ago been outlawed or at least effectively banned in Florida's public schools decades ago, but alas our government officials will never permit anyone to besmirch our earned reputation as an ignorant backwater. Corporal punishment is apparently still permitted to this day: https://www.the74million.org/article/kids-keep-getting-hit-at-school-even-where-corporal-punishment-is-banned/ https://www.the74million.org/article/kids-keep-getting-hit-a...