At a conference for teachers of science, I heard about a middle school student who barely made C’s in his classes all year. He spent all his time in the family garage, which he had converted into a wind tunnel. He did experiments to find how to change the design of a wing’s surface in a way that would improve fuel efficiency.

The presenter told us the boy won the National Science Fair that year. And Boeing bought his design.

Yes, let’s acknowledge the talent of that middle school student. But let’s also applaud the parents. They were willing to let their child pursue his passion—to the detriment of his schoolwork. And they were willing to give up their garage.

Parents can’t know if a passion in childhood will lead to awards or success in school, if it will turn into a career or avocation in adult life. It may just be one passing fancy among many.

Giving a child space and support to do something extravagant isn’t easy. Often it isn’t cheap.

HC students who have just finished fifth or sixth grade can participate in Summer Challenge at the University of Washington (UW). For students who have finished seventh-tenth grade, there is the Summer Stretch program.

I regularly recommend that my graduating fifth grade students consider attending Summer Challenge. This summer tuition for one three-week course is $1200, although there are tuition and fee waivers available for families eligible for free and reduced lunch.

However, my students live at some distance from UW. Families either have to drive students there and back every day, or they have to find accommodation for their child for the three-week period. Transportation and/or lodging adds to the cost of the class.

Nevertheless, I have had scores of students attend Summer Challenge over the years. They come back raving about their experiences in classes that stretch them.

Years ago, I had a student Lisa who did Algebra with me in sixth grade. The middle school teachers didn’t believe that any child that age could be ready for advanced math, so they—reluctantly—enrolled her in pre-algebra. Lisa signed up for Algebra in Summer Stretch. UW gave her a pretest, said, “You know all this already,” and enrolled her in Geometry. She returned to our district with documents showing that she had completed both Algebra and geometry. And geometry. To UW standards.

By 18 Lisa was a double PhD candidate at MIT.

Lisa’s dad painted houses for a living. But her mom and dad were willing to support their child’s extraordinary journey.

I’ve also regularly nominated students for People-to-People Ambassador Programs (which has now become a student travel program) and Envision National Youth Leadership Forum. In the past, I’ve had parents go a little cross-eyed at the thought of their eleven-year-old traipsing across the country to spend the week in a big city like Boston or Baltimore. (Although Envision now offers their program at Northwest University in Seattle.)

Then the parents say, “You know, we always wanted to take a family vacation to the east coast. We can make the program be part of that family vacation.”

Gifted parents.

They are more important than we know.