rbk mama
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Posts posted by rbk mama
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1 minute ago, maize said:
Sneezy's post certainly read to me, in the context of European attitudes (ancient and medieval), to be referring to respect by Europeans and the historical records relating to European relations with other peoples.
So I responded with historical European records that didn't fit that narrative, suggesting mixed evidence.
If I misinterpreted that she can correct me.
What exactly is your point in this fixation on racism before the slave trade? Because it does seem, even though you keep saying it isn't, like it is meant to negate some of the evil of slavery. Why do you want to do that so badly? And if you don't - why is it so important to you?
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1 hour ago, Sneezyone said:
We don’t know exactly what it meant back then but all the historical evidence points to the learned nature and humanity of more pigmented groups, particularly indigenous peoples in America, Africa and Asia, and their leadership and talents being respected in part due to their vast wealth and stores of knowledge, something the West didn’t possess until it enslaved those other people groups.
43 minutes ago, maize said:I'm thinking the evidence is mixed at best; here is some of what Columbus thought of natives he encountered:
"They have no arms and are all naked and without any knowledge of war, and very cowardly, so that a thousand of them would not face three. And they are also fitted to be ruled and to be set to work, to cultivate the land and to do all else that may be necessary, and you may build towns and teach them to go clothed and adopt our customs."
Wait, hold up. Are you really saying that indigenous peoples of America, Africa, and Asia were not respected? Why? Because the only intelligent people on the planet were white Europeans - like Columbus - and they are the only ones whose respect mattered? Your quote kind of proves the obvious fallacy of that belief - he was both despicable and an idiot.
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5 hours ago, Farrar said:
There's something about the concept that racism is natural and normal and has always existed that's so pernicious. I was certainly taught that and made to believe it growing up even as I was also taught that racism was wrong and that judging others by their skin or discriminating was wrong. It was implied that this was a barbaric (but natural) behavior that modern society had somehow fixed. But that's not how it actually went down. And it's an idea that has to be dismantled. It implies that it's beyond our control. That it's human nature to divide humanity by skin tone. But there's plenty of historical evidence to the contrary.
Thank you for pointing out the specifics of this historical evidence.
4 hours ago, maize said:
If you are saying that prior to the past 400 years no group anywhere used skin tone as an in-group/out-group identifier, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.
....
I'm not sure why that is a sticky point. It's just plain human reality.
4 hours ago, Sneezyone said:This is racism in action. If it’s all the same and nothing’s wrong/different/unusual/changed then there’s zero reason to make change. All good. Easy.
Meanwhile, the lost cause myth metastasizes b/c human nature is inevitable and God’s will for humanity makes darkies suffer. All good.
I'm still confused by this fixation on racism related to skin color. I think the above posters have made it clear why this is a "sticking point" - and why it has dangerous implications. This thread is about the exceptional and uniquely evil institution of slavery in the Americas, and shifting that focus to skin color seems either randomly tangential or a deliberate attempt to lessen the evil inherent in American slavery. I want to assume the former.
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23 hours ago, GoodnightMoogle said:
To bring it back to Veritas Press, I remember reading somewhere, when researching their much beloved “Omnibus,” (which looked really cool to me from the outside), that Douglas Wilson was involved in writing most of the material. There was one assignment that made my stomach turn - students have to pretend to be an American slave and write a letter talking about the “propaganda” that slaves are mistreated by their masters.
This is what the “it was about states rights!” dismissal of slavery leads to. It turns into pretending that “actually slaves weren’t treated so badly, it was all an exaggeration, many loved their masters and didn’t want to be freed” etc etc. The fantasy of racist and egotistical men.
Here is an excerpt of that assignment:“Pretend you are a slave who lives far away from your family. Write a letter to your wife/husband/ children. Tell them how you are, how you are doing, what your plans are, etc. Or for variation, pretend that you live in the South. You are a faithful Christian and your family has a couple of servants that help with work around the house. Write a letter to a relative or friend in the North who thinks that all slaves are mistreated and beaten. Explain how your family treats your slaves well and your view of slavery in general.”
This assignment is from omnibus year 3, meant for early high school students. It is absolutely vile. This is supposed to be the “creme de la creme” of Veritas Press, by the way. This is what they stand for. This is what happens when we don’t call out bad history.Incredible mental gymnastics and intellectual dishonesty are required to produce this kind of work. In another century we will have people talking about how there were only a handful of Jews who were mistreated by a few bad Germans - but most of the camps were actually quite nice and kept them safe and well-fed. And Christian homeschoolers will be asked to pretend they are a Jew enjoying themselves at camp. Or maybe not since Germany has actually acknowledged their shameful history while an outrageous percentage of Southerners remain in denial.
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21 minutes ago, GoodnightMoogle said:
To bring it back to Veritas Press, I remember reading somewhere, when researching their much beloved “Omnibus,” (which looked really cool to me from the outside), that Douglas Wilson was involved in writing most of the material. There was one assignment that made my stomach turn - students have to pretend to be an American slave and write a letter talking about the “propaganda” that slaves are mistreated by their masters.
This is what the “it was about states rights!” dismissal of slavery leads to. It turns into pretending that “actually slaves weren’t treated so badly, it was all an exaggeration, many loved their masters and didn’t want to be freed” etc etc. The fantasy of racist and egotistical men.
Here is an excerpt of that assignment:“Pretend you are a slave who lives far away from your family. Write a letter to your wife/husband/ children. Tell them how you are, how you are doing, what your plans are, etc. Or for variation, pretend that you live in the South. You are a faithful Christian and your family has a couple of servants that help with work around the house. Write a letter to a relative or friend in the North who thinks that all slaves are mistreated and beaten. Explain how your family treats your slaves well and your view of slavery in general.”
This assignment is from omnibus year 3, meant for early high school students. It is absolutely vile. This is supposed to be the “creme de la creme” of Veritas Press, by the way. This is what they stand for. This is what happens when we don’t call out bad history.Unbelievable. Vile does not even begin to describe this. This is a thousand times worse than that book description. Do you know if this assignment is still in there - what year was this from?
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1 hour ago, maize said:
I don't disagree with any of that.
The poster I quoted was using the statement that good people fought for the wrong side as direct evidence of racism.
That's nonsense.
Acknowledging that people are complicated and life is complicated and that yes, good people do get pulled into fighting for bad causes has nothing to do with being racist.
1 hour ago, Ellie said:You could post the link the actual UDC website.
I do think there is direct evidence of racism here. Sorry Daughters of the Confederacy - you do not get to claim that the Confederate flag no longer stands for slavery! Too late. And being dishonest about the Civil War, and choosing to remember it as not about slavery is racist. You have to ignore centuries of horrific violence to be proud of the Confederates who died to preserve their right to continue that violence. You have to believe that the Southern way of life that was dependent on that horrific evil was worth it. That is white supremacy. There is literally no way of reframing the Civil War to exclude slavery without embracing white supremacy.
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1 hour ago, KSera said:
They do, but continuing to support the wrong side long after the conflict is over and was clearly for a bad cause is a different thing. There’s a massive difference between someone who fought on the side of the Nazis during World War II and one who defends them now.
Germany and the US are hugely different in this regard. There are no memorials to Nazi's in Germany, but we still keep memorials to enslavers in the US. I'm sure racism lives on in Germany, but at least it is acknowledged as evil. It is still in the fabric of the US - as this thread reveals.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/germany-has-no-nazi-memorials/597937/
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5 hours ago, LauraClark said:
I didn't read this article, but just based on quote #1 it sounds like it is arguing that, while slavery was the main cause, there were other causes ("the breaking point" implies that there were other things leading up to it). I think it is absolutely important to teach our kids that the main cause was slavery; however, this war was composed of many many individuals-people are complex and do things for many number of reasons. To put it as the cause was either 'A' or 'B' misses that complexity-it can absolutely be mostly 'A', but also 'B', 'C', etc. I don't think saying that diminishes the horror of slavery.
Its kind of like if Sam murdered my daughter, but I also didn't like the way his breath smelled, or his rude way of talking and interrupting others, or his narcissistic personality, and one person said I didn't like Sam because he murdered my daughter. And another person said - NO, she didn't like Sam for many reasons, not just that! You would say to that second person - that is bizarre and twisted - of course the main thing wrong with Sam was that he murdered someone! When you want to say that the Civil war was primarily about "States rights" and NOT about slavery, you are absolutely minimizing the horror of slavery.
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11 hours ago, Ellie said:
From this link: "the breaking point of the States' Rights argument was the issue of slavery" And, "Most white Southerners also feared that an end to their entire way of life was at hand. Many were desperate for one last chance to preserve the slave labor system and saw secession as the only way."
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7 hours ago, Ellie said:
I promise that believing it was States' rights has nothing to do with oppression and injustice today.
Dishonesty about history is always linked to injustice today. In this case, white supremacy is behind both.
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2 minutes ago, KSera said:
That quote is from a letter written after the Emancipation Proclamation had already been written. Lincoln himself was not as equality-minded as he is often portrayed, but it doesn't change that the most pressing "states' right" that the south was agitating over and wanting to withdraw from the union over was the right to own slaves and for new states added to the union to be able to be slave holding states as well. I don't know why there would be a desire today to pretend that wasn't the case. What right is it that you think states wanted to secede over? What would be the reason for not wanting to say it was slavery? Genuinely wondering because it's puzzling to me why anyone today would be trying to make like this had little to do with slavery.
One reason to make little of the role of slavery then is to protect the feelings of the South, to let them romanticize their past - as in that book description - to think of their past as a noble fight for their God-give rights, all with God on their side. Another reason is to make little of continued oppression and injustice today. Let's just pretend it was never a real thing.
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46 minutes ago, Susan in TX said:
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm
"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
Abraham Lincoln
I'm not following how this supports the conclusion that the Civil War was not primarily about the South fighting to preserve their right to own slaves. There were other reasons - sure, but the war was primarily about the right to enslave others. It does point out that Lincoln is not the wonderful savior many think he is. For more evidence of that look at how he treated the Indigenous peoples.
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2 hours ago, HomeAgain said:
It's the companies that constantly toot their own horn about how Christian they are that are the worst at being so. Veritas, Apologia, BJU.....I have no respect for any of them.
Veritas Press has been awful since the Omnibus scandal, when they tried to publish an errata for blatant plagiarizing their materials. They have no morals but want your money.
These companies are definitely defaming the name of Christ in their racist materials. Abeka and ACE are others.
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7 hours ago, Ellie said:
Well, actually, there are plenty of source documents which make just the opposite plain.
Curious if you are referring to primary source documents written AFTER the war.
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8 hours ago, Ellie said:
The War between the States was definitely states' rights. Not that I approve of Doug Wilson, but I do think it's important for people to read more than one POV.
This is not about POV. What you are saying is fiction created to protect the feelings of the South. Please think about how framing the Civil War as being merely about "States' rights" totally denies the evil of slavery that was actually the center of the conflict. This "POV" is about perpetuating white supremacy and the denial of the full humanity of others.
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I haven't read this book, but the book description in the Veritas Press catalog is awful:
"Iron Scouts of the Confederacy
The adventures of two teenage brothers who grew up during the War between the States as orphans and as soldiers. The decisions they make cause them to learn a great deal about the faithfulness of God, and the horrible price the South had to pay to support their belief in State's rights."
The Civil War was not about State's rights - it was about defending the ownership, torture, and murder of dark-skinned humans. So disappointed in Veritas Press. And throwing God in there - as if God were supporting this endeavor - makes it so much more disgusting.
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7 hours ago, PeterPan said:
https://www.kelly-mahler.com/resources/blog/interoception-trauma-the-latest-science-on-healing-2/
https://mindwingconcepts.com/blogs/maryellen-moreau-s-musings/nobody-made-the-connection
Two articles to get you going. These are two big areas (interoception and narrative language development) that are affected by trauma and that may need some work. They have a cascade of effects on academics, behavioral regulation, etc.
There's a TNL (test of narrative language) normed down to age 4, so if you find an SLP who does a lot with expressive language they can run tools like this. Language will also been in some of the autism developmental tools.
Fwiw, it does not matter if the trauma was pre-declarative memory. I've met people who errantly think that you can (merely) talk through trauma with a christian counselor or pastor and they do not understand the physical and developmental effects of trauma.
Thank you for posting these. Trauma is a big part of his history - in utero and immediately after birth when he was in the NICU for two months. Then removed from birth mom due to neglect, and then removed from the foster home he was in for 3 years. The articles you posted are interesting, as is the book on the body and trauma (which correlates with another book I am reading right now (https://www.amazon.com/My-Grandmothers-Hands-Racialized-Pathway-ebook/dp/B0727L1NGJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8Z3TPCJZ3TEA&keywords=grandmothers+hands&qid=1648848814&sprefix=grandmothers+han%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1).
How do you find therapists who can interact with him at this level?
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6 hours ago, PeterPan said:
Just hit your library and see what they have as it will likely be the normal books.
Are you following up on any recommendations they make and discussing these things with the dc's doctor? If you're seeing food issues, restricted eating, and developmental delays, is he getting therapies or referrals for more evals?
Fwiw my ds is 13 and doing therapy for eating, lol, so I'm all over that. However his issues were less sensory (partly) and more that he had myofunctional issues affecting his ability to move his tongue around and chew properly. He's been doing therapy for that and a lot of the strange food refusals (which stemmed in his case from FATIGUE with chewing) have reversed. He's finally gaining weight nicely and has gone from 50th percentile height all those years to 95th. So getting help with eating and evals to figure out what is going on is always good.
Has he had *private* OT, SLP, etc. evals or only the services through Head Start? That would be an interesting question, whether it's time to be making some evals happen. My hindsight with my two kids is that calling developmental differences personality or whatever just didn't get us anywhere. Once we got them eval'ed, got the right words, got the right approach, then we made progress. So getting evals at the right time can be very helpful.
He's 4? Around 5 they'll start to get concerned if any primitive/neonatal reflexes are not integrated. It's something to watch for and something some OTs will check. Maybe not just yet, but file it on your list, kwim? Retained reflexes will affect speech acquisition, motor planning, vision development, all sorts of things, so they're good to catch early and 5 is about the time.
Perfect. You're not trying to make a big deal or say what it is. Just say the things you're seeing and advocate to get things checked. If professionals who work with kids all day long are saying something, it's definitely a bring it up with the ped. We had a swim teacher do that. She wasn't trained in anything besides swimming, but she saw enough kids to know he was reacting *differently* from the norm. Later we got words for it, things like "joint attention"...
So this child came to us about 5 months ago, having been in foster care in another home since he was an infant (removed from bio parent due to neglect). When he came he was receiving OT for eating issues as well as speech therapy. After both scripts were ending, both practitioners felt it made sense to take a break from therapy. The OT felt his aversion to different foods was mostly a control issue, and the speech therapist said he was mostly at age level in every area of speech so didn't need more therapy. The OT had made significant progress with him since he started with her - she got him to tolerate strange foods being on his plate, to touching them, smelling them, licking them, and taking a tiny bite. Now is able to do that with most new foods. But she did mention that he has some trouble moving his tongue around, and she was doing exercises with him for that. What kinds of foods was your son preferring to eat? This child likes hard texture foods mostly - beef jerky, crackers, apples, cereal, but also loves cheese -just not soft cheese. I was thinking that's because its hard for him to get soft sticky foods off his teeth. It sounds like he needs a new OT eval to focus more on his tongue issues and any other muscular problems.
Both prior therapists were "private" - not through Head Start. I requested a speech eval with Head Start last December (after the private one was ending and before he actually started attending Head Start), and they did what seemed to be a fairly comprehensive eval overall of him (all of this is new to me, so I'm not sure what all was missing - he had like 5 people in the room with him for hours), and they came back saying he didn't require any services. His speech was apparently close enough to age appropriate. Their only concerns were with his lack of self-care skills (like dressing himself), which we just hadn't been focusing on yet since he was so new and in fresh trauma from leaving his prior home. Once we showed him how to dress himself, he was fine doing it on his own. When he came to us he was in diapers (not pullups) and did literally nothing for himself. 90% of his nutrition was from Pediasure in a sippy cup. He is now nearly off it altogether and has gained weight. This all seemed bizarre to us, but we attributed it to his prior foster parent since he was relatively easy to potty train and teach to dress himself and eat solid foods.
Since his Head Start teachers have conveyed their concerns to me (that previous eval was done before he even joined Head Start), I have contacted the special ed person at his school and am waiting to hear back. His pediatrician is great, though, and I will also speak with her. If the Head Start people are not ready to do any other evals, I know that I can get the scripts necessary from his pediatrician.
I SO appreciate all of you who are sharing your experiences and thoughts on this with me! THANK YOU!!
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2 hours ago, Lecka said:
So, this doesn’t come across to me as any smoking gun, huge red flags kind of thing. It’s hard to tell — but it doesn’t come across that way.
You have options like asking at Head Start are they concerned?
You have options like looking into a screening by Early Intervention (the Head Start people would probably know about this).
You have options like talking to the doctor, bringing it up, seeing what the doctor thinks, possibly asking for a referral for an evaluation.
1 hour ago, Lecka said:1 hour ago, Lecka said:A similar book is https://www.amazon.com/Early-Start-Your-Child-Autism/dp/160918470X
Thank you for the book recommendations! I have requested both from our library. Also, I will definitely ask about Early Intervention with his Head Start school. I can speak with his pediatrician as well. Thanks again!!
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11 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
It doesn't seem very fair to decide someone else's diagnosed based on how he compares to your kids. There are many people who have shades of autism who go a LONG TIME without being diagnosed. And while it's true that "all autism behaviors are human behaviors" it's also true that you have a whole bunch of markers there.
So yes they are trying to walk you up to the idea that he has autism. No they can't outright say it because it's not their place. But yes that's what your list says. And you're saying it too when you list out the rest of those things (feeding issues, sensory/texture/food issues, developmental delay issues, etc.).
That's because there are extrovert, socially motivated people with autism.
It might make you feel better to wait, but it's not to his advantage. They're seeing it and they're telling you they're seeing it. There are SO many paths into autism and developmental issues that whatever is going on he deserves the intervention that comes with early diagnosis.
7 minutes ago, PeterPan said:You could look into Play Project. It's not so much that it's a terrible thing to line up toys. I mean, mercy, millions of people play Solitaire, which is lining things up. The issue is when it reflects difficulty with the narrative language and social skill and perspective taking development that would drive more typical play. That's why you want to do something, because you'll be able to connect him with resources to go those developmental steps going
And yes, trauma affects interoception and narrative language development. Could be any combination of things going on. I'm suggesting you look for the root skill issues underlying lining up. You can say it's a stim (sure, it can be), but it can also reflect those skills aren't developing properly to play other ways.
Wow. OK, I have a lot of research to do. I am obviously clueless about autism. Are there books or other resources you would recommend?
Yes, he has a complicated story overall - has had it rough from the very beginning of his existence. Almost wonder if I need to start a new thread asking for book recommendations for myself. I will if I need to. Thank you for your feedback!!
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11 minutes ago, Lawyer&Mom said:
My daughter’s differences were relatively subtle in preschool. I focused on them early on because I had just become aware of my own Autism, but my husband didn’t think there was anything different about her, and she actually “passed” the preschool ADOS. But an experienced pre-K teacher agreed with me, and when she was six she was diagnosed using the elementary school ADOS. Sometimes they need to get older for the differences between them and their peers to be more apparent. (It helped that she has a younger sister, and I could compare the two of them entering the preschool classroom.) Now at age 8 my husband totally sees it.
Other clues we had at age four: 1) Difficulty with potty training. She wasn’t great about awareness of her own body. We got there eventually, but there were bumps along the way.
2) Memorizing and reciting whole picture books. Non-autistic kids can do this too, but it’s a very Autistic endeavor.
3) Verbal stims. She was constantly humming and singing to herself. You could always tell when she was near you in the house.4) Different eye contact: She could make eye contact, but wouldn’t necessarily sustain it. Her eyes could dart around your face. She wasn’t aware of it, and I only recognized it from my own behavior.
5) Subtle literalness. It isn’t that she can’t understand figures of speech, but sometimes they trip her up, if only momentarily. She has to stop and think about the literal meaning, and maybe even make a joke about it.
Her social differences are still more apparent with her peers. She’s pretty good with adults, we adults instinctively compensate more for kids, than kids will do for other kids.
Thank you so much for these details. I have a good friend who diagnosed herself as having Aspergers only years after her son was diagnosed. Your daughter is so lucky to have you. How has early awareness of your daughter's diagnosis helped her? In what ways has the school helped, or do you seek help outside of the school system?
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2 hours ago, Lecka said:
They mean autism.
They said what they said. They gave you the opportunity to say “in fact, I see him do x, y, z and I have some vague concerns but hadn’t mentioned them to anyone yet.”
You didn’t say that and I think it’s fair to drop it.
Edit: what I mean is, it’s fine for them to ask in order for them to do their due diligence, the due diligence is done, it sounds like it’s not a big deal.
1 hour ago, Lawyer&Mom said:I would just keep Autism in the back of your mind and keep observing. As an example, my Autistic daughter loved letters, and had them all memorized by 2 years old. She was also very socially motivated. Liked interacting with people, very chatty. What she wasn’t good at was social awareness. When she arrived at preschool at age 4 she couldn’t quietly observe what the other kids were already engaged in and find a way to slip right into their existing play, which would be developmentally appropriate at that age. She just barreled in with “Hey, I’m here! What’s going on? Let’s play together!” So don’t mistake social interest with social skill. Contrary to the stereotypes, Autistic people can have social interest and be extroverted. What we lack is social aptitude.
Also, by age 4 her special interests were already apparent. At age 2 she was obsessed with the color purple. By age 4 it was princesses. (She played princess, drew pictures of princesses, wanted stories about princesses…) Special interests aren’t always “weird” they are just intense areas of sustained focus.
Thank you!! I was wondering if they were hinting at autism, but he seems so normal socially, and actually better at social interactions than a few of my NT bio kids in terms of his motivation and interest. I do see him "barreling in," though and didn't realize it could indicate a lack of awareness! I don't get that many opportunities to watch him with other kids as mine are much older than him. The other day he played well with a kid at the library, and it seemed like they did well together, but now I am realizing that I wasn't paying super close attention.
The special interest thing doesn't seem strange at all to me, as all my kids have been that way. And this kid has lots of interests - not just letters and numbers.
If you don't mind my asking, did you notice the lack of social aptitude inside your house, or just with other less familiar people? Like, this kid seems to do a good job communicating with us about what he's thinking about, what he wants, and asks questions about others, notices if someone is upset and comments on it. But I'm not sure if he is that way with others. Also, did you notice a difference in eye contact with your daughter? I'm realizing that I don't have a great understanding of the range of autism. Thanks again.
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These all seem very normal to me. I have a 4 yo foster child who attends Head Start four days a week. Since he's been with us for the past 5 months, he gets read to a lot, and has lots of preschool activities at home that involve letters and numbers. He loves letters and was quick to learn to identify upper and lower case and associate them with sounds. He's on the cusp of being able to read CVC words, though he has already started spelling CVC words. He has a weak grasp when using writing utensils, but still likes to write letters and words. At a recent meeting with his head start teachers, they said they were concerned that he often likes to line up toys or sort them (by color or size or type). They played an activity where the kids had to draw out a letter from a bag and if they knew what it was they had to say it out loud and put it in a jar. This kid took each one out, said it, and lined it up in alphabetical order. They thought that was very strange and concerning. I explained that he only just learned the whole order a few weeks ago and was kind of excited about that.
He was a preemie and does have some issues with eating and fine motor, and sometimes I think developmentally he is a bit delayed - but not sure how much is due to emotional trauma bcz of his situation and the fact that in his previous home he was treated like an infant (dependent 90% on liquids for nutrition, not used to dressing himself or really doing anything for himself). He is now potty trained, dressing himself, and eating normally (though from a very short list of foods he will eat). My bio kids all liked to line up toys and sort them, though they did so at a younger age. And at home I see this child do that sometimes, but not often. He likes playing with cars, blocks, paw patrol characters, all in normal 4yo ways. He does sometimes seem more like a 3 yo in his inability to see things from another person's perspective, but he was a preemie, and he just turned 4.
When I asked the teachers (who are both very experienced) why they were concerned, they said "well, it could be something." I asked them what it could be, and they just said, "well it could be lots of things." Am I missing something? He is very social, makes great eye contact, loves meeting and interacting with people - very much an extrovert. Does anyone know what these teachers might be concerned about? Thanks for your thoughts.
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Can I add grad school acceptances here? DS graduated early from Cornell last December, majored in applied engineering physics. He has been accepted at University of Chicago, Harvard, MIT, and Princeton. He is 98% sure he will attend MIT. His area of interest is quantum computing - which sometimes falls under electrical engineering and sometimes under physics. (ETA as all decisions are back: also accepted at University of California Berkeley, Cornell, University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Maryland College Park. Rejected at Yale and Cal Tech. Three year fellowship at Princeton and McWhorter Fellowship at MIT.)
Some background: we homeschooled through high school and did not have access to DE. He took a ton of APs, most of them self-studied. At Cornell, all of these APs counted, which meant he could have graduated a full year early. Instead he graduated one semester early and used the extra space in his schedule for more hours of research. He was accepted into the Rawlings Cornell Presidential Research Scholars program which meant he was given his own funding for research as well as mentorship. I cannot say enough good things about this program! He was able to work in 4 different labs - 3 at Cornell and 1 at another university (he literally just picked a top university and emailed a few different professors there and got immediate responses). The mentorship he received from professors, grad students, and post docs was invaluable. Oh, and Cornell gave us a very generous financial aid package. Highly recommend this school!
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Jokes & memes
in The Chat Board
Posted
I thought the same thing the first time I tried Turkish delight in America. But then I visited Istanbul and got to try freshly made Turkish delight, and it was ridiculously delicious. Amazing. And in so many flavors. I have never been able to find anything like it in the US.