I Taught Rich People’s Kids for Years. Here’s What I Learned.
His mom said he had an extraordinary IQ. “It’s probably in the 140s,” she went on. “I don’t know why he’s struggling.”
“Well,” I said. “It’s an advanced class.”
“Yeah, but he’s a genius.”
“Okay…”
Welcome to the talent identification program, or the center for talented youth, or the school for gifted youngsters, or whatever you want to call it. This happened every summer. Parents routinely overestimated their children’s intellect. Everyone’s a genius here, but obviously their kid is a little more gifted than everyone else’s.
Of course, obviously…
These parents signed their kids up for the hardest classes they could find. They pulled strings to get prerequisites waived. When their kids flailed, they blamed everyone but themselves.
They threw rich people tantrums.
Sometimes we could soothe their egos by reminding them, it’s supposed to be hard. Sometimes it worked. Other times, it made them angrier. Once, a dad threatened to sue me when his 14-year-old daughter failed a test in Calcul…