Personal
I got letter in the mail today from the alumni Association of the University of Washington.
Turns out that that the education department is doing a special in depth survey of the 36 students that were placed there as 15 and 16 year olds. This was a special experiment designed to see if it was better to move gifted teens into college, or leave them attending regular high school with additional tutoring. This was the class of 1970, but I got my undergraduate degree in 1969.
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They want to fly me up to Seattle, for three days of interviews. Food and lodging on their dime. This was a traumatic time for me, and I am not sure I want to revisit it in depth. I don't care if it helps science. The original research proved fairly incisively that moving children away from their home is a bad idea. But someone thought it would be a good idea to revisit the premise. Listen, throwing a 15 year old into a school of 23 year olds, is crazy making. Fucked me up for years.
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I suppose I could just go and see Seattle again, and be uncooperative. But Seattle has changed so much as to be not recognizable. So no nostalgic value. I haven't decided yet and I have the winter to think about it. I do understand the value of doing longitudinal studies. But I really don't believe they're gonna come up with different results. Educating gifted children is not a one size fits all proposition. And socialization, or lack of it, have more effect on long-term outcomes.
eof
@corlin Best wishes to you in making the right decision to go or not.
I still get people asking me if I'll be showing up to a high school reunion. I don't respond. One of the worst times in my life as a result of bullying by teachers and classmates. All of a sudden, they want me to join them. No thanks.