me; wanted to enjoy raising "his little girl." Professional competence crumbled before gush of atavistic paternalism. Most reprehensible.
Momma disagreed; felt determination of potential would provide useful child-rearing information. In keeping with formula long established for maintaining smooth marriage, kept disagreement to self; however, took steps: Prevailed upon staff to test me—all unbeknownst Daddy.
Tests proved positive, but follow-up determination as to "healthy" status not performed—didn't occur to discipline-blindered scientists, and Momma didn't know any better so didn't insist.
You were a genius; she was content. And she thereupon took it upon herself to see that you were raised in the same "advantaged" manner as the rest of the AAs—with the exception of the fact that the doctor did not know this was taking place. He continued to enjoy his "daddy's little girl" as before, prating endlessly about the advantages of "sugar and spice," etc. And as for the rest of us, after swearing each other to secrecy about your test results and our involvement, we forgot you. You were, after all, a "compromised subject ."
Was almost five when next came to their attention. Had soured "sugar and spice" by glancing up, commenting living-room wall ". . . looks awful hot." Was, too—result of electrical fault. Would have burned down house shortly.
Remember incident clearly. Not that caused any particular immediate fuss, but Daddy spent balance of evening trying not to show was staring at me.
The doctor had spent much time during the previous few years observing children whose visual perception extended into the infrared and ultraviolet; and as shortly thereafter as possible, without letting Mrs. Foster know, he had you examined and tested.
Oho! Finally—explanation of what triggered Daddy's reaction that day—and of friends' inexplicable night-blindness, even during summer. Of course, could understand difficulty seeing at night during winter; is dark outside on cold night. Only perceptible glow comes from faces, hands; and after short exposure to cold, cheeks, noses dim perceptibly.
And remember also that testing session. Salient feature was expressions of other staff as repeated tests done on previous (conspicuously unmentioned) occasion: utterly deadpan.
It was only after the tests (performed fully this time) identified you as a Homo post hominem; after the doctor had diffidently broached this fact to Mrs. Foster and she, giggling helplessly, confessed to him; and, finally, we also came clean, that further testing demonstrated that you were substantially more advanced in intellectual development than the profile developed by our studies suggested you should be at that age.
How nice. Even as superkid can't be normal; still genius. Is no justice.
Detailed analysis of this phenomenon brought forth two unassessable factors: One, you had experienced ten months of unmonitored parentage; and two, your subsequent upbringing had been AA from your mother but BB from your father. Since we could neither analyze nor affect the first of these, we chose to continue the second factor unaltered, observing you closely and hoping that in some way, then unknown, the whipsaw combination of indulgent spoiling and accelerated, motivational education you had received to this point would continue to produce these outstanding results.
Momma's death terminated experiment; but before she left, made Teacher promise would take over overt management of education, keep pushing me as hard as would accept while Daddy (apparently) continued classic BB father rôle. Momma felt hunger for knowledge already implanted; abetted by Daddy's careful negative psychology, seeding of environment with selected books ( Ha! —always suspected something fishy about circumstances surrounding steady discovery of wanted, needed study materials, always just in time, just as finishing previous volume [not complaining; just wish planting had gone faster]), would
Momma disagreed; felt determination of potential would provide useful child-rearing information. In keeping with formula long established for maintaining smooth marriage, kept disagreement to self; however, took steps: Prevailed upon staff to test me—all unbeknownst Daddy.
Tests proved positive, but follow-up determination as to "healthy" status not performed—didn't occur to discipline-blindered scientists, and Momma didn't know any better so didn't insist.
You were a genius; she was content. And she thereupon took it upon herself to see that you were raised in the same "advantaged" manner as the rest of the AAs—with the exception of the fact that the doctor did not know this was taking place. He continued to enjoy his "daddy's little girl" as before, prating endlessly about the advantages of "sugar and spice," etc. And as for the rest of us, after swearing each other to secrecy about your test results and our involvement, we forgot you. You were, after all, a "compromised subject ."
Was almost five when next came to their attention. Had soured "sugar and spice" by glancing up, commenting living-room wall ". . . looks awful hot." Was, too—result of electrical fault. Would have burned down house shortly.
Remember incident clearly. Not that caused any particular immediate fuss, but Daddy spent balance of evening trying not to show was staring at me.
The doctor had spent much time during the previous few years observing children whose visual perception extended into the infrared and ultraviolet; and as shortly thereafter as possible, without letting Mrs. Foster know, he had you examined and tested.
Oho! Finally—explanation of what triggered Daddy's reaction that day—and of friends' inexplicable night-blindness, even during summer. Of course, could understand difficulty seeing at night during winter; is dark outside on cold night. Only perceptible glow comes from faces, hands; and after short exposure to cold, cheeks, noses dim perceptibly.
And remember also that testing session. Salient feature was expressions of other staff as repeated tests done on previous (conspicuously unmentioned) occasion: utterly deadpan.
It was only after the tests (performed fully this time) identified you as a Homo post hominem; after the doctor had diffidently broached this fact to Mrs. Foster and she, giggling helplessly, confessed to him; and, finally, we also came clean, that further testing demonstrated that you were substantially more advanced in intellectual development than the profile developed by our studies suggested you should be at that age.
How nice. Even as superkid can't be normal; still genius. Is no justice.
Detailed analysis of this phenomenon brought forth two unassessable factors: One, you had experienced ten months of unmonitored parentage; and two, your subsequent upbringing had been AA from your mother but BB from your father. Since we could neither analyze nor affect the first of these, we chose to continue the second factor unaltered, observing you closely and hoping that in some way, then unknown, the whipsaw combination of indulgent spoiling and accelerated, motivational education you had received to this point would continue to produce these outstanding results.
Momma's death terminated experiment; but before she left, made Teacher promise would take over overt management of education, keep pushing me as hard as would accept while Daddy (apparently) continued classic BB father rôle. Momma felt hunger for knowledge already implanted; abetted by Daddy's careful negative psychology, seeding of environment with selected books ( Ha! —always suspected something fishy about circumstances surrounding steady discovery of wanted, needed study materials, always just in time, just as finishing previous volume [not complaining; just wish planting had gone faster]), would
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