Daley Ponderings
Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things.
(1) Good parents will generally do whatever they think necessary to get their children what they believe to be the best education. (2) Gifted and Talented programs, while in my opinion far from the best way to get a good education, are an improvement over standard public school fare. At least they allow children to interact with their intellectual peers, -- "iron sharpens iron." (3) If you're going to group students by any criterion, you must have some system of measurement that appears to be fair. Whether or not it is actually fair, or even accurate, is of less importance to a large corporation (and the NYC schools are a VERY large corporation) than the need to have a method they are less likely to be sued over. Even on a much smaller level, I had serious arguments with a children's choir director whose only criterion for admission to one of several levels of choir was the child's grade in school -- maturity, musical ability, behavior, and needs had nothing to do with the decision -- simply because that was a criterion parents couldn't argue with. (4) If they're going to use a test to determine the child's qualifications, it's not a bad idea to let the child become familiar with the format; it's bad enough that he will be tested by a strange person in unfamiliar surroundings. (5) If the practice test is going to be made available to nursery schools, it would be unconscionable not to make it available to parents, too. (6) Yes, it's crazy -- but families in such circumstances can either adapt to the system and try to make it work for them, or abandon it altogether. You know which choice I prefer.