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I know most kids my son's age look at him like he is weird. He loves the piano and likes to talk about electrical circuits and cooking shows and large puzzles. He is only four. Most four year olds don't do this. I already see that some older girls in his class try to ostracize him to gain favor with others. His adult speech and intensity weirds out a lot of adults. He is fortunate to have made friends with GT kids 2-3 years older than he is who like the same things. He also has some female cousins who are in their teens with whom he can discuss TV shows with and a female doctor friend with whom he discusses medical stuff via email. We are fortunate that he is Clinton-esque in his outgoing nature. If he were shy, or we were too restrictive of him, he'd be like you described.
Based on this description of your son, which sounds amazing, you need to have him at St. Marks in a couple of years. In my opinion, there is no better school in Dallas to handle this type of student.
By 11th grade, there was no way you could get A's without 2-4 hours a night and 4 hours on the weekend. We studied between classes and during lunch and were up to midnight one day a week. Or you fell behind. That meant you had time for one or two other activities and only if it did not take more than an hour a day on average. Most everyone in the honors track had to cut back by their junior year or live with B's. A close friend gave up the philharmonic and national tours. Another stopped swimming even though he was nationally ranked. Another chose to continue to run and settled for B's. I chose to edit the school paper - and stopped everything else except for afternoon team workouts in one sport per semester. I could no longer sustain weight program or morning workouts and my results showed. If I had not lived across the street from school, I would have had to drop one or the other.
Please understand that I have my daughters in arguably one of the top five schools in Texas, but your experience sounds miserable. I would rather my daughters (or sons) continue with sports in high school than strive to get all A's. If you had a perfect ACT in High School, even with a less than perfect grades, you had a really good chance to get into Duke, Vandy, etc. Or, you could have just gone to my slightly above average school, where the top students played sports, and still ended up at Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Colgate, etc. Most of our kids will have approximately 20 years of schooling- there is no need to burn out in High School.
On the east coast demographics are completely different- people settle down in their late 30's- a 40 year old 1st time mom is not unheard of and since mom is 40. Dad can be even older in this equation.
That being said, it's pretty easy to get into med school these days from what I hear, so that's not really a high water mark anymore.
But piano, hockey- all it means is the kid is well-rounded and has outside interest. Where I'm from high school hockey is a joke, so unless you're playing travel hockey you're wasting your time. On the same thread- by age 10 they've already spearated the wheat from the chaff in terms of musical aptitude, the high school orchestra vs. the Curtis institute kids.
But again- Dallas has excellent magnet schools- it's just a bit of a gamble but your kid is set if they get in and schools such as TAG (while a highly motivated, highly selected -self-selected and other-wise bunch) generally do better than ever the vaunted HPISD kids. sarcasm on med school entry, even in Texas with like 30 schools you still have to be able to color inside the lines.
I'm not sure how much of your stream of consciousness above was aimed at me.
But-
1. My son played school and travel or competitive tryout if you prefer hockey. He played with and against kids who are pushing for NHL ice time, assuming they ever play again.
2. My son took most every difficult class his HS had to offer while playing HS AND club hockey and he made a 4.0 in HS, NMSF etc. All I'm saying is it is possible to be a jock and smart.
3. He has a 4.0 in college as well and has early acceptances into three medical schools. And that has zero to do with coloring within the lines.
4. IIRC Texas has seven medical schools and a D.O. school.
ETA - I don't get the Southlake hate either. It's a pretty town with really good schools.
I'm not sure how much of your stream of consciousness above was aimed at me.
But-
1. My son played school and travel or competitive tryout if you prefer hockey. He played with and against kids who are pushing for NHL ice time, assuming they ever play again.
2. My son took most every difficult class his HS had to offer while playing HS AND club hockey and he made a 4.0 in HS, NMSF etc. All I'm saying is it is possible to be a jock and smart.
3. He has a 4.0 in college as well and has early acceptances into three medical schools. And that has zero to do with coloring within the lines.
4. IIRC Texas has seven medical schools and a D.O. school.
ETA - I don't get the Southlake hate either. It's a pretty town with really good schools.
None of it was really was aimed at you. As to point #2- you're correct, you don't have to pick sports over academics. A kid or a school can excel in sports and academics. Of course my experience is from private schools and you guys are alot more advanced down here sports-wise (at least football, soccer, baseball).
As for med school- it's always fun to knock med schools and acceptance. Ohio comes out first with six allopathic and one osteopathic school for a much smaller population.
None of it was really was aimed at you. As to point #2- you're correct, you don't have to pick sports over academics. A kid or a school can excel in sports and academics. Of course my experience is from private schools and you guys are alot more advanced down here sports-wise (at least football, soccer, baseball).
As for med school- it's always fun to knock med schools and acceptance. Ohio comes out first with six allopathic and one osteopathic school for a much smaller population.
I'm not sure how much of your stream of consciousness above was aimed at me.
But-
1. My son played school and travel or competitive tryout if you prefer hockey. He played with and against kids who are pushing for NHL ice time, assuming they ever play again.
2. My son took most every difficult class his HS had to offer while playing HS AND club hockey and he made a 4.0 in HS, NMSF etc. All I'm saying is it is possible to be a jock and smart.
3. He has a 4.0 in college as well and has early acceptances into three medical schools. And that has zero to do with coloring within the lines.
4. IIRC Texas has seven medical schools and a D.O. school.
ETA - I don't get the Southlake hate either. It's a pretty town with really good schools.
I can't speak to the rigors of high school athletics so perhaps you are right about kids being able to combine both sports and studies in high school. In college at least, I would say generally speaking, its not possible, or at least VERY hard to be a college athlete in a big time sport and major in something more challenging than say, women's studies.
Whilst in college, I had a job tutoring student athletes. I got to tutor the starting quarterback for the TCU football team. Since practice ended at 5pm, we would schedule to work at 7pm. During the season he missed every single session. While practice ended at 5, he would often times be up in the film room or other spots going over plays with coaches, practicing, etc till sometimes 8 or 9pm. With the pressures of winning, I dont know if he would have even had the option of backing out of practice to study. Of course, no school coach or official would ever admit publicly that this happens but its the reality I saw. I know one guy who was "persuaded" to drop engineering and take business management as his major. It's pretty easy to figure out why. Engineering takes up a lot more time (away from football) than business would.
That being said, there were other athletes (mainly women) who had no trouble meeting for tutoring. Andn I'm sure there are football (and basketball) players who are able to major in whatever they want and graduate. I just think it's harder than people think. Again, I dont know how that translates to highschool sports, but I cant imagine it's THAT much easier than college. With scholarships riding on performance, I can imagine a similar scenario to what goes on in college.
Many GT kids are social outcasts because they are not grouped with kids like themselves thus they never learn how to be social. Its not until HS in a good district that they run into others like themselves and can form friendships. Parents of these kids also tend to have the same experiences as a kid and do not know how to help this. And immigrants are at a further disadvantage here.
I know most kids my son's age look at him like he is weird. He loves the piano and likes to talk about electrical circuits and cooking shows and large puzzles. He is only four. Most four year olds don't do this. I already see that some older girls in his class try to ostracize him to gain favor with others. His adult speech and intensity weirds out a lot of adults. He is fortunate to have made friends with GT kids 2-3 years older than he is who like the same things. He also has some female cousins who are in their teens with whom he can discuss TV shows with and a female doctor friend with whom he discusses medical stuff via email. We are fortunate that he is Clinton-esque in his outgoing nature. If he were shy, or we were too restrictive of him, he'd be like you described.
My general observation is that if a kid is being challenged in school by the subjects he is taking, academic or otherwise, then there will have to be some tradeoffs made by the sophomore year. Or he is not being challenged enough.
My HS program was a true honors track from 7th grade on for the top 5%. The state mandated stuff took up ten minutes a day one day a week and we were expected to cover it on our own. The rest was a deep dive into the subject. Latin or French with 4 years was required. English classes included one book a week plus readings in history and coverage of plays and music. Two years each of physics, chemistry, and biology. Algebra started in the 7th/8th grade with Calculus required. I had to present at least one day a week in my class and we had essays due each week and long projects due each month. Tests were all curved for the A's and B's. All our teachers had masters with one a PHD. Most of the kids had been together since 7th grade and had been carefully brought to this high level of work.
By 11th grade, there was no way you could get A's without 2-4 hours a night and 4 hours on the weekend. We studied between classes and during lunch and were up to midnight one day a week. Or you fell behind. That meant you had time for one or two other activities and only if it did not take more than an hour a day on average. Most everyone in the honors track had to cut back by their junior year or live with B's. A close friend gave up the philharmonic and national tours. Another stopped swimming even though he was nationally ranked. Another chose to continue to run and settled for B's. I chose to edit the school paper - and stopped everything else except for afternoon team workouts in one sport per semester. I could no longer sustain weight program or morning workouts and my results showed. If I had not lived across the street from school, I would have had to drop one or the other.
I am no dunce. My ACTs were perfect and my PSAT/SATs were nearly so. And my classmates were children of PHD academics, lawyers and doctors and their parents really supported them. Most are today similarly distinguished. Most were not NMSF but rather they were molded by the honors program.
I cherish my school-age sports memories. I played a lot of sports up to my Junior year. I also remember many of my teammates taking the easiest classes they could take and thinking school was a joke. I also remember that many could not read the paper.
But I even more cherish my friends and memories from the honors program. We suffered together and worked harder together than anyone else.
I was a NMSF and in the top 12 of my admittedly average-ish HS, and this sounds miserable and a waste of high school. This type of schedule sounds better suited for graduate school (which is where it actually did happen to me, in law school). I didn't do anything like this in high school. This sounds overblown.
"[quote=biafra4life;27397143]I can't speak to the rigors of high school athletics so perhaps you are right about kids being able to combine both sports and studies in high school. In college at least, I would say generally speaking, its not possible, or at least VERY hard to be a college athlete in a big time sport and major in something more challenging than say, women's studies.
Whilst in college, I had a job tutoring student athletes. I got to tutor the starting quarterback for the TCU football team. Since practice ended at 5pm, we would schedule to work at 7pm. During the season he missed every single session. While practice ended at 5, he would often times be up in the film room or other spots going over plays with coaches, practicing, etc till sometimes 8 or 9pm. With the pressures of winning, I dont know if he would have even had the option of backing out of practice to study. Of course, no school coach or official would ever admit publicly that this happens but its the reality I saw. I know one guy who was "persuaded" to drop engineering and take business management as his major. It's pretty easy to figure out why. Engineering takes up a lot more time (away from football) than business would."
The number of outstanding students who are also big time athletes is large. I would point you to Andrew Luck (engineering major at Stanford), RG III, etc. Look at the Duke Basketball team and Coach K's almost perfect record of his players graduating. (he won't hang a banner unless everyone graduates).
Athletes have many obstacles doing well in school, but also many advantages. For example, most athletes red shirt. Certainly the first year, when you are redshirting, is not near as demanding. It provides a nice base of hopefully 30 hours. Furthermore, college coaches generally prefer for the students to stay around over the summer. This provides an opportunity to pick up an easy 6-9 hours. Moreover, by taking summer school, a football player only has to take 12 hours his fall semester. In addition, by redshirting, you get 5 years to complete your degree. Finally, if you are on full scholarship, you may have less financial concerns than the average college student.
Without a doubt, college coaches will push students to take easier classes with silly majors to make sure they stay eligible. But, if you have a strong academic background, and you can handle difficult classes, being an athlete makes it harder, but it is not impossible.
I might also add that it is also difficult for the student waiting tables forty hours a week, the guy in ROTC, etc.
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