Dear MAGA: Open Topic 20181125

On numerology – brings back memories.
When I was a kid, my dad was transferred from Chicago to New Orleans. My parents were overly paranoid about school system in Louisiana. After searching and interviewing at many private schools, they enrolled me in a very small private school for kids with a high IQ. I was only 10, had skipped a couple of grades, and was going into 6th grade at the time.
I remember being scared, taking the IQ test. What if I didn’t do well? Didn’t get accepted? Would dad be disappointed? Apparently I was ‘okay’ (huge relief), and 6th grade began.
There were only 13 kids in all of 6th grade. In 7th grade, there were 7 of us. In 8th grade, the same 7. No hiding in those classes, everyone was in the front row. Over half were Jewish kids, which was cool because I went to Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs. Classes in the morning were straight math/english/history/science but rigorous.
Classes in the afternoon were like a wonderland and I thrived.
We had everything from Aesop’s fables/myths/Shakespeare, Latin and French every year, world topography/mapmaking, Roman and Greek empires, specific classes on exploration/trade routes and commodities important at the time compared to trade/transportation and commodities today, European and Russian composers/art, history of China, Egypt, Aztecs and Mayans, the Dutch Hegemony, British Empire, and Persia conquest, along with architecture of the ancients.
We even dissected an eye, then a hand, than a human body at Tulane Medical (that was cool and no one threw up). We experimented with chemistry to blow things up or dissolve them, and traveled from Canada to the swamps of Louisiana to look at geology/strata on how the earth developed.
Debate was encouraged and we had public speaking classes, to the point we were filmed speaking extemporaneously on a given subject to weed out our ticks of swaying/pointing/stuttering/’ums and yeahs’.
Memorization of a list to music, repeating it forwards and backwards, and speedreading were plugged in skills.
But…..
Mathematics became a whole new world.
The mathematics ‘super classes’ in the afternoon were intense, more like math as a language. We learned to add/subtract/multiply/divide and estimate with great rapidity, in our minds, in front of others, thinking quickly, while being peppered by classmates. It made us comfortable with math and thus, algebra was easier. We were constantly breaking codes, alpha or numeric, and often our regular morning exams were given to us in code. Numerology/patterns/ flipping images/find the oddity and do it quickly, word problems and puzzles, the game of chess, were all commonplace and became a sport in class as well as our spare time.
We were never bored and we were definitely challenged.
What the heck were they training us to do?
Who puts together that kind of curriculum?
Whatever or whomever did it, it was FUN!
I couldn’t wait to go to school in the morning and we went 1/2 hour earlier and stayed an hour longer than the public school kids.
When my children were small, I diligently searched for a school with this kind of curriculum to no avail. What we did in middle school was only available in private high schools and in small parts, not all. Kids had been dumbed down. Their summer reading lists were 4-5 years behind schedule and our kids were largely bored with school. I often included puzzles and books for extra interest in their backpacks. We sent them to summer camps for extra learning all over the world.
We shouldn’t limit our children’s curiosity and they are far more capable than we think they are.
We should let their minds run freely, within a structure of competent academics who encourage them to explore higher levels.
Such a policy would make us a much stronger country.