*smart and *comfortable* with long hours of homework.

My kid has social communication language disorders and has a wet noodle for a body, but is smart uncomfortable with long hours of homework. Straight As.

You get As for effort and PE and art. But you don't get As for effort in Math and English.
There are no grades for being able to have a spoken conversation in English, or for making friends, offer being any kind of leader of people for knowing how to brush your own teeth.

My gifted high schooler works very quickly and efficiently, because her brain is just built that way. It takes minimum effort on her part to get all As in advanced classes, as well as explore various activities and hobbies outside of school.

My twice exceptional teen (learning disabled but above-average IQ) works SO LONG and so laboriously to get lower grades than she does. He tires quickly, has sleep issues and cannot multitask.

They were parented the same way.

My husband has a high IQ with autism and ADHD. I have an above average IQ with very mild autism and ADHD. Gene re-assortment made it so that our son has an above average IQ with autism and ADHD, and our daughter has a high IQ with barely there autism and no diagnosable ADHD.

She thus ends up being the most functional in our nuclear family.

Since we've all been examined, the distribution of skills and neurodivergence makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I’m from the school of Hard Knocks. There’s a reason that Jews and Asians punch way above their weight academically. They’re not smarter. They work harder and are more disciplined (I’m Jewish). I’m reading way too many excuses and rationalizations in the comments above. I don’t doubt that some kids face real challenges and I don’t mean to demean them. However, I hold multiple Ivy degrees. I met a few really smart people in school. But, by and large, my classmates were like everyone else but put in more effort to achieve. I’ve found the same thing in my career.

Did your parents emphasize education, push you to work hard, and provide support that enabled you to do so (prioritizing homework and academic achievement even when it was burdensome for the family)? If so, that's your leg up. It's also not limited to Asian and Jewish kids, though culturally those communities have strong traditions of supporting academics. But you can find families of every race and religion who do this and, lo and behold, their kids tend to do well academically and professionally.

It's frustrating because you think "well why don't all parents do this?" The answer is generational -- if your parents didn't do this, then you won't know how to do it for your kids. It's also hard to do this, and requires some degree of selflessness and sacrifice. People generally learn how to do that from their own parents. Breaking that pattern is incredibly hard.

If you had a family that prioritized your education and made sure you learned how to excel in academic and professional environments, be grateful and try to understand how incredibly hard it would be for someone to achieve your success without any of that support.

This culture of excellence is also huge of Nigerian American families (and among West Indians). Nigerians have among the highest levels of educational attainment among immigrant groups.

To be fair, the reason for this is also that immigrants from Asia and Africa were already the highest achievers in their countries to be able to come to America, and their graduate degrees made it easy to be chosen to stay. They duplicate that blueprint with their children here in the US.

But racial stereotypes are one of the reasons why so many people don't even notice how much Nigerians excel here.

+1
Those who know, know. Nigerian, Ghanaian culture is unsurpassed when it comes to excellence in education. It may be equaled but not topped.

I'm a teacher and would never say it publicly but there are certain groups of students who consistently excel academically. Nigerian and Ghanaian kids are definitely in that cohort, especially 1st and 2nd generation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I’m from the school of Hard Knocks. There’s a reason that Jews and Asians punch way above their weight academically. They’re not smarter. They work harder and are more disciplined (I’m Jewish). I’m reading way too many excuses and rationalizations in the comments above. I don’t doubt that some kids face real challenges and I don’t mean to demean them. However, I hold multiple Ivy degrees. I met a few really smart people in school. But, by and large, my classmates were like everyone else but put in more effort to achieve. I’ve found the same thing in my career.

Did your parents emphasize education, push you to work hard, and provide support that enabled you to do so (prioritizing homework and academic achievement even when it was burdensome for the family)? If so, that's your leg up. It's also not limited to Asian and Jewish kids, though culturally those communities have strong traditions of supporting academics. But you can find families of every race and religion who do this and, lo and behold, their kids tend to do well academically and professionally.

It's frustrating because you think "well why don't all parents do this?" The answer is generational -- if your parents didn't do this, then you won't know how to do it for your kids. It's also hard to do this, and requires some degree of selflessness and sacrifice. People generally learn how to do that from their own parents. Breaking that pattern is incredibly hard.

If you had a family that prioritized your education and made sure you learned how to excel in academic and professional environments, be grateful and try to understand how incredibly hard it would be for someone to achieve your success without any of that support.

This culture of excellence is also huge of Nigerian American families (and among West Indians). Nigerians have among the highest levels of educational attainment among immigrant groups.

To be fair, the reason for this is also that immigrants from Asia and Africa were already the highest achievers in their countries to be able to come to America, and their graduate degrees made it easy to be chosen to stay. They duplicate that blueprint with their children here in the US.

But racial stereotypes are one of the reasons why so many people don't even notice how much Nigerians excel here.

+1
Those who know, know. Nigerian, Ghanaian culture is unsurpassed when it comes to excellence in education. It may be equaled but not topped.

My middle school daughter has a friend from Nigeria and another from Uganda. I have no idea how they do academically but that’s interesting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I’m from the school of Hard Knocks. There’s a reason that Jews and Asians punch way above their weight academically. They’re not smarter. They work harder and are more disciplined (I’m Jewish). I’m reading way too many excuses and rationalizations in the comments above. I don’t doubt that some kids face real challenges and I don’t mean to demean them. However, I hold multiple Ivy degrees. I met a few really smart people in school. But, by and large, my classmates were like everyone else but put in more effort to achieve. I’ve found the same thing in my career.

Did your parents emphasize education, push you to work hard, and provide support that enabled you to do so (prioritizing homework and academic achievement even when it was burdensome for the family)? If so, that's your leg up. It's also not limited to Asian and Jewish kids, though culturally those communities have strong traditions of supporting academics. But you can find families of every race and religion who do this and, lo and behold, their kids tend to do well academically and professionally.

It's frustrating because you think "well why don't all parents do this?" The answer is generational -- if your parents didn't do this, then you won't know how to do it for your kids. It's also hard to do this, and requires some degree of selflessness and sacrifice. People generally learn how to do that from their own parents. Breaking that pattern is incredibly hard.

If you had a family that prioritized your education and made sure you learned how to excel in academic and professional environments, be grateful and try to understand how incredibly hard it would be for someone to achieve your success without any of that support.

This culture of excellence is also huge of Nigerian American families (and among West Indians). Nigerians have among the highest levels of educational attainment among immigrant groups.

To be fair, the reason for this is also that immigrants from Asia and Africa were already the highest achievers in their countries to be able to come to America, and their graduate degrees made it easy to be chosen to stay. They duplicate that blueprint with their children here in the US.

But racial stereotypes are one of the reasons why so many people don't even notice how much Nigerians excel here.

+1
Those who know, know. Nigerian, Ghanaian culture is unsurpassed when it comes to excellence in education. It may be equaled but not topped.

In today’s education system, the top 10% need to understand what to do that isn’t taught. Both the current curriculum and declining quality of teaching makes simply working hard no longer the path to success.

Kids need to learn how to learn independently and what to do when a teacher is bad..which is frequent.

1. Math fluency - developing speed and accuracy for basic math computation in elementary school is extremely helpful. Outside math instruction or practice is also important in middle and high school. Tackling more complex and difficult problem sets than the school provides assures mastery and promotes actual deeper understanding.

2. Read full books. Kids that read full books ranging from literature to non fiction and think about what they read have a huge advantage. Schools no longer require much full reading outside a few books in English.

3. Executive functioning and independence ,students need to be more organized and overcome disorganized teachers. If you get stuck with a bad teacher, the top 10% kid will simply learn the material on khan academy or other sources.

Anonymous wrote:10% of kids have greater intellectual aptitude than the other 90%.

There’s definitely more than one reason why 10% do better than others. One is their strengths are in academics and they thrive on working at it to keep improving. Some with equal academic strengths aren’t interested or invested in working hard and aren’t in the top 10%.

It’s not just academics. There are musicians who are naturals and there is a top 10%. Only a small minority of athletes will go all the way to the top. Some are in the very top of the arts, whether it’s painting or ballet or creating sculptures. We need to remember not everyone should or even wants to work in an office or lab.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course some people are just smarter than others. How is that not obvious?

I don’t think we’re allowed to say that.

That’s because it’s outdated thinking. What exactly makes a person smarter than another. In school it’s probably a little easier to detect. Academically smarter is someone who has an easier time memorizing a lot of new information. If you have a logical mind you’ll be able to relate to the information easily. If you have a mathematical mind then math will come easier to you.

But scientists have broken down the various forms of intellect that have nothing to do with IQ which will be more important after school is completed.

Most people don’t know their IQ or need to know unless there is a problem.

My mother was good about this - a single mother in poverty - she thought learning of an IQ score was a detrimental way to define oneself.

She died in her 80’s a few years back and when cleaning up her place I saw the school records she kept. I was not surprised at the scores of my identical twin brother and me, but was grateful she used common sense. It did confirm one thing - my brother was academically impressive - a PhD in Econ and a well known quant in institutional finance. I did better on standardized tests though which perplexed me. Seeing the scores (they were identical) validated two things: a) IQ is a narrow measure of analytical talent, and b), my brother was a lousy rule follower who did not fear getting into trouble).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I’m from the school of Hard Knocks. There’s a reason that Jews and Asians punch way above their weight academically. They’re not smarter. They work harder and are more disciplined (I’m Jewish). I’m reading way too many excuses and rationalizations in the comments above. I don’t doubt that some kids face real challenges and I don’t mean to demean them. However, I hold multiple Ivy degrees. I met a few really smart people in school. But, by and large, my classmates were like everyone else but put in more effort to achieve. I’ve found the same thing in my career.

Did your parents emphasize education, push you to work hard, and provide support that enabled you to do so (prioritizing homework and academic achievement even when it was burdensome for the family)? If so, that's your leg up. It's also not limited to Asian and Jewish kids, though culturally those communities have strong traditions of supporting academics. But you can find families of every race and religion who do this and, lo and behold, their kids tend to do well academically and professionally.

It's frustrating because you think "well why don't all parents do this?" The answer is generational -- if your parents didn't do this, then you won't know how to do it for your kids. It's also hard to do this, and requires some degree of selflessness and sacrifice. People generally learn how to do that from their own parents. Breaking that pattern is incredibly hard.

If you had a family that prioritized your education and made sure you learned how to excel in academic and professional environments, be grateful and try to understand how incredibly hard it would be for someone to achieve your success without any of that support.

This culture of excellence is also huge of Nigerian American families (and among West Indians). Nigerians have among the highest levels of educational attainment among immigrant groups.

To be fair, the reason for this is also that immigrants from Asia and Africa were already the highest achievers in their countries to be able to come to America, and their graduate degrees made it easy to be chosen to stay. They duplicate that blueprint with their children here in the US.

But racial stereotypes are one of the reasons why so many people don't even notice how much Nigerians excel here.

Anonymous wrote:In this Reddit on the ask teachers subreddit (https://old.reddit.com/r/AskTeachers/comments/1tfpoz7/what_do_the_top_10_do_right/), so many teachers claim that you just need to study hard, do all the work, ask questions, and be curious. That’s all it takes to get As. Yet, so many teachers in NOVA talk about how so many students can work hard and study hard and still not get As. I just hate how teachers lie and gaslight by blaming poor performance on the students or parents, yet they also claim that just “hard work” is good enough for good performance. It’s just so hypocritical when most teachers are extremely left wing and believe things like IQ or intelligence are pseudoscience, yet they can’t explain the difference in academic performance between students once you rule out how someone studies. This is why I hate the education system so much

No. Teacher here, and completely disagree. The simple fact is that we KNOW that students have different levels of intelligence, but we also KNOW that hard work, diligence and grit is the great equalizer among people.

Every year, I see many students who are very smart, have fast processing speed, and understand concepts easily, yet are super lazy, are frustrated when they get something wrong, and won't study much. Then I see many students who are not very bright at all, but and keep trying, study hard, ask questions (even dumb ones) to understand the material, and receive around the same grade as the first type of students. But then there are a smaller subset of kids who have both intelligence AND grit, those are usually our valedictorians and high achievers.

Teachers understand all this very well. The number of high IQ kids who fail or languish at school because they have other issues with bad habits, emotional regulation, etc. is very common and very sad. In fact, some of those drop outs and "hallwalkers" fall into that category. But so do the students who are both lower IQ and lazy--those are the kids that school is just not for them.

For these reasons, I and many other teachers grade more on effort, growth and the process more than getting the right answer the first time, because getting the right answer has never been the point in life.

The real problem is that the general public can't discern which students are which, and use pseudoscience beliefs about race, sex, or class to make crap up about who is who and what they deserve in life.

Anonymous wrote:10% of kids have greater intellectual aptitude than the other 90%.

Maybe, but lots of kids with intellectual aptitude have terrible executive functioning skills, and they are far from the top 10% in grades. Ask any 2e parent.

10% of kids have greater intellectual aptitude than the other 90%.