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What are the barriers in Palo Alto? I can imagine they are facing a very high percentage of parents pushing their kids as gifted. (And truthfully there are a l

What are the barriers in Palo Alto? I can imagine they are facing a very high percentage of parents pushing their kids as gifted. (And truthfully there are a lot of above average folks in Palo Alto. Not necessarily all the kids though.)

gnicholas 4y ago
I live in Menlo Park, and the school has been very resistant to allowing kids to do learning above grade level. They have mightily dragged their feet on even assessing our daughter, and even after she demonstrated that she had a firm grasp on all of the math for her current grade (they chose not to test anything above that), they still made her sit through math instruction with the rest of the class. By the end of the year they finally let her do some IXL (math app) beyond her grade level, but this provides no instruction — just drilling on concepts you have already learned. The school refuses to set any goals for what an advanced student should learn over the course of a year. When pressed, they talk about thinking deeper about grade-level concepts she already understands. Of course, there is no way to measure if she is in fact thinking deeper about anything, so it is essentially an unmeasurable goal. And yes, there are many high-achieving parents here, most of whom assumed the schools would allow their students to study material at the same level they studied when they were children. Parents are beginning to organize to get the school to make this happen. In addition to seeing their children not learn, parents are upset that children are getting bored with school, getting sloppy with their work because they think it's too easy/below them, or thinking that "school is dumb". Perhaps most importantly, the children are never experiencing a challenge, which means that they'll be in for a rude awakening when they finally encounter one in the real world.
- i_like_apis 4y ago
  I don't have children, and I have a day job that would prevent me from overseeing significant home-schooling. But I often daydream about what the ideal home schooling curriculum would be. I have a lot of it planned out. If I had the money or the right flex WFH schedule, I would absolutely home-school my children. It would be something where they satisfy the standard curriculum, and do mostly self-directed learning into college subjects starting around middle school age. I think homeschooling is probably the right thing for gifted children. As long as each subject can be attended to properly, and the kid is kept on a discipline of doing enough work. For areas like SV / The Peninsula I think there need to be homeschooling Co-Ops. I don't mean Charter Schools, just parents collectively could come together to supervise self-directed homeschooling. I would want such a group to only perform: 1) sharing constructed curricula 2) Administrating standardized tests 3) Perhaps organizing socialization for the children. Anything more doesn't scale well IMO. There are a lot of crappy private schools that do alternative learning. I looked into a lot of them when I was grade school. If I could afford 100% focus I would involve less groups and rely more on educating my kid solo / I'd frankly rather not involve any of the inevitable politics, misalignments, and mediocrity that would come from most groups. I was a GATE kid for a little while in CA and a similar program in another state. Ultimately most learning was self-directed though. If the kid is smart, they just need to be set free (given the time) to study on their own, and guided by parents to do that instead of being distracted by all of the normal things which distract kids (and adults). I also used to live in Menlo Park. Another city with lots of smart folks.
  - gnicholas 4y ago
    I would love to do this. We have friends in nearby towns who have started homeschooling. Mostly they are families with 3+ kids (economies of scale!). I have considered homeschooling but the social aspect would be a challenge. But we have talked with other public school families that are also on the brink, and I wouldn't be surprised if we jump ship before all our kids are grown. If anyone else is interested in chatting about this, my contact info is in my profile.
    - i_like_apis 4y ago
      I’m just thinking what I would want for my kids, but, as an adult who wants kids / I don’t have kids but if I did I would ideally home school. For socializing, it would be simply a group that meets every Friday for about 3+ hours in the afternoon, at an environment like a municipal community center (some are really nice, especially on the peninsula) or a good YMCA community room, or similar space. One adult present to prevent shenanigans. Should probably leave them alone and just check up every half hour. Lunch and snacks. BYO computer required. No video games. (they have to talk to each other). All kids home schooled for gifted reasons. Maybe 10-30 No forced scholastics or presentations at the social meeting. Just smart kids hanging out. They will naturally share their interests and goals with each other without being pressured, and will tend to resist if pressured to be scholastic in front of each other. Then they will form cliques who want to hang out on their own time. The parents could also have a similar meeting once a month on Friday evenings. Now how do you promote and grow that group into something with at least about 10 kids? (Or potentially many more) (while also ensuring that they are all in fact gifted kids?) I don't know. Slick website? Blog? Newsletter? Viral philosophy? Simple word-of-mouth is very powerful. Not sure but it seems like something to throw a little SV ingenuity at in terms of viral marketing. If you do it, just remember to keep it simple!

gnicholas 4y ago

I live in Menlo Park, and the school has been very resistant to allowing kids to do learning above grade level. They have mightily dragged their feet on even assessing our daughter, and even after she demonstrated that she had a firm grasp on all of the math for her current grade (they chose not to test anything above that), they still made her sit through math instruction with the rest of the class. By the end of the year they finally let her do some IXL (math app) beyond her grade level, but this provides no instruction — just drilling on concepts you have already learned. The school refuses to set any goals for what an advanced student should learn over the course of a year. When pressed, they talk about thinking deeper about grade-level concepts she already understands. Of course, there is no way to measure if she is in fact thinking deeper about anything, so it is essentially an unmeasurable goal. And yes, there are many high-achieving parents here, most of whom assumed the schools would allow their students to study material at the same level they studied when they were children. Parents are beginning to organize to get the school to make this happen. In addition to seeing their children not learn, parents are upset that children are getting bored with school, getting sloppy with their work because they think it's too easy/below them, or thinking that "school is dumb". Perhaps most importantly, the children are never experiencing a challenge, which means that they'll be in for a rude awakening when they finally encounter one in the real world.

i_like_apis 4y ago
I don't have children, and I have a day job that would prevent me from overseeing significant home-schooling. But I often daydream about what the ideal home schooling curriculum would be. I have a lot of it planned out. If I had the money or the right flex WFH schedule, I would absolutely home-school my children. It would be something where they satisfy the standard curriculum, and do mostly self-directed learning into college subjects starting around middle school age. I think homeschooling is probably the right thing for gifted children. As long as each subject can be attended to properly, and the kid is kept on a discipline of doing enough work. For areas like SV / The Peninsula I think there need to be homeschooling Co-Ops. I don't mean Charter Schools, just parents collectively could come together to supervise self-directed homeschooling. I would want such a group to only perform: 1) sharing constructed curricula 2) Administrating standardized tests 3) Perhaps organizing socialization for the children. Anything more doesn't scale well IMO. There are a lot of crappy private schools that do alternative learning. I looked into a lot of them when I was grade school. If I could afford 100% focus I would involve less groups and rely more on educating my kid solo / I'd frankly rather not involve any of the inevitable politics, misalignments, and mediocrity that would come from most groups. I was a GATE kid for a little while in CA and a similar program in another state. Ultimately most learning was self-directed though. If the kid is smart, they just need to be set free (given the time) to study on their own, and guided by parents to do that instead of being distracted by all of the normal things which distract kids (and adults). I also used to live in Menlo Park. Another city with lots of smart folks.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  I would love to do this. We have friends in nearby towns who have started homeschooling. Mostly they are families with 3+ kids (economies of scale!). I have considered homeschooling but the social aspect would be a challenge. But we have talked with other public school families that are also on the brink, and I wouldn't be surprised if we jump ship before all our kids are grown. If anyone else is interested in chatting about this, my contact info is in my profile.
  - i_like_apis 4y ago
    I’m just thinking what I would want for my kids, but, as an adult who wants kids / I don’t have kids but if I did I would ideally home school. For socializing, it would be simply a group that meets every Friday for about 3+ hours in the afternoon, at an environment like a municipal community center (some are really nice, especially on the peninsula) or a good YMCA community room, or similar space. One adult present to prevent shenanigans. Should probably leave them alone and just check up every half hour. Lunch and snacks. BYO computer required. No video games. (they have to talk to each other). All kids home schooled for gifted reasons. Maybe 10-30 No forced scholastics or presentations at the social meeting. Just smart kids hanging out. They will naturally share their interests and goals with each other without being pressured, and will tend to resist if pressured to be scholastic in front of each other. Then they will form cliques who want to hang out on their own time. The parents could also have a similar meeting once a month on Friday evenings. Now how do you promote and grow that group into something with at least about 10 kids? (Or potentially many more) (while also ensuring that they are all in fact gifted kids?) I don't know. Slick website? Blog? Newsletter? Viral philosophy? Simple word-of-mouth is very powerful. Not sure but it seems like something to throw a little SV ingenuity at in terms of viral marketing. If you do it, just remember to keep it simple!