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I am sure that this was a great accomplishment for this young lady. However there are many stories about persons with minimal reading, math and other basic abilities being graduated. I am wondering if this is also some sort of confirmation about the quality of our schools when someone with a very low IQ can be an honor student. I do believe that this would have been possible during the era that I graduated. And how good of an idea is it really to encourage those with very limited intellectual capacity to go to college.

We have friends who have downs kids, now grown. College would have been a waste of effort and resources for their kids. My wife was even on the board of directors of a facility for persons with cognitive disabilities. People should be encouraged to reach their highest potential, but common sense should also have a role in deciding what is appropriate.

Your question: “I am wondering if this is also some sort of confirmation about the quality of our schools when someone with a very low IQ can be an honor student.”

FTA: “from the D.C. Public Schools”

I’d call that ^^^^ a clue.

No, never abort...never, never. After that, each person should be encouraged and supported in stretching to reach their best potential. That said, I observed Downs up close as a child in small town Kansas where I grew up on the same block as a Downs boy, played at his house occasionally, and attended the same schools in different classrooms. He was definitely mentally and physically impaired by the chromosome issues. His parents didn’t even have him circumcised until junior high because the health care professionals of the 1950s didn’t expect him to live long. According to the article, this girl’s impairment was nowhere close to what I observed when growing up. Chromosomal testing can prove Downs to a certainty yet I wonder about the level of the usual associated effects. The article doesn’t give much info.

” I am wondering if this is also some sort of confirmation about the quality of our schools when someone with a very low IQ can be an honor student.”

You don’t have to wonder. It’s not an experiment. Did you know that Wayne State University (Detroit) has proposed dropping its Mathematics requirement and would replace it with “Diversity”?