What’s your most controversial opinion?

@FutureIdol Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber spring to mind…

@2cool4school losers 🙄

@FutureIdol I agree 1,000 percent, my nieces and nephews are religiously homeschooled, and all four have the social skills of turtles, meaning they're all slow as well. Well, the middle girl is a bit smarter than her sisters, but my nephew is as slow witted as mollases, my older brother will never be able to join Mensa himself either.

@NativePortlander1970
[quote]Mensa's Vanishing Membership
http://amyx.org/mensa/goingforward/backissues/v1n1/vanishing.htm [/quote]
Just happened to see this the other day by chance. LOL

@2cool4school This doesn't surprise me, one of the requirements of Mensa is being able to think critically and with logic, something that the Millennials and Zoomers are/were not being taught.

@NativePortlander1970 I’m Gen X (1977)
My mom was a teacher so I always got a little extra bit of an education from the stuff that she tried on my sister and I before she used it in her classroom.
She took both my younger sister and I 4 different times throughout our childhood educational years (ages 4-18) for IQ testing. I asked never to know my score. My sister knows both our scores and all I know is we are pretty close. I’m guessing by my sisters overall reaction that mines higher but it’s not by much so I don’t think it really matters. However my sister was recently tested for her job and she was told that she too has an aptitude for engineering which was surprising to my mom because she was sure that was my strength however it seems my sister and I are more alike than ever. IQ doesn’t change much throughout your life and having the 4 tests only helped the accuracy. We couldn’t be more different personality wise and we had fairly different educational paths. She has her masters. I dropped out of architectural school before my sophomore year ended to turn pro for snowboarding. I’m still involved in the winter sports industry as well as the cycling industry.
I always intended to return to my education but I’m dealing with chronic pain syndrome and it’s just not something that I can juggle at this point in time.

@2cool4school Born in 1970, one of the Elder X'ers. At the beginning of 3rd grade in 1978, the state of Oregon had all of us our age take the test, I scored 148, in the top 5%. The district said I'd be bored with regular curriculum and wanted me to enroll at the local Montessori for gifted children. However I couldn't go, my parents couldn't afford the tuition and it was already too late to apply for a scholarship.

@NativePortlander1970 Yeah I just looked at something the other day. Gen X was listed as 1965-1980. My sister barely makes it as she was born in July of 1980.
I remember having the SAT actually mean something lol
I can kinda relate I was in a GATE program for gifted and talent education but it was just at the public schools in my district for grades 4th - 8th I did attend private schools but not as much as my sister who decided on a Christian school with uniforms and I hated the uniform idea. Lol
I had a little different educational path. I went to a private all female college prep for high school with an acceptance rate of the 97% and above. It was actually pretty stressful but it was very efficient with the amount of material that could be covered when most of the entire school population is at the same speed. I had no problem getting accepted into any college I chose I had a few AP credits from taking AP classes both in summer school every summer of high school and during the regular school year. Summer school was actually the only time I had coed classes as we went to the all male college prep for that. Of course many students from both schools were not actually ready for college socially and I heard of more than several 19 yo pregnancies because of the freedom of college life and having little to no experience with the opposite sex. I got lucky I dated a coworker from my job in high school and despite a 5 year age difference we had the exact same textbooks as he was going a local university. College was actually easy for me and the only time that I had straight A’s since middle school. I chose science magnet schools for 4th and 5th grade and 6, 7, 8th and I enjoyed it educationally. I have some friends that grew up and a few that moved to Lake Oswego and their schools seemed pretty solid. I lived in Portland for a summer for access to Mt Hood for my snowboard career. Before that I was at U of O in Eugene.
Oregon has its perks. I almost went to UC Boulder in Colorado but I almost went to a lot of colleges because other than the cost I had an easy time with acceptance and I played several sports which I considered doing in college crew was actually one of my favorite. I just wasn’t tall enough to get a chance at the best University rowing programs I also didn’t want to go to school back east or in the Midwest. I’m one of the many to attend but not graduate from U of O Eugene. Lol

@2cool4school July 1980 was a bad time for me personally, my mother took my older two brothers and me from Hillsboro, we lived next door to the Methodist church that she was their secretary at and took us to the middle of nowhere iowa, to the farm she grew up on, I was ten at the time, and it fucked me up for years, nothing but hillbillies and hayseed hicks, a major culture shock for me.

@NativePortlander1970 I’m sure Hillsboro was pleasant place to grow up but I can’t imagine the culture shock. I’m so sorry that you had to incur the trauma. They say that childhood trauma is necessary to be a productive and successful adult. I’m just not sure “they” who say know exactly what is enough and what’s too much trauma…

@2cool4school Hillsboro was an Awesome city back in the day, but being taken to small town in the middle of nowhere iowa fucked me up, specially all of the the shit that happened in that pathetic hayseed state until I came of age and escaped it and moved back to Oregon when I was 18 in 1988, and graduated from Sunset High in Beaverton in 1989.

@NativePortlander1970 Wow I’m so glad that you made it back to Oregon’s comfortable environment. I’ve spent enough time in that state that at one point in my life it was the second most comforting place I could exist in and I even preferred it to home because after 18/19 I was just not interested in spending anymore time in the area I grew up in and I still feel that way. Close family friends moved to Lake Oswego in 1988 and every time we visited (which at one point was 2-3 times a year) I think I just fell in love with it a little more. It was just so idyllic especially in the 90’s at least in my experience.

@2cool4school Thank you 🤗 However I was forced to move away again in the late 90's, I had a major falling out with my Dad's side of the family after my grandmother and an uncle severely betrayed me, I am just glad my Dad and Grandfather weren't alive to see what happened, it would have torn them apart, it's a very long story. Looking back I wish I would have stayed in Oregon, I have regretted every day since.

@NativePortlander1970 I’m so sorry to hear but I know from my own bad and regrettable experiences that as hard as it may be we have to keep looking and moving forward. Life is more like a sailboat than a car it’s just not possible to put it in reverse. But learning from the hard and bad times is very important for weathering future storms. I really enjoy interacting with you. I’m currently in a lot of pain so I’m on SW a little more than usual as it’s a distraction from my pain and helps me feel more connected than I currently am laying in bed. So thank you again for your polite correspondence and interesting recollections. I do appreciate and look forward to our conversations.

@2cool4school You're so very welcome, and thank you as well :)