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A request from the editor

Dear CTYers, parents, faculty, administration, former students, and especially those who are considering the CTY program for future years,

My name is Max Wang; I'm a former CTY student, having attended the program from 2005-2008, and the editor and maintainer of RealCTY. I'd like to ask for a few minutes of your time today so that I can share with you some of my thoughts about, and both my joy and my sorrow for, the CTY program. I implore you to read my words in full, and I sincerely hope they are of some help or use to you, in some shape or form.

As the longtime editor and maintainer of this unofficial wiki on the student culture at the Center for Talented Youth (CTY), and as a former, four-year student of the program, I have had the very special opportunity and privilege to examine and understand firsthand the ways in which CTY has served the many kids, teenagers, and young adults who attend its summer program each year. CTY has a rich history and is a very special place in the hearts of many of its former students. Despite its summer sessions occurring only twice a year, and each lasting only nineteen days, the program attracted flocks of new and returning students year after year, who were reliably greeted by a pervasive and nurturing social and developmental culture, brought about by the students' collective community.

CTY has had a long, enduring, forty-year history of serving talented youth. It has changed a lot in those forty years, however, and I believe that, sadly, the trend of these changes, especially in recent years, has been surely for the worst. The Center for Talented Youth is in a truly unmatched position to serve the youth who attend its summer programs. There is a lot that CTY could be doing in the present time---as it did in the past---to foster and encourage significant growth among these young adults. And by growth, I mean not only academic growth in the classroom. I mean social and personal growth also; in particular, I mean growth in all areas (academic included) via free, open, and broadening interactions with fellow students, which help facilitate the development of self-confidence, communication, trust in others, and countless other invaluable personal virtues. In recent years, I have seen CTY continually act to inhibit this sort of free environment most conducive to interpersonal learning, and in doing so, it does all its students, and potential students, a significant disservice.

When I first attended CTY, I was a relatively introverted person (although I have since learned that, with some confidence, I am very naturally quite the opposite). In my first week, I called my parents every day, and I cried when I couldn't reach them via phone on the first weekend. I didn't have any friends back at school and I didn't know what making friends meant, so I felt rather alone. My experience the very next week, however, taught me that I was wrong. One day after class, for the first time, it consciously occurred to me that people were waiting outside the dining hall for me before lunch. I had a minor epiphany---I wasn't alone. These people weren't just passively tolerant of me; they wanted me around enough to give up their precious time and wait for me. I went to CTY that year because I wanted to take the philosophy course I'd signed up for, and though class did positively impact how I thought, I very much hope we can all agree that the other lesson I learned was more important. I learned that I wasn't alone.

I also learned, that year and in the years after, not to be afraid. One of the longest-lasting student traditions at CTY is that of cross-dress day (at my site it was called "Second Saturday," after the day of session on which it fell). This tradition is believed to have started in the late 90s, when a boy who wanted to wear girls' clothing was forced to cease his self-expression, and the other students, in support of him, dressed in drag along with him. Even a decade later, the tradition carried essentially the same message: never be ashamed or afraid to express yourself as you choose. The message that the tradition delivered was about realizing that you can grow closer to others by dropping your guard, sticking your neck out, and trusting good people not to take advantage of your vulnerability. It was about all the things you can get out of life by not being afraid; it was about being confident---even in more hostile environments back home or at school---in order to get the happiness you wanted.

These are some of the lessons I learned through my experience at CTY. I was smart before I went to CTY, just like all the students who qualify, and my four years at CTY did not make me smarter. What it did was make me better. I learned how to laugh and speak openly and recognize the good in other people. I learned how to communicate and how to empathize. I learned how the best experiences come by letting people get to know you and by trusting the people who support you. I learned how to pursue the things that made me happy and to take control of how I lived my life.

It is because of this---of what CTY was able to provide me and my peers in the past---that I ask the parents, students, and any others looking into the CTY program for future years to consider other options for yourselves or your children.

The creativity, confidence, and compassion for one another that CTY students can come to demonstrate is immense and incredible. The students, especially the older students, who have undergone significant growth are thus very capable role models for younger generations. There is little that makes you desire more to step out of your shell than seeing the people who have succeeded in doing so. These older students hold the vanguard in the student culture and are unmatched in their ability to teach the younger students how to grow into themselves and become as clear and confident as their older peers. By restricting the ability of these older students to teach the younger, what is perhaps the most important learning experience of the program is lost.

The most poignant example of how CTY has---perhaps unintentionally---restricted the ability of students to learn from each other is in its censorship of a student discussion group that has become popular since its debut in 2008. This is the GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever) discussion group, in which both students and staff, regardless of sex, gender, or orientation, can gather in a safe environment to discuss the issues of sexuality which challenge them every day. Especially in recent years, the social pressures surrounding sexuality can be a hindrance to the growth of any young person. Some become bullied; some become bullies; some learn to be passive in the face of others' disagreeable actions. This space, where older students and staff who had already grown into themselves and who had the wisdom and confidence to help out younger students, was an indispensible place of personal learning.

Sadly, it has since been crippled by the program administration. Neither students nor staff are any longer allowed to share personal experiences. Instead, they may only discuss issues of sexuality in the abstract, without the context of real life problems, and the discussion is predetermined and overseen by program administrators. Students are now unable to use this discussion session to learn from each other the sorts of lessons you can only learn from your friends and peers in an environment of open and equal communication. Instead, the space has been reformatted as that of a classroom.

Perhaps the most startling issue here for me is the serious lack of trust that the program administrators have for the talented youth that attend their program. As parents, students, and even staff, you know, I hope, as well as I do, that CTYers are good people! They are bright, understanding, compassionate individuals on the whole. Even if there had been an isolated incident of unsafe or harmful discourse in GLOW---and there have not been any such incidents---it should not be a reason to quash the ability of students to learn from one another.

The restrictions on the situations in which students may grow close to one another---and therefore learn from one another---are countless. A annual tradition called the Last Supper, which refers to the Biblical event in name only, in which students gathered to share a final meal with one another (and which held special meaning for the older students who could not return) was also disallowed. For many years, students have been prohibited at numerous sites from lying in the grass. While grass may not appear to be the most effective learning space, I think we can all see how, at a young, highly developmental age, lazy weekend spent talking with friends out under the summer sun can be irreplaceable experiences. Particularly for youth who are more academic than social, restricting the opportunities for such interactions with peers can be highly detrimental.

Returning students often rise to arms when they hear that their traditions have been ruled against. With my CTY days far behind me, I view these administrative choices far less personally. I see them not as an affront to the precious traditions I celebrated five years ago. Rather, I see them as a passive, but serious, disservice to the present students---who now take ownership of the program's community---and a disservice to those students yet-to-come. It is some small tragedy that the youth of this year and next, and the years following, who come into the program with success in the classroom as a prerequisite, will not be provided with a full breadth of other opportunities to learn. Instead of learning from their staff or their fellow students as peers in such activities as GLOW, they will have to resign themselves to learning only in a classroom format. Their opportunities to learn about themselves as they exist outside the classroom will also become more restricted, and the environment provided by the program will not easily allow them to develop friendships and bonds as close or tight as the students who came before them.

Public and private schools have become much better at serving the academic, in-classroom needs of gifted youth. If CTY continues to limit the diversity of opportunities for learning---and especially those for learning from peers---then it loses its sparkle. It becomes no more special than high school, for which all potential CTY students will be headed anyway.

It is a shame that so few compelling, competing programs to CTY exist; but they will continue not to exist unless you---parents, students, staff, anyone invested in the talent of youth---urge them into existence. This is why I ask you to consider alternatives to CTY for your or your children's next summer. Look for the fledgling programs which you think offer not the best classroom environment, but the freest, most numerous other environments in which to learn. At the very least, remind the Center for Talented Youth of the importance of these forms of learning. Remind them to trust the talents of the coming generations; to trust in the kindness and goodness of the students who attend their programs, and the ability of those students to teach the next generation.

There is no better nourishment for talented youth than the companionship of peers; of like minds. The first aim of any program like CTY should be to provide as many channels as possible for learning through this companionship and community. I implore you, whatever you do, not to tolerate anything less for your children or for yourselves. Whether it be through CTY or through an even better service, please, seek out the places most willing to support learning in its every aspect.

Thank you for your time,
--Max Wang, CTY Lancaster '05-'08

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External Links

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