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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You are simply making things up when you claim TJ was built to challenge bored under-performers.  It wasn't. It was built for two reasons. First, the county politicians at the time - largely Republicans - wanted a "tech" school that would reinforce the message that Fairfax County was open for business for any company willing to relocate to office parks in Chantilly, Reston and Tysons. Second, FCPS had excess capacity in eastern Fairfax, so it was either going to close one of Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart, or open a magnet there. At the time, FCPS was still overwhelmingly white, so there was no expectation that Asians already familiar with cut-throat admissions to secondary schools would flock there and dominate the school. But they did, so depending on the day of the week FCPS is either proud of having the top high school in the country or embarrassed that its flagship school has demographics that look nothing like the county in which it is located. [/quote]

I was there when it was approved; I spoke before the school board.  I was questioned on the lack of challenges; how one one day, my Algebra II teacher called home to 1) report that I was underperforming in class because of missed homework assignments (got A's on the test), and at the same time I scored the highest in the school on a math assessment, and I was going to be invited to go to states....How the curriculum was crushing my enthusiasm for science.

When include HW on the grade, you punish the truly brilliant kids.  For me, it was just busy work.   I would do the work until I understood the process.  But, when 25% of your grade is homework, then 100% on tests and 0 on homework gives a C.  That is how I got a C in Algebra II-Trig.  [/quote]

If you couldn't be counted on to complete homework at a base school, why would they believe you could keep up with the work at TJ? Sorry, but there's a LOT of busy work that goes with being an employee, a spouse, a parent... Welcome to life.[/quote]

I am 53 years old.  I know about life.  I did what was required to learn the material.  I continued that approach in college, and went from a C student to an A student.   TJ was not created to get your snowflake into a better college.  It was created so that the best and brightest Science and Math minds in the school system would have a place to reach their potential.  So they would not be held back by the confines of a typical classroom.  In my case, I was helping teachers design new curricula using computers while barely passing the class.
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You are characterizing TJ's mission to suit your personal profile.  It wasn't created to challenge students who would be held back in a typical classroom.  It was created as a marketing tool for Fairfax County when Jack Herrity was rolling out a welcome map to real estate developers and companies looking for lower-tax business locations.

The vast majority of TJ students would have done fine in a typical classroom, and TJ's admissions policies do very little to identify the students like you once were.  If they don't have excellent grades in middle school, they won't make the cut. 
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