I made the best grades in my year for nearly every year of my schooling from 1st grade up through junior year of high school. My dad would tell me that I was smart and gifted, and he would expect straight A’s on my report card. If I ever brought home less than a perfect score I’d be punished for it.
My mom, though, always told me that gap was an illusion. Sure, I was a smart kid, but I wasn’t doing anything anyone else couldn’t. If I could do it so could they, and vice versa. If I wanted to keep that lead I needed to work for it - but more importantly that taught me not to feel superior to the other kids. I wasn’t that special, I just learned new info easily.
I think that was really important for my developing empathy and maybe more smart kids need to hear that.
Would be great if we weren’t constantly stack ranking kids. Humans perform better as a team than as a bunch of atomized at-each-others-throats individuals.
I made the best grades in my year for nearly every year of my schooling from 1st grade up through junior year of high school. My dad would tell me that I was smart and gifted, and he would expect straight A’s on my report card. If I ever brought home less than a perfect score I’d be punished for it.
My mom, though, always told me that gap was an illusion. Sure, I was a smart kid, but I wasn’t doing anything anyone else couldn’t. If I could do it so could they, and vice versa. If I wanted to keep that lead I needed to work for it - but more importantly that taught me not to feel superior to the other kids. I wasn’t that special, I just learned new info easily.
I think that was really important for my developing empathy and maybe more smart kids need to hear that.
Removed by mod
Would be great if we weren’t constantly stack ranking kids. Humans perform better as a team than as a bunch of atomized at-each-others-throats individuals.