Intellectually Gifted Children: the New Retarded

A friend of mine has been having school problems with her two male children, ages 9 and 7. Issues of behavior, “inappropriate” comments (meaning, brutally honest), and a lack of “fitting in.” Hearing the problems at hand, and knowing their parents are smarties, it always seemed to me that these kids were very likely intellectually gifted.

She took these kids to a respectable assessment center, this month, where they were both tested extensively by PhDs who specialize in such stuff. High overview is: they tested with IQs of 132 and 147, respectively, with even higher vocabulary skills, and that was no surprise. Of course, they will be yanked from the government prison they are in, but appropriate schools around here are more pricey than college, and it takes months to comb through applications, search for private financial aid, and win acceptances.

In the meantime, I read an exchange between my friend and the school principal that infuriated me, and they ain’t even my kids. This person is entirely focused on the 7-year-old’s (IQ of 147) “lack of performance” lately, and his falling test scores, in spite of the fact that he’s doing complex math problems way beyond his grade level. On and on this guy went, completely focused on percentiles and scores and comparing this brilliant child to the other kids who have the ability to robotically “cram” for tests and get higher grades than her son.

Oh, and this 7-year-old boy with a 147 IQ? He had been placed in Special Education a few years ago because … he just wasn’t fitting neatly and quietly into the little round hole that had been assigned for him by . This is why the government indoctrination system is a criminal entity that is entirely destructive of human capabilities. This is why government schools – unlike free institutions – have to *force* children to attend by threatening parents with charges and jail time.