[Ol' Dan Tucker]

I too attended a district that was constantly held up as a paragon of public ed. But upon my arrival at a highly competitive university that drew blue chip students from a dozen cities I quickly realized how woefully unprepared I was compared to my peers and/or the demands of my studies.

Out of curiosity, were all of the blue-chip students you encountered products of private education? Or, were there one or two that received a public education?

[relictele]

I should have been more clear....the students best prepared were disproportionally from private, mostly Catholic high schools.

We all had similar ACT scores but they were much more accustomed to the rigors of studying especially in multiple subjects.

My resentment then and now was/is directed at the public schools that all but ignore high achievers and/or high IQ students, since the schools are so often devoting time to discipline problems and remedial ed. Yes, there are AP classes and exams but those have been compromised by grade inflation as schools cynically seek ‘trophy counts.’