Thinking more about that gifted kid thing, I wonder how many other people frame their learning process as “absorbing” concepts from the air (lectures, videos, readings, etc.) rather than trying to drill those concepts into memory by taking notes, making cards, etc. Like learning by osmosis.
So much of my education, and the reason I’m a bad note taker, is I’m just present when someone is talking, and enough of the concepts stick that I develop an idea of what they’re trying to teach. Don’t ask me to go to the whiteboard and demonstrate what was just discussed, because I can’t access those learnings that way, but the seed from which the concept can be further expanded is planted just because it floated into my brain.
The stuff’s just floating around and I happen to be there. This is not how one masters a subject, but it is how one learns just enough to get a passing grade.
Conversely, as a worker I am obsessed with documentation, and not so much for myself but because other people need the information that is piled up in my brain, and I’m sure that by having to write documentation I’m just reinforcing those ideas, not unlike one does with taking notes. But this is different from taking notes for class because this is work and I’m getting paid to be there and I can’t risk getting fired.
people misunderstand what ‘gifted kid’ actually means but it’s ok it’s fine it’s cool it’s good
it’s not about actually being gifted, it’s about an initial higher scoring on standardized testing that means little to nothing or being good at learning in the way elementary and middle school wants you to, so you get marked as ‘advanced’. in reality, maybe you had faster development in certain areas, but the issue with being a gifted kid isn’t that “everyone told me I was so cool and special for reading and then I actually wasn’t :(” it’s “I wasn’t properly taught to handle things not coming easily to me, but the adults around me were counting on me not being a ‘difficult’ child in school.”
people who use it as some weird bragging method or interpret it that way are ignoring the way a lot of school systems force certain roles on students to simplify the learning process. If your kid doesn’t need to take notes to understand a science concept bc they get it naturally, well that’s good, but now you’re not teaching them how to take notes and they’re not learning that important soft skill. but because ‘gifted’ kids are easy and don’t show that they’re falling behind in learning in other categories that are harder to quantify, they eventually fall behind after that catches up to them. It’s about the failures of a one size fits all school system trying to compensate in the worst way possible.
And also the thing where ‘gifted’ kids are super likely to also be neuroatypical, which they don’t get screened for because they appear to be doing well in school. Or “You can’t be ADHD/autistic/etc, because you’re doing so well in school!”. Or being shamed for developing mental health issues/generally not being able to keep up with school work later, because you USED TO BE able to do it just fine.
Or the assumption that just because you can read well or you like math class, you’re somehow more EMOTIONALLY mature than your little kid brain is actually capable of being.
Or gifted kids whose parents and teachers put immense pressure on them to Do Great Things and Save The World and you’re like. “I’m 10 and I have no idea how to do that, but everyone is saying that’s my job?”.
This is the best “gifted kid” post out there. I never took notes until college because I didn’t have to, snd when it got challenging I had to literally teach myself note taking at age 18. It also fucks with your perception of asking for help – you’re advanced, you’re competent, you should be able to understand every topic easily. Asking for help/going to office hours/asking for a tutor feels like failing when you were praised in your early years for not needing to do that.
love how all these homeschooling/unschooling tiktok moms just admit their problem with public school is not stress and bullying but that their children might end up disagreeing with their political views and lifestyle.
it’s not a coincidence homeschooling in the US is heavily tied to evangelicals and promoted by far right think tanks lol. they know they’ll lose if their kids leave home.
this is literally on the abeka homeschool curriculum site
The Church: (Bans Jewish people from baking bread with the bullshit bigoted claim that baked bread is “Too good” for Jewish people)
Jewish People: (Create the single best bread-based food ever that is better than the bread the church wouldn’t let them bake in every way)
I would very much have liked to listen in on the debate as to whether or not it is permissible to give bagels to women giving birth. Something like that doesn’t get put in a statute unless there were disagreeableness about it.
Bagels exist, unremarked on, like directions to Punt, for more than 300 years. Then someone writes down “BTW, its legal to give these to women havin’ kids.”?
Much like the “Do not take orally” warning on Preparation H, there’s gotta be a story there.
Picard’s alternate life in Tapestry isn’t about how much worse his life is as a mid-rank science officer who just clocks in and out every day, it’s about the Picard who has lived one life being placed into another life of which he has no memory and no connections. Of course the man who’s been the captain is unsatisfied with the life he witnesses in Tapestry, because it’s not his life, and he would never be happy there.
But the Science Picard who did live that life, who got promoted up to a position onboard the flagship of the Federation, how are we or Captain Picard to know how he feels about his life? I mean, we’re made to understand that getting onto the Enterprise is a big deal, so he might have worked his ass off to get there, and he might enjoy his work, his life, and perhaps his average service record speaks to a Picard that isn’t a work-obsessed isolationist that made the sacrifices to be a captain of the most advanced ship in Starfleet. Perhaps Science Picard found a balance that allows him to do work he likes, in a position he still had to earn, and still maintain a balance that allows him to pursue interests beyond that work, something Starfleet and the Federation are always going on about but is rarely shown among Starfleet personnel on shows that are so focused on their designated roles and duties.
I’d be interested to read about Science Picard’s life, just to see.
