how to prep a preschooler to get into a MoCo gifted program

[Anonymous]

I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think you can teach giftedness. It just is.

Those nice little lists people are making?
I didn't go to preschool at all, my mother was a lousy cook, she worked so I taught myself to read, and she was also abusive (I don't remember any hugs and kisses except when she was sorry she beat me).

Somehow, despite all of that, I still managed to be highly gifted. That wasn't necessarily a good thing. The kind of sick status that comes with the gifted label and the weird things it can do to a kid's head are the key reasons why I do not have my kids in public school. When you teach kids that somehow by being gifted they have "arrived", it can sometimes mean (i) they think they do not have to work hard at anything, and (ii) when they do succeed, they cannot enjoy it because they are gifted so of course they are supposed to get all As or 100s or 99.9% on the standardized tests and so on. That is not a risk I am willing to take. Take a deep breath OP before you really mess up your kid with your "gifted or bust" attitude.

No one I know with gifted children teaches their kids this. Not a single person.

My kids both went through the Highly Gifted Centers in MoCo and none of their teachers took this approach either. On the contrary, the program is all about hard work.

+1 I totally agree. One of the reasons I love the HGC. DC is with tons of kids who are just as smart or smarter, has to work to do well and the expectations are high. When dc was in our home school, I worried that the As came too easily and now that we are headed to middle school, I have the same concerns. I just hope that the lessons dc learned in HGC - the value of working hard, and aiming high will not be forgotten over the next three years.
I also agree that there is a difference between being gifted (40% plus in much of MCPS) and being in the top 2-3% which is the case in HGCs. I am not convinced you can 'prep' a kid to be in that latter group - which was the OP's query.

07:38 here. If anything I would say that the regular classroom taught my high-performing kids that they had "arrived" - they both got straight As effortlessly, which I think they interpreted to mean that showing up was enough. Which of course, it isn't, for anyone.

Once they got to the HGC, they learned that showing up is nowhere near enough, that they had to work hard for those As (and Bs). My son got a C in math one quarter while at the HGC, and was devastated. I OTOH was thrilled - it was a terrific lesson for him in that he learned the pain of feeling he had not worked for a good grade, and the lesson of having to apply himself to bring it back up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

[Anonymous]

^^^PP here. The figure for the total number of fourth-graders is wrong - the Center kids are about the top 3-5% of eligible fourth-graders county-wide.

I would say that is very selective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^PP here. The figure for the total number of fourth-graders is wrong - the Center kids are about the top 3-5% of eligible fourth-graders county-wide.

I would say that is very selective.

I'm pretty sure there are only two classes at most centers. There's only two at my daughters. Add in ~11,000 third graders and it's about the 3.5% of the student population in an area that has a lot of really smart kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^PP here. The figure for the total number of fourth-graders is wrong - the Center kids are about the top 3-5% of eligible fourth-graders county-wide.

I would say that is very selective.

I'm pretty sure there are only two classes at most centers. There's only two at my daughters. Add in ~11,000 third graders and it's about the 3.5% of the student population in an area that has a lot of really smart kids.

Yes, at some Centers there are two classes for each of the two grades. At Pinecrest/Oakview e.g. there are three, and I think there are three at a few others.

So yes, 3.5% sounds about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

How is it an odd stat that póster says percentage of magnet kids at Harvard is low but it's not odd for pp to say kids send their kids to magnet because its an automatic ticket to Harvard?!?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

How is it an odd stat that póster says percentage of magnet kids at Harvard is low but it's not odd for pp to say kids send their kids to magnet because its an automatic ticket to Harvard?!?!

I find boh statements strange and nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

HGC may represent 3 to 5 % of all Montgomery County 3rd graders (I'm not sure of that figure) but it certainly does not represent remotely 3 to 5% of eligible 3rd graders or 3 to 5% of 3rd graders who even applied. It is highly variable in many elementary schools the percentage of 3rd graders that fill out an application and complete the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HGC may represent 3 to 5 % of all Montgomery County 3rd graders (I'm not sure of that figure) but it certainly does not represent remotely 3 to 5% of eligible 3rd graders or 3 to 5% of 3rd graders who even applied. It is highly variable in many elementary schools the percentage of 3rd graders that fill out an application and complete the process.

True. At my childs center they said that 500+ kids applied for 50 spots. Not sure how many total could have applied. I'm sure the decision to apply depends heavily on the quality of the base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

How is it an odd stat that póster says percentage of magnet kids at Harvard is low but it's not odd for pp to say kids send their kids to magnet because its an automatic ticket to Harvard?!?!

I find boh statements strange and nonsensical.

It's not difficult to find info for Blair and poolesville acceptances to Harvard. There was a recent thread related to this and the numbers were quite low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

How is it an odd stat that póster says percentage of magnet kids at Harvard is low but it's not odd for pp to say kids send their kids to magnet because its an automatic ticket to Harvard?!?!

I find boh statements strange and nonsensical.

It's not difficult to find info for Blair and poolesville acceptances to Harvard. There was a recent thread related to this and the numbers were quite low.

Figures like this are meaningless, because they assume that magnet students all want to go to, and apply to, Harvard.

There are magnets other than Blair and Poolesville - RM, for example, and CAP (in a sense).

In any case, this thread is about MoCo gifted programs and not about whether magnet kids are admitted to (or want to attend) Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

How is it an odd stat that póster says percentage of magnet kids at Harvard is low but it's not odd for pp to say kids send their kids to magnet because its an automatic ticket to Harvard?!?!

I find boh statements strange and nonsensical.

It's not difficult to find info for Blair and poolesville acceptances to Harvard. There was a recent thread related to this and the numbers were quite low.

Figures like this are meaningless, because they assume that magnet students all want to go to, and apply to, Harvard.

There are magnets other than Blair and Poolesville - RM, for example, and CAP (in a sense).

In any case, this thread is about MoCo gifted programs and not about whether magnet kids are admitted to (or want to attend) Harvard.

I didn't bring up Harvard, my purpose is to refute the poster who said entrance to Harvard is why people choose magnets.
And you are right that perhaps kids don't want to go to Harvard (its a stretch though) but I wouldn't say the numbers are meaningless. It shows that you do not need to be in a magnet to get into Harvard and vice versa (being in a magnet doesn't mean you will go to a top school by choice or otherwise)
CAP and some of these other programs are not considered true magnets since most of the county can't apply. But if the suggestion is that they have more kids going to Harvard I have no doubt that you are mistaken.
Lastly, this thread is most certainly about the end outcome of sending kids to magnets more than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the obsession with getting into the GT comes, in some cases, from parental concerns that have nothing to do with DC actually being gifted. Instead:

1. Gifted program is perceived as the fast track to Harvard. But Harvard will take your kid from high school not fourth grade. While I do think normal-but-hardworking kids can succeed in magnets, by high school the non-gifted kid is either going to be miserable with the stress of keeping up, or the truly gifted kids will be kicking his/her butt, and Harvard won't be interested.

2. The local school isn't great, it may even be bad. I think some parents I know even view gifted programs as a free equivalent to private school.

Disagree with one but agree on some level with two. The HGC program serves so many kids to make the gifted label meaningless. Parents mainly seek it out because it is a stronger peer group of academic minded kids that can serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool. Percentages of even magnet kids that get into Harvard is low.

Not really. Each Center serves about 75 kids in each grade, and there are six Centers - so total about 450 kids out of 10,000 fourth-graders.

To my knowledge there are no statistics on percentages of magnet students admitted to Harvard. What an odd reference - why would such stats even exist?

And what do you mean when you write, "serve as a buffer to issues at homeschool"?

How is it an odd stat that póster says percentage of magnet kids at Harvard is low but it's not odd for pp to say kids send their kids to magnet because its an automatic ticket to Harvard?!?!

I find boh statements strange and nonsensical.

It's not difficult to find info for Blair and poolesville acceptances to Harvard. There was a recent thread related to this and the numbers were quite low.

Figures like this are meaningless, because they assume that magnet students all want to go to, and apply to, Harvard.

There are magnets other than Blair and Poolesville - RM, for example, and CAP (in a sense).

In any case, this thread is about MoCo gifted programs and not about whether magnet kids are admitted to (or want to attend) Harvard.

I didn't bring up Harvard, my purpose is to refute the poster who said entrance to Harvard is why people choose magnets.
And you are right that perhaps kids don't want to go to Harvard (its a stretch though) but I wouldn't say the numbers are meaningless. It shows that you do not need to be in a magnet to get into Harvard and vice versa (being in a magnet doesn't mean you will go to a top school by choice or otherwise)
CAP and some of these other programs are not considered true magnets since most of the county can't apply. But if the suggestion is that they have more kids going to Harvard I have no doubt that you are mistaken.
[b]Lastly, this thread is most certainly about the end outcome of sending kids to magnets more than anything else[/

What is a stretch? Not wanting to go to Harvard? Are you saying that it is a stretch to imagine that anyone doesn't want to go to Harvard? If that is what you are saying, that is just bizarre - to think that every last student out there wants to go to the same school - really?

If you think this thread is about the end outcome of sending kids to magnets, then your perception of it is vastly different from mine. I'm not reading that in this thread at all. I do, however, think it is silly to think you can prep any child, much less a preschooler, for the MoCo HGC.