I gave a talk on exceptionally gifted children at the Reproductive Frontiers Summit at Lighthaven this June. I believe the subject matter is highly relevant to the experience of many rationalists (e.g. one of Scott's surveys has put the average IQ of his readers at 137, and although that's not as extreme as 160+, I think many of the observations generalize to the merely highly gifted). The talk is on YouTube:
I also adapted the talk into an article for the Center for Educational Progress. It has now been published: https://www.educationprogress.org/p/exceptionally-gifted-children
I'd say the talk is more fun and more rationalist-focused, while the article is a bit more serious and meant for a wider... (read more)
True, but I think a lot of them also at least theoretically subscribe to the idea that there are "multiple intelligences", and are willing to believe that some kids are really good at subject A as long as they're also deficient at subject B. Therefore, I don't think they should be able to muster nearly as severe opposition to the proposal of letting kids move up and down in individual... (read 2832 more words →)