<p>amother - please understand, your English does not need work. I am just sensitive to Asian speech patterns because I work in a company where I am one of the very few non-Asians and I am trying without much success to learn Mandarin:). Your English is much better than my Mandarin, believe me....</p>
<p>Back to your son. I just had my son's teacher conference last night and I was thinking about these kids who have a capacity for complex thinking but don't really want to follow the all math all the time track. My son is equally interested in math, science, history, language, etc. So was my daughter. The interesting thing is that it now looks like she will major in pyschology with a neuroscience certificate. If you think about it, once students are in college the barrier between quantitative and non-quantitative is not so forced as in high school. Psych for example is the study of human emotions, but you have to be able to work numbers and study in labs these days to really delve down. Another example of a convergence area would be philosophy. These days it is very closely linked with both logic/math and with the scientific study of the brain.</p>
<p>So for the dual brain kids it can be harder to find stuff that sparks their interest and enriches them at the high school level. For my daughter it was leadership and performing arts. But for my son, who thinks public displays are mortifying, we are having to find other ways to keep him engaged.</p>
<p>We're very lucky in that the kids go to a very wonderful private school. So last night I talked to two of my son's teachers and explained who he is. That behind the cool kid facade is a true nerd who has not yet been challenged. I told them they had my permission to call him on it. And they said what I was saying made total sense, that they now understood why he acts so diffident in class and yet gets all As. </p>
<p>So I am working with individual teachers, who he has told me he likes, and letting them know that he will be rewarding to challenge, rewarding to spend some extra cycles on. That way they won't be threatened, and I hope will be motivated to put in the extra effort to really engage his brain.</p>
<p>We will see how it works. I have also noted that CTY and EPGY have classes in philosophy, and in symbolic systems. So just be aware that math is not the only enrichment or acceleration that you can do for your boy. And the scouting idea might be a great one. My son would never have put on the uniform:(....</p>
<p>I think our job is to use our brains to put opportunities out there for these kids to light their own fires. Where they get into college, given that it's highly unlikely that they implode and have to go somewhere terrible, should be secondary. They can succeed no matter where they go - but they will be happiest if they get into a great school by doing what they are truly impelled to do. Not to say parents shouldn't set expectations for high performance if that's the family value. But what that high performance entails should be up the kids. IMHO.</p>