Alyssa's Sins

Chapter 1: Work Hard Play Hard

The elementary school had never been particularly prestigious - except a few students, Alyssa included. She was always the smart kid in school - valedictorian without much effort - despite being one of the youngest kids in the class. She defied early concerns of overly-anxious people who were very worried about her adjustment to kindergarten and early elementary. In a district where redshirting younger and even average-age kids is prevalent, she had been fortunate in a sense, and she was thankful she didn't need to waste a year of her life.

Despite this, various people continued to raise hell about minutiae - for example the occasional times she was a little forgetful or daydreamy, her occasional behavior and emotional problems, etc. When she asked out of curiosity if she could skip a grade, from fourth to sixth, the class teacher dismissed her and claimed she was "not mature enough" and too much "in a rush to grow up". 

Perhaps the teacher thought this would discourage Alyssa from attempting to skip two grades - but it did the opposite. In the summer of 4th grade, she decided to focus more on her studies, while indulging in hobbies to prove to teachers she had a life and was mature enough. She wrote more novels, read more books and even managed to place runner-up in a child pageant without any preparation. She also decided to dedicate significant time to NWEA MAP prep in all the subjects - to boost her chances of admission to middle school.

The Jones parents saw this significant improvement in academics and hobbies, and thus decided to have a family reunion. There were a few arguments - the most crucial one being whether Alyssa should be able to drink a small glass of wine on a special occasion. The mother was very reluctant and could only be persuaded to allow this exception by the father, who said that it's a bonding experience and besides this does not mean the family would allow alcohol use regularly. Besides, Alyssa was curious to try it, and she seemed reasonable enough to not abuse the privilege.

_________________________________________________________

Alyssa's Diary, August 5th 2008 -

I never thought of my dad as a decent father. I used to think of his idealism, libertarianism and fighting for freedom as fake. He seemed like a perfectionist who was willing to say many things to get ahead, and I was worried he was lying to me. But somehow, he decided to convince my mom to let me enjoy some wine, even though it wasn't the healthiest for me. Besides, I told him I liked to try it. 

There wasn't much argument - just my mom loudly demanding to my dad to only allow alcohol on very special occasions and only small amounts. My dad mostly acquiesced to her demands, but at least I can enjoy a small glass of wine in the family reunion dinner. 

I still don't feel very safe - some teachers have dismissed my plans, I don't have a lot of friends and I fear my father can't take control. I feel like Mom is being too overbearing and controlling us, even when she should not be.

_________________________________________________________

The family reunion went very well. Alyssa loved meeting her distant cousins, aunts and uncles. She paced her drinking well, alternating between sips of wine and water. In fact, the other family members were pleasantly surprised how much Alyssa had improved in maturity and academics - they had seen her as the smart but very lazy and immature girl before. 

She spent the remainder of the summer researching which middle schools were possible to accept acceleration, realising that skipping fifth wouldn't be as practical as trying to accelerate later on, considering the situation. Fortunately, she managed to find a middle school that had ample opportunities for acceleration - her ambition of skipping 2 grades isn't a mirage anymore. 

It is as if a fire of passion engulfed her - she had a period where she had a huge flight of ideas, a lot of elation, productivity and ambition. This lasted for four days consecutively for almost all day - it's as if a pilot decided to turn on all the boosters at once even at the cost of overheating all the engines. Her dad congratulated her for the immense achievements over the four day period - while also expressing shock she could be that productive.

The summer went by very quickly. It was already fifth grade and it was time to write the standardised tests - fortunately for Alyssa the productive period was so exceptional, even if she was a little lazy afterwards, it was still enough to score the highest in the entire grade by a long shot. For context, her spring MAP Growth scores were about 95th percentile. Before, there wasn't much improvement - from about 91st percentile in kindergarten to 95th percentile in 4th grade. This was a much bigger improvement - with MAP Growth scores of 236, 245, 235 and 225 in reading, math, language use and science respectively. 

Now the teachers had no excuse to neglect her educational needs. The math teacher, suspecting Alyssa to be gifted, immediately rushed to book a clinical psychologist to book an IQ test and other tests. He knew from research like A Nation Deceived and Hoagies Gifted that the very gifted could benefit from acceleration and other educational interventions. In fact, he realised that it may literally save the lives of some gifted students. 

The math teacher also introduced Alyssa to a tall, lanky, green-eyed, middle aged and narrow nosed substitute teacher who was caring and kind. While he may not be the greatest in teaching, he does have his tough experiences, allowing him to be empathetic to others' problems Alyssa was charmed by his kindness and decided to vent about her problems to him. He gave her advice on how to deal with the transition to middle school, how to study effectively and how to advocate for herself.

Fall passed surprisingly quickly. Alyssa had occasional bursts of energy, activity, productivity and euphoria. Sometimes they lasted for a few hours, other times a day or two. The substitute teachers knew about the productivity, thus told Alyssa to apply to Roberts Middle School, where there were many opportunities for Alyssa. The substitute teacher knew this school as he knew a couple students who went there, and suggested the school as he heard Alyssa vent about how she could not skip a grade easily.

As Alyssa nervously waited for the psychologist assessment and the results of the application to the middle school, she kept up her work - even to the point of doing extra research and work. Some skeptical teachers tried to stop her from what they perceived as "rushing" - Alyssa simply dismantled their arguments with the A Nation Deceived book about acceleration. The extra work paid off - when she knew the middle school would give a test for acceleration and an interview after Christmas, it was much easier for her to keep going. She was also in the right frame of mind to take the battery of tests thanks to some of the work that she did. 

The results of the acceleration test, interview and tests from the clinical psychiatrist took longer to be sent to Alyssa's address due to clerical errors, but the wait was worth it - the results were better than even Alyssa had anticipated. Her IQ was tested as 135, enough for Intertel (high IQ society with a cutoff of 99th percentile). She scored 80th percentile in above grade level testing and the interview went alright - the interviewer decided to give Alyssa the benefit of the doubt and said her maturity would improve enough.

Alyssa was extremely delighted with the news. So delighted, in fact, she spent the next week being extremely productive, active, talkative, elated and spontaneous. She kept studying ahead, even learnt chess, read four novels, exercised a lot, applied for leadership positions and even bought more makeup and learnt how to model more sophisticatedly. Even she herself was surprised she could become that productive - the teachers, classmates, others definitely noticed. However, some people were asking her if she was on cocaine to make fun of her - Alyssa simply glared at them and acted like they were confused. 

Alyssa managed to become a prefect. She managed to be somewhat popular and charismatic despite not being very mature, sometimes emotional and not well behaved. Being a prefect allowed her to practice her leadership skills, initiative and organisation - to the point of significantly reducing behavioral problems in class. By May 2009, she had such initiative that she decided to plan her 11th birthday party a month ahead of time, even though her organisation wasn't great. With this sudden self-improvement, of course the birthday party will go well! But who knows? We can't predict the future, after all, but there is no use dwelling on it.