Why I hate AAP Parents - vent
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Anonymous
| Exclusion is an unnecessary violence. |
Anonymous
I agree with this statement, insofar as it means that AAP would never have been created today. Many GT programs in this country were established before inclusivity was a goal of public school. While educators of past decades may not have served all students as well as they could have, they did attempt to properly serve a subset of students by creating GT programs. |
Anonymous
Inclusivity is just one of many goals of public education. It gets taken to absurd lengths when you say we should do away with any programs or activities that might exclude anyone. If the goal of public education is to challenge only those who have learning disabilities, then by all means, do away with trying to challenge the brightest minds. After all, someone less bright is going to be excluded, and that's somehow more important than trying to give every ability and intelligence level the most challenging and best education possible. |
Anonymous
AAP doesn't challenge the brightest minds. It has become so overly inclusive that the brightest kids are still outliers even in the AAP classroom. It seems like it has been co-opted by the bright, high achievers who would have been perfectly fine remaining in gen ed, such that the gifted kids who actually need the program aren't really having their needs met. |
Anonymous
It has always been that. It wasn't designed to exclusively serve prodigies. |
Anonymous
| ^^^ Or, the way the program serves those students, now and in the past, is better giving them a cohort. |
Anonymous
Forcing really smart kids (the gifted not the lower ranks of the AAP) to be in a classroom dumbed down by the average AAP kids is unnecessary violence. Exclusion is not just for the average kid. Put the average kid in AAP class that tries to challenge the students and when they get poor grades (2s) the parents will be in the prinicpal's office demanding the teacher give their child better grades, and that the class needs to be less challenging because little Johnny feels bad that he is not as smart as the other kids. We already have parents buying their kids way into AAP through private testing so that their kids can dumb down the classes, isn't that enough for you? |
Anonymous
When the kids get to the real world they will be excluded from things for a lot of reasons, including: Bad Grades = don't get hired by top firms. Bad Grades = don't get into top colleges. |
Anonymous
Thanks for proving OP's point. |
(eye roll) x infinity
Anonymous
Private testing isn't dumbing down the classes. The committee already lets in quite a lot of kids with scores in the low 120s on the NNAT and CogAT into the program. On top of that, a lot of kids who scored at or above the benchmark did so due to prepping. Many kids get in who are gifted in either math or language arts, but fairly average in the other, thus slowing down the AAP classroom in their area of weakness. And about 20% of the kids in FCPS are found eligible for AAP. All of those contribute to dumbing down the classes. A WISC is much more reliable than the NNAT or CogAT for determining actual giftedness. Kids with high WISCs are probably among the smartest in the AAP classrooms (providing that they didn't find a way to prep for the test, take the tests less than a year apart, or shop for an overly generous examiner.) |
Anonymous
Perfect Example of misunderstanding GRADES DO NOT MATTER IN THE REAL WORLD No Social Skills, Can't play politics = will top out at 100k max I'll take my smart but also well adjusted (due to not obsessing over test prep and grades) against your robot non creative test freak any day of the week. Along with every other corporation in America (including top firms). |
Anonymous
Oh no!!! |
Anonymous
I do not care about salary: it is as bad of a metric as SAT scores. Basically, people need enough to not worry. Anything else, while nice, is a luxury. The truth about Grades is they do not measure what was learned; they measure how well you answered the question. In the real world, I do not take tests. I do not work on problem sets. Rather, I see the problem, and have to figure out how to address it. That may or may not include bringing in other people. The problem with schools is the entire process seems to be a competition now, at least in some peoples mind. In the second grade, winners go to AAP. In the 8th grade, winners go to TJ, in the 12 grade, winners go to HYPS.... never mind what is best for my kid: she is a loser because she is a HS sophmore not at TJ; she did not want to go to TJ. She most certainly will not go to HYPS...Maybe Cornell, more likely UVA, W & M, or VT. To me, happiness counts for something. I am very comfortable in my life. I am a scientist; I go to work doing things I like to do, working on problems that I think are important. I do not make 500K, but I also only work 40 hrs a week. |
Anonymous
If your transcripts are bad, I won't hire you at my company. That was your job for 4 years, you chose not to do it, what makes me think you will do it when you work for me? |
Anonymous
+1 If you are a b-student who talks nicely, it tells me you are a bullshitter who won't do work but will take credit for "managing" others. Those are a dime a dozen. I can coach a bright kid on communications and social savvy, but I can't make your mediocre kid smart. |