S/O SMPY, Talent search awareness and acronyms

[Arcadia]

From Plum Crazy's thread on SMPY study,

 

"

Although gifted-education specialists herald the expansion of talent-development options in the United States, the benefits have mostly been limited so far to students who are at the top of both the talent and socio-economic curves.

 

“We know how to identify these kids, and we know how to help them,†says Lubinski. “And yet we're missing a lot of the smartest kids in the country.â€

"

 

Out of curiousity, how many of you found out about the existence of Talent Search through the schools and how many through friends and social media.  I found out from web surfing when my kids were toddlers. My district said nothing.  When hubby and  I attended a parent info talk by CTY JHU, the speaker said the bay area does have strong participation in the CTY JHU talent search and summer camps. 

 

Also, would your not yet in college child happen to know all these acronyms without your help: BA, BS, MA, MFA, MS, MBA, MD, MPH, JD, PhD (These acronyms were in the SET survey and my kid only know PhD and MBA)

 

Link to long list of talent search for anyone interested http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10260

[quark]

I found out about CTY by googling too. At that time (1st grade), I thought it would be good to research the offerings but I was very put off by the high prices. Nevertheless, kiddo did take the SCAT (ETA: always considered this a really odd acronym) just in case we could try one course. We didn't live too far away from the testing center and it was not a big deal. And kiddo did qualify for an award ceremony and he had a good time there.

 

However, as homeschoolers, I have not found talent search offerings to be helpful to us at all so in the end we did not register for a single CTY course. Friends who have tried various talent search courses (CTY, CTD/ GLL etc.) have come back with mixed reviews. None gushed with joy so I didn't pursue it. I can understand the appeal for B&M schooling kids. We have been very happy with crafting our own courses or finding teachers outside of talent search programs.

 

I do however, have high respect and gratitude for the SET folks, especially Carol B. who directed me (and therefore, DS) towards Cogito. DS is too busy now to use Cogito but it was a good avenue for him to meet kids online while he did.

Edited September 14, 2016 by quark

[Pawz4me]

Oldest DS was invited to join Duke's TIP when he was in elementary school. That was our first knowledge of and exposure to that world. And yes, both boys  knew all those acronyms before they started college.

[Runningmom80]

I only know about the talent searches from here and DYS forums.

[purpleowl]

I participated in Duke TIP when I was a kid--got an invitation to take the SAT in 7th grade through them, and then I did one of their summer programs between 9th & 10th grades. So I was familiar with that already. (And somehow TIP has my email address and my married name, and I have no idea how they know those things, and it weirds me out. But anyway.)

 

All the other things, I've learned about on these boards. One fellow homeschooling mom I know IRL mentioned to me that she'd learned about CTY and immediately thought of my kids, but I'd known about it from here first. My kids have not yet done any of them though, and I don't know when/whether they will.

 

My kids have heard me talking about wanting to get a PhD, so they might know that one, but none of the others. They're young though.

[Jen500]

I don't really remember how I first heard about the talent searches. We were homeschooling, but I know the ps would invite some of the 7th graders to take the SAT.

My kids qualified for the camps, but I felt they were expensive (and I have twins so I would have had to send both of them to be fair) and we were doing so much with homeschooling anyways that I didn't feel we needed anything extra.

My impression was that it was/has become just another venue for parents with money to spend on their kids. The slick mailers, etc. The only people I know IRL who send their kids to the camps are very upper class (economically). I know I could totally have the wrong idea but that's just the impression I've gotten over the years.

[Dmmetler]

I knew about CTY because it was the "local" one when I was a kid. I learned about the others from these boards. For us, the main utility was letting DD take the EXPLORE as her yearly test instead of having to suffer through a grade level one, until she was ready for the ACT. The test scores themselves have come in handy as a cheaper way to validate her present level of performance and open doors.

 

She has not yet done any of the classes except for one of the freebies from TIPS. I admit, some of the family travel from CTY sounds awesome (the one to the Galapagos, especially). We may consider the camps now that she's officially in the 7th grade plus age group, if there's one that is a good match, but the time frame often would interfere with DD's herp life.

 

DD knows most of the professional acronyms due to having a parent in academia.

Edited September 14, 2016 by dmmetler

[Guest]

I learned about Talent Searches from Hoagies Gifted website. I didnt think much about classes, because when I looked at the math offerings, they were using Dolciani. Dolciani was for everyone in my day, not jist the gifted...two thirds of my high school cohort took Alg. 1....and when I had taken the courses I thought they needed to be compacted (was happy to see preA was compacted). I did use CTY for Calc 3 and AP Physics 1 and was very happy...much better for a gifted kid than CC and I didnt have to travel as far.Ds realized from that experience how zip code affects choice, and that schools marginalize politically. I did receive a CTY brochure sent home from the middle school guidance counselor. We did try out the Saturday offerings at the local gifted school and discovered they were mostly gifted in the pocketbook, but the teachers were fun to discuss with. We had better luck with the cub scouts in meeting other students who had interests and were obviously gifted. Best though was having k-3 teachers who previously taught gifted. Worthwhile was JHU-CTY's Imagine magazine...the school here had cancelled their advanced courses when nclb came in and consequently the wealthy left, so Imagine was a reminder of the existance of other college bound students and it brought up points that would have been brought up in discussion, had there been other gifted students here.

 

My kids in elementary knew BS, MS, PhD via their teachers, some of whom were taking classes towards their advanced degrees. MD came from reading the walls at the ped. Office. The rest they did not encounter until later, when working on a Webelos activity badge, and the guest speaker mentioned.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Heigh Ho

[Guest]

..

Edited September 14, 2016 by Heigh Ho

[rebcoola]

I was invited to take the SAT in 7th grade and did a summer course. 

[Arcadia]

 However, as homeschoolers, I have not found talent search offerings to be helpful to us at all so in the end we did not register for a single CTY course.

  

 

My kids did some CTY courses and enjoyed those. However the courses they picked were in the same ballpark or lower than paying a private tutor. We won't have paid more just because it is CTY. Our worse experience was with EPGY.

 

The SET questionnaire student section was useful too. He did that portion without thinking so I guess his answers were real instead of diplomatic ones. His first career choice is not STEM which doesn't surprise me. His social answers does tally with why he does not care for DA.

 

What is funny was that I was thinking of not renewing DS11's Duke TIP for $30 as he is officially in 7th this year but my husband said to just consider it a donation and paid up.

 

I reread his report cards from ps and GATE yesterday and was not given a whole lot of info.

I know we can't turn back the clock but hope this helps someone. My kids teachers let me photograph their trimester tests when they were in public school. I couldn't bring the papers out of the classroom but I could take photos while at parent teacher conferences or just arranged meetings with the teacher. My kids portfolio was very very thick compared to their classmates. My kids report cards information were just check the boxes on state standards.

 

We may consider the camps now that she's officially in the 7th grade plus age group, if there's one that is a good match, but the time frame often would interfere with DD's herp life.

We have two commuter sites here, with the top local site being much nearer to my home. So we are going to see what is offered next year when the information comes out. Cost wise, it match our COL. My husband is still wavering on the award ceremony at JHU while my kids opt to skip East Coast and go straight to Canada.

[luuknam]

I think I may have first heard of some talent search programs when I was a teenager, in the context of "America is so much better for gifted kids" (my parents were part of a Dutch organization for parents of gifted kids and I even volunteered in editing the newsletter when I was 15-16 or so).

 

Nothing from the schools, but my oldest was only in school from PreK through 2nd grade, and he did not score in the gifted range while there (they IQ tested him at 4 and 7), and had plenty of special needs. He did have a few teachers who thought he was much smarter than the tests said he was. He qualified to take the SCAT based on his CAT score at the end of 3rd grade (when I was homeschooling him), and he passed the SCAT. I then actually mentioned that to his 2nd grade teacher (while I was in school taking him to speech therapy), and she'd never heard of the SCAT or CTY or stuff like that (and while she didn't think my son was stupid, she hadn't thought he'd score that high either). My younger has never attended school.

 

Apparently neither of my kids know any of the acronyms. I'm not sure if my oldest just got overwhelmed by the long list of them and shut down - I think he might have done a bit better if it had just been one in context, though I'm not sure (I did tell him that they were education acronyms). I have explained the whole elementary-middle-highschool-college/bachelor's-gradschool/master's-PhD path to him before (and also the version for MD or JD instead of master's/PhD), more than once, actually, I'm pretty sure. But I haven't focused on the acronyms. He doesn't have much use for the acronyms currently, what with being in 4th grade (and neither his mom nor I have any letters to put behind our names, so that probably doesn't help either).

[Arcadia]

My kids in elementary knew BS, MS, PhD via their teachers, some of whom were taking classes towards their advanced degrees. MD came from reading the walls at the ped. Office. The rest they did not encounter until later, when working on a Webelos activity badge, and the guest speaker mentioned.

 

My kids elementary school teachers have MS and PhD but they just go by Ms or Mr, even those with PhDs.   My husband's workplace has many PhDs holders but they go by first names even at conferences.  So my kids don't hear the Dr used except by their pediatrician and their dentist.

 

My husband only use the Dr title when he is talking to the staff at the school district office because some of them have one kind of attitude. My kids knew BEng because that is what my hubby and my first degree is.  BS would be a lower starting pay for fresh graduates than BEng in my former workplaces. So purely a curiousity question about the knowledge of acronyms and the responses have been interesting and helpful.Maybe my boy should have just put down I don't know for that question as a comment instead of not checking anything. There was no box for undecided.

 

 

I have explained the whole elementary-middle-highschool-college/bachelor's-gradschool/master's-PhD path to him before (and also the version for MD or JD instead of master's/PhD), more than once, actually, I'm pretty sure. But I haven't focused on the acronyms. He doesn't have much use for the acronyms currently, what with being in 4th grade (and neither his mom nor I have any letters to put behind our names, so that probably doesn't help either).

 

I found it weird that the survey would expect someone under 13 to know if they want to get any of the long list of acronyms. It was a check the box question so my kid did not check any.

If my boys were to really think about it in an open ended question, they might have written down that they want a college degree and some form of postgrad.

[luuknam]

I found it weird that the survey would expect someone under 13 to know if they want to get any of the long list of acronyms. It was a check the box question so my kid did not check any.

If my boys were to really think about it in an open ended question, they might have written down that they want a college degree and some form of postgrad.

 

I agree that's a little odd. Reminds me of the schools who ask parents of preschoolers/kindergartners their top-5 list of colleges for their kids to attend (which is different, but still a little odd, even though allegedly they just want to encourage parents to think about the future and set their goals high or something).

[Dmmetler]

I would imagine that it would depend on a child's focus. In my DD's case, she's set a goal of a PhD or a DVM years back-by about age 8 or so. But she has also planned to be a herpetologist, and the ones she knows all have PhDs or are working towards them, or an exotic veterinarian, and she sees the letters DVM applied there.

[Arcadia]

I would imagine that it would depend on a child's focus. In my DD's case, she's set a goal of a PhD or a DVM years back-by about age 8 or so.

I do get it that some kids would already know what they want while under 13 :) I was just wondering how useful the dataset is with the question phrased that way. For example, DS11's first choice career is Wall Street. Other than college, the postgraduate qualifications doesn't play a big part in that world. About 1/3 of my cousins are in the finance/investment sector.

As a former data miner as part of my job, I guess that was how I was viewing the survey questions and wondering how useful my kid's answers would be 10 years down the road to a researcher. My kid is just one data point of many of course, but that doesn't stop my curiosity.