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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]21:17 / 21:31And again, as a reminder, the Basis grad who posted here got into a best-of-breed group at Stanford.  There is something to be said for that- he probably would have been far less prepared and far less likely to have had that opportunity had he gone through the regular public school system.[/quote]

So all's well that ends well because the guy was admitted to Stanford?  I was disabused of the notion that attending a blue chip college at any cost pays off long ago, when a sibling died of a drug overdose at any Ivy.  Moreover, I have a spouse who barely speaks to his father a quarter-century after graduating from MIT because his immigrant dad subjected him to extreme academic pressure throughout his childhood.  And I haven't forgotten how two Brown classmates took their own lives on campus (class of '90 for those needing to verify).  My Ivy PhD program was largely populated by happy seeming non-Ivy grads.  If the Stanford Basis Tuscon guy feels that he would've been better off elsewhere in secondary school, his prerogative.  In MoCo, the "regular public school system" includes full-time programs for highly gifted 4th and 5th graders and middle schoolers where, as I understand it, creativity is not in short supply.  Those are the sort of enrichment programs I'd like to see emerge in DC, whatever happens at Basis.

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Some difficult stories, but I don't see how it relates specifically.  You, your spouse, the Brown students for example did not go to BASIS, nor likely anything exactly like it, and we don't know how their schooling or background relates to BASIS.  There are any number of reasons that could be contributing to those tragedies, for example, the basic dynamic between your spouse and his father, or other causes for stress that took the lives of your Brown classmates.

I felt significant academic stress in college as well, for example - but for entirely different reasons than what you are alluding to.  I tested high IQ, was in G&T programs, AP courses at an upscale, well-regarded school in the Pennsylvania suburbs, graduated National Honor Society, voted "Class Genius", got multiple scholarships for college.  But, I skated through school, spent half my time with my head in the clouds, really didn't have to apply myself, wasn't really challenged, didn't have to work hard, yet still got excellent grades.  When I graduated, I entered an excellent university for science and engineering, and promptly began to discover that I really didn't have any good organizational skills, really didn't have good study habits and really didn't have any self-discipline, and it nearly broke me in college.  I felt thoroughly underprepared.  For example, I had classmates coming in who had already had Calculus, whereas my own school hadn't even offered it - I was scrambling to catch up on so many things.  My grades plummeted, caused me a great deal of stress and it took a concerted effort to turn it around.  I don't want to see the same happen to my child.  And, the sooner he develops those good habits, time management, and self-discipline, the better.  I learned this the hard way, and I feel it set me back on many levels, I don't want my child to also have to learn it the hard way.
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