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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t think kids can get National awards if they do not love the EC buy themselves. These kids are usually very self motivated.[/quote]

I know a child who did great at TJ but was only there so that she could get a car when she graduated. She got great grades, did well in ECs, and went on to major in English in college. She didn't care about STEM, she did care about getting a brand new car.

So yes, there are kids who win national awards because they are self motivated. There are also kids who could care less about the activity but have the skills to do amazingly well and can be cajoled into winning national awards.

Regardless of how the child is motivated, they should be doing EC because they enjoy it and because they experience and knowledge they gain from the EC is something that they appreciate not because they think it will get them into TJ or Harvard or MIT.

Parents who are complaining that kids who have all these great EC accomplishments were not accepted at TJ while kids without them are missing the point. TJ is a public school that is open to kids from all over FCPS and that includes kids who have not spent a substantial amount of time in STEM ECs. If you placed your child into STEM ECs hoping for a boost to attending TJ and not because your child was interested in them and wanted to participate, that is on you. For the kids who did those ECs because they loved them, awesome. They learned something and enjoyed themselves, which should have been the goal all along.

And yes, my kid does STEM activities. And finishes in the 95th percentile in national and international math competitions. He does it because he likes to. It will probably help him do well in math and science in school which will increase his chances of being in a position to apply to TJ. More importantly, he likes the activities. We don't care if he goes to his base school and not TJ. I hope that he is accepted if he wants to attend TJ in a few years but we know he will be fine regardless.[/quote]

I agree with the above poster that those extra STEM activities are important on their own, and that the kids, who loved them, benefited from them greatly either way. Having said that, I believe that TJ has high-level labs and teachers, which are not available anywhere else. If the majority of kids admitted to TJ cannot make use of those resources (because they lack the necessary background or are disinterested), these resources are effectively wasted, and the kids, who could make use of them, are deprived of such an opportunity. As a taxpayer, I very much object to having a school, which hoards so many great resources but effectively wastes them. [/quote]

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