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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]From a parent whose nerdy DC never fit in a public high school and who is finding a tough very high level college is a very good fit, these places are not the terrible places described in this article. The geeks can  have a place to do what they do and not be crapped on.[/quote]
I don’t understand this argument. Most public schools in the DMV have geek students who can hang out with each other and geek out.  It wasn’t the case when I was growing up and geeks got crapped on.  Now they have their people in good public schools. [/quote]

There are entire high level colleges chock full of supernerds.   These are fantastic places for very academically inclined students to be and I see no problem with kids wanting to go to them.  Not talking about a few random kids in high school.  An entire large institution devoted to high level scholarship is not a terrible thing in theory.[/quote]
I don’t think anyone-including the author-is arguing against having excellent colleges or academically inclined institutions?  I think one argument is that not every nerdy and smart person is STEM inclined or needs to go to a top 10 school.  I have one kid who is very nerdy but her interests and strengths are in the humanities and writing.  We need smarty pants in non-STEM/finance fields as well.  The author also points out that these schools are elitist (not because they want smart people) but because many of their students come from very selective pricey prep schools, because legacy is still a thing.  I don’t understand the parents in here (and the AAP forum) who think any criticism of current faulty systems is a judgement/backlash on the gifted folks. [/quote]

What is this author suggesting we do?   I can only say that DC is so fortunate to finally be in an environment so well suited to DC and is thriving.  Not from an elite fancy prep school or a rich connected family or anything like that.  Just academically obsessive and from what I can tell is surrounded by a lot of the same.

Sure there are students from elite rich families but there is a lot more to these places as best I can tell.[/quote]

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