A couple of nights ago, I attended the high school orientation for Jonah. (Holy crap! My baby is going to high school!) The parents squeezed into the auditorium to hear about all the course offerings in the school, and the school's philosophy about education. They gave us a handout with a breakdown of the SAT scores, the number of AP classes, and a list of all the colleges that their graduates were attending. Then we watched several boring powerpoint presentations. I checked Twitter and looked up periodically. 

After telling us about the wonderful achievements of their graduates, they told us that nearly 9% of the middle school kids did not attend the local public high school and instead went to private school. They said that they planned to start advertising the benefits of the local high school earlier in middle school to try to keep those students in town.

A few years ago, a county-wide magnet school opened up. It's a highly selective public school with a rigorous entrance test and interview process. There are town quotas, with slots for the smartest kids in each town. The local public schools are pissed, because it's pulling away the top students from each town, depressing the school averages, and lowering their rankings. Jonah said that the smartest kids in his class have taken the entrance exam and are awaiting the results. 

Jonah did not take the test, mostly because I didn't think he's mature enough yet for such a competitive environment. If and when the kid ever remembers to hand in his homework, then he'll be ready for it. (He does the homework, but forgets to hand it in. Ugh.) But even if he matured over night, I still have mixed feelings about a magnet school for smart kids. 

The great brain sort out is happening. Smart kids will go to honors classes. They will go to the more elite schools. They will move to cities that attract smarter people. They will get jobs that recruit smart people. They will marry other smart people and then move to towns with other smart, successful people. And they will miss out meeting people who are successful and smart in non-school things.

The populist in me hates the brain sort out. I would like my kids to be in diverse environments. Well, the diversity is still pretty limited in this wealthy town, but there is certainly a big range of talents and IQs. So, the regular old high school is for us.