A number of fascinating issues came up in "The Myth of the Gifted Child,'' a cover story in New York Magazine this week by Jennifer Senior that looked at intelligence tests for gifted programs. The story had lots of information that will be welcome to wealthy, connected New York City parents obsessed with getting their kids into the right private schools, including statistics on what percent of the students who graduate will attend Ivy League colleges.

It also made a point that might be welcome for parents willing to do whatever it takes -- copies of the tests can be purchased in advance for a few thousand dollars.

Far more interesting to EarlyStories, though, were interviews with experts like Samuel Meisels at Erikson Institute, who helped Senior cement the point that tests perpetuate stratification instead of really determining a superior intellect.

"Instead of giving IQ tests, you could just as easily look at zip codes and the education levels of the parents to determine who gets the better schooling -- you get a very high correlation between IQ and socio-economic status in the first seven or years of life,'' Meisels, an assessment expert and president of the Institute, told Senior. His take? Several observations of a child in a classroom setting would be a far better way to determine a child's intelligence, along with an examination of their work.

One of the more interesting observations in the story came from the director of the Calhoun School, which charges $31,240 for kindergarten. The director prefers children with a slightly rebellious and even cynical streak, and told Senior he wanted "a school full of kids who daydream....who don't want to answer the questions on those tests in the way the adult wants them to be answered, because that kid is already seeing the world differently."

But is that kind of child born, or nurtured with money, connections -- and perhaps the right zip code?