I was always a "potential" type of student. Teachers always said I could do so much more if I applied myself.
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Were you considered “gifted” in school growing up?
- Thread starter ToddBonzalez
- Start date
No.
The closest I got to this was that I often had my stories read out aloud by my English teacher in secondary school. She would often tell my mother that I had a talent for writing. I had similar feedback in first school, too, according to my mum.
Otherwise I was the fairly basic "bright, but could try harder" type.
The closest I got to this was that I often had my stories read out aloud by my English teacher in secondary school. She would often tell my mother that I had a talent for writing. I had similar feedback in first school, too, according to my mum.
Otherwise I was the fairly basic "bright, but could try harder" type.
I drew something in like year 4 primary school. Didn't seem any special to me. It was a diver swimming undersea with like fishes, algae, etc. There wasn't any great skill or technique put into it.
The teacher went batshit crazy for it and asked if she could borrow my drawing for a children exposition. I didn't care at all and agreed.
Fast forward all the way to high school year 4 where I get a call from my primary school art teacher (her name was really unique so it's really easy to remember). She starts talking about how the drawing went around the world for many expositions and now I can either get it back OR give it to something so that it becomes a permanent piece. Again, I didn't care at all and just agreed.
I still don't understand why that shitty drawing was great...
Also, I should have asked to get paid.
Not gifted, but pretty much top of the year. I peaked at the age of sixteen, when I got the top results in the school in the public examinations that are done at that age in the UK.
Still went to university, got a couple of degrees, but in a sea of clever people I became very ordinary.
Still went to university, got a couple of degrees, but in a sea of clever people I became very ordinary.
Nope.
I did teach a fourth grade "Gifted and Talented" class for a year. My favorite group of students ever but 95% of them weren't gifted.
I did teach a fourth grade "Gifted and Talented" class for a year. My favorite group of students ever but 95% of them weren't gifted.
Nope, but I can confirm at least 3 members in my grade turned out to be either druggies or didn't finish college. JOKES ON THEM!
Yeah, I was in magnet programs throughout all my schooling. Not just the GT classes, but outright went to different schools. Like, I was accepted into something called the "Webster Academy for Visions in Education" which meant I didn't go to normal middle school. We had a bunch of NASA funding and I got to take classes at Johnson Space Center and University of Houston in elementary and middle school.
That's me giving a presentation on a game I made at UH when I was 8.
That's me giving a presentation on a game I made at UH when I was 8.
I was in the gifted program from elementary school on. Kind of weird because we were separated from the "other" kids and had a different building. It wasn't a "get pulled out to go to a different class once a week", but just completely separate, which led to some issues and fights.
Yes. In early years I was getting full marks, entered a few writing competitions, very good at hand ball and other sports so I was being obsereved early to join the city's main team in the future, which meant once a week we were getting proper training by professionals.
Life hit hard, then depression and laziness re-wired my brain.
Life hit hard, then depression and laziness re-wired my brain.
I was. We had this program called Signet or something that you had to test into. I think I took the test in 4th grade and didn't "pass" so I was requested by a teacher to retake it in 5th grade and I got in. All of middle school and high school I had it as a weekly class where we went and did more independent work and had more philosophical/existential discussions.
Looking back, it was fun but I didn't really get much from it. The middle school class happened during another class, so I was always behind one class for that. The high school class was more interesting in the sense that we discussed stuff more out-of-the-box than we did in the regular classes. The "teachers" (more like mediators) were great and I liked the projects they had us do. However, it probably would've been smarter of me to actually take another academic class or to focus on other things.
Looking back, it was fun but I didn't really get much from it. The middle school class happened during another class, so I was always behind one class for that. The high school class was more interesting in the sense that we discussed stuff more out-of-the-box than we did in the regular classes. The "teachers" (more like mediators) were great and I liked the projects they had us do. However, it probably would've been smarter of me to actually take another academic class or to focus on other things.
yes
in elementary school we'd do shit like tangrams with increasing complexity. we also learned about jane goodall and did a project on her work. that was neat.
in elementary school we'd do shit like tangrams with increasing complexity. we also learned about jane goodall and did a project on her work. that was neat.
Easily the most fun classes from elementary school up through high school graduation.
Did I need to be sent home with homework revolving around solving a one page murder mystery? Did I need to be given free reign to write, act, edit and produce an amateur sitcom about superheroes? Did I need to get bonus field trips to weird museums or motherfucking Belarus?
No, but it was way better than whatever the alternative would have been.
Did I need to be sent home with homework revolving around solving a one page murder mystery? Did I need to be given free reign to write, act, edit and produce an amateur sitcom about superheroes? Did I need to get bonus field trips to weird museums or motherfucking Belarus?
No, but it was way better than whatever the alternative would have been.
No, which I personally found damaging -- being called "basic." Eventually, I'd academically outperform many of my peers in the "gifted" class, but I think it's fundamentally wrong to send the message to children that some are apparently just inherently better than others, which is, I think, what many are going to assume. It's not as if they have much life experience to criticize this kind of labeling with.
Anyone used to do those logic puzzles in like kindergarten?
"Jane is before Jake. Sarah is two in front of Jane. Jake only comes every two after Greg. Greg is twice as many as Jane. Steve fucks everything up and is first. Nobody likes Steve.
Solve for Mary"
that kind of stuff?
"Jane is before Jake. Sarah is two in front of Jane. Jake only comes every two after Greg. Greg is twice as many as Jane. Steve fucks everything up and is first. Nobody likes Steve.
Solve for Mary"
that kind of stuff?
Québec, Canada here, so school is a bit different. I was in "Intensive English" in 6th grade (where you do one school-year in 5 months, then the other 5 months you studies ONLY English). Then did the The International Baccalaureate Programme in High School, were everything is more advanced.
Happy I did that. When I arrived to CEGEP (College basically), the way I was doing my work was way more efficient and I was among the top of the class in almost everything.
Happy I did that. When I arrived to CEGEP (College basically), the way I was doing my work was way more efficient and I was among the top of the class in almost everything.
Yeah.
But looking back at my life to date, all the separation and sorting due to gifted and talented programs and special academic programs and private schools and stuff only made it harder for me to find a place amongst my peers when it came time to make friends and socialize. Ain't a lot of black kids, black Caribbean kids like me in private school, and you get a lot of "you sound white" and such when you return to your neighborhood. Plus it's not like I'm Jeff Bezos now because I had computers and learned good math in elementary school, lol...all that g&t shit didn't mean much.
But I'll tell you, the difference between regular school and g&t programs/private school is stark in terms of education quality.
But looking back at my life to date, all the separation and sorting due to gifted and talented programs and special academic programs and private schools and stuff only made it harder for me to find a place amongst my peers when it came time to make friends and socialize. Ain't a lot of black kids, black Caribbean kids like me in private school, and you get a lot of "you sound white" and such when you return to your neighborhood. Plus it's not like I'm Jeff Bezos now because I had computers and learned good math in elementary school, lol...all that g&t shit didn't mean much.
But I'll tell you, the difference between regular school and g&t programs/private school is stark in terms of education quality.
Average in everything I did so far. Jack of all trades but master of none. One teacher once asked if I'm gifted after seeing my workpiece in woodwork and metalwork class, but I think to this day I just got lucky with that one piece of work. My dad is the real handyman in our family and never could teach his sons his knowledge because we were ignorant fucks which I utterly regret to this day. Maybe I'm gifted but I lack the motivations and means to pursue that any further.
Short answer: No, unless you count a one-time remark from a teacher when I was 10.
Short answer: No, unless you count a one-time remark from a teacher when I was 10.
It's me.
Gifted and talented programs in school, then I went to the state's math and science magnet school for 11th and 12th grade. College was a bit rough because the classes actually took a little effort, but I put in the work, lest my facade of being The Smart One come crashing down.
Now I'm, well...your quote above. Self esteem is in the ground, and if I don't immediately understand something or can't immediately do something, it cuts way deeper than it should, because "I was the
No. Most of my early/middle school education was dealing with learning disabilities (I forget if I had a 504 plan or IEP in second grade; I know by 5th grade it was an IEP)--elementary school in particular was academically frustrating. In high school, I went to a private school focused on autism, and while I did extremely well academically, there was no "gifted and talented" program because it was a private school.
Eh, we had "AG" in elementary school which I started going to in 2nd grade after passing some test. I had no idea at the time what it was for or about, and didn't really feel any differently than anyone else.
We had 1-2 hours a week in there outside of regular class, about 6-8 or so in my grade. It didn't amount to much, all we really did was play Carmen Sandiego on the computer. It got annoying sometimes when I'd come back to regular class and something had happened and everyone was getting punished for it and I had to get it too :P
Later on in Junior/High School it just amounted to taking the harder of two Math, English, or Science classes.
We had 1-2 hours a week in there outside of regular class, about 6-8 or so in my grade. It didn't amount to much, all we really did was play Carmen Sandiego on the computer. It got annoying sometimes when I'd come back to regular class and something had happened and everyone was getting punished for it and I had to get it too :P
Later on in Junior/High School it just amounted to taking the harder of two Math, English, or Science classes.
Yes.
I did Kindergarten and 1st grade in the same year, and was double-promoted to 2nd grade.
Following that, I was always the youngest kid in my class until I graduated.
But from 2nd to 4th, I was in Detroit. I moved to Miami in 5th grade, and was in Gifted classes all the way up to high school when I decided to go to a Magnet school, in which all kids were considered Gifted (it was an Arts program).
After quitting that shit in 9th grade for tons of reasons, I went back to my "regular" home school, regular classes, and really stopped giving a fuck about excelling in school. I was "smart" enough and considered friends more important than being a brainiac.
I did Kindergarten and 1st grade in the same year, and was double-promoted to 2nd grade.
Following that, I was always the youngest kid in my class until I graduated.
But from 2nd to 4th, I was in Detroit. I moved to Miami in 5th grade, and was in Gifted classes all the way up to high school when I decided to go to a Magnet school, in which all kids were considered Gifted (it was an Arts program).
After quitting that shit in 9th grade for tons of reasons, I went back to my "regular" home school, regular classes, and really stopped giving a fuck about excelling in school. I was "smart" enough and considered friends more important than being a brainiac.
Yeah, and after a lot of deliberation about the consequences of participating in TAG programs for much of my primary and secondary education, I think the only thing it really succeeded in was masking my underlying neuroses and setting me up for certain failures later in life by excluding me from normal social behavior.
Yeah, I'm compulsive enough to figure out tough math problems, but I never learned how to assert myself and apply knowledge in functional ways so my early college years were tough as fuck for me and almost broke my sense of self-worth.
Yeah, I'm compulsive enough to figure out tough math problems, but I never learned how to assert myself and apply knowledge in functional ways so my early college years were tough as fuck for me and almost broke my sense of self-worth.
These are are very similar experiences to my own. Everything always came so "naturally" that I never learned how to study properly or develop a work ethic as it applies to school. So when shit got real in college, it was a real life-changing, ego-crushing, full on identity crisis when it all came crashing down. When you are constantly being told you're "gifted" your entire childhood, and you breeze through school with the grades to back it up, it does become central to your conception of who you are as a person. I can't say I ever "recovered" from it, there are still deep-seated psychological scars, but such is life. You try to grow as a person and move on.
I think motivation is a big thing as far as teaching a work ethic to students, whether it's at a micro or macro level. Personally I never had a burning, driving motivation for what I wanted to do for a living or what I wanted in life in general. Growing up, whenever I was asked, I would just say that I wanted to work in computers because I liked them and technology in general. So when it came time to figure out a degree, of course I said Computer Engineering, it was in the general framework of what I wanted to do and engineering is what smart people do and it's fairly high-earning, right?
All that said, I'm happy with my life and career now, but I do really regret how I lost the majority of my 20's barely scraping by with no direction and no sense of self-worth.
I think it depends on the program. In mine we were challenged beyond the normal classroom work — it was great and also provided a creative outlet because we had several options for how to engage. In 4th grade we got into medieval technology and I ended up creating a (mostly) to scale model of a castle out of cardboard, complete with an accurate tower / pooping set up. :-)
We had to take it to school on the roof of our car, and another kid asked and took it home with them at the end of the semester. Later he said he ended up falling out of bed one night and crushed it and that was it.
Anyway I'm rambling now but it was great for me.
I was consistently in the top of my class and got a lot of praise from most of my teachers. I scored in the 99th percentile in the Puerto Rican Tests of Academic Achievement and on the Puerto Rican equivalent of the SATs.
I'm fortunate that my parents never pressured me like other gifted kids' parents did.
Going into college to study engineering, I was able to consistently stay in the top 5 in most of my classes, but it required an extreme amount of effort, whereas in school it was almost effortless. I'm glad that our program really grinded us down, otherwise I never would have developed a good work ethic.
I'm fortunate that my parents never pressured me like other gifted kids' parents did.
Going into college to study engineering, I was able to consistently stay in the top 5 in most of my classes, but it required an extreme amount of effort, whereas in school it was almost effortless. I'm glad that our program really grinded us down, otherwise I never would have developed a good work ethic.
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I was tested for the gifted program in 6th or 7th grade.
I didn't make the math cut and was diagnosed with a math disability. Sad they didn't let me do the other parts of the program.
I didn't make the math cut and was diagnosed with a math disability. Sad they didn't let me do the other parts of the program.
Yeah. As a result I went to some events and met some actually 'gifted' people.
I think my brain just matured ahead of my peers, so I had a head start. I've know a couple of brilliant people born in September (so the oldest in their school year), but then I've seen 'gifted' people who are much younger than their peers.
I think my brain just matured ahead of my peers, so I had a head start. I've know a couple of brilliant people born in September (so the oldest in their school year), but then I've seen 'gifted' people who are much younger than their peers.
Yeah. Honestly not entirely sure how they determined it though I do remember getting tested a lot for things like grammar/spelling/vocabulary years prior. Went to a special class during middle school for it which was really fun. The class was less than 10 students so we were all pretty close and good friends. Our teacher was really cool and fun. Had access to a computer with SimCity which I played a lot lol. I honestly don't remember a lot of what we did specifically beyond designing a bridge out of balsa wood for an academic competition (and a skit to present it with costumes and backdrops). I do remember really enjoying that class and my time in it though.
I was in a "gifted" program for whatever that means. Pretty sure the test was some stupid pattern matching thing. Basically my take is if you increase the difficulty most people will adapt to it.
My teachers did say stuff like that sometimes in elementary and high school, but we never had a program for shit like that.
Come university and I was just average alongside most of my classmeates.
I feel its the worst thing you can tell a kid, since he or she will get overconfident and not develop important study habits or learn to deal with failures when they'll inevitable come. I know the lack of study habits was a problem for me in uni, since in school I just skimmed the material and that was enough to get a good grade.
Come university and I was just average alongside most of my classmeates.
I feel its the worst thing you can tell a kid, since he or she will get overconfident and not develop important study habits or learn to deal with failures when they'll inevitable come. I know the lack of study habits was a problem for me in uni, since in school I just skimmed the material and that was enough to get a good grade.
Yeah, and combined with some terrible parenting it made me unteachable in my mid-late teens. Luckily I got my shit together in my early twenties.
I guess I got to take some early calculus classes for it. Didn't help a bit in the long run though.
I guess I got to take some early calculus classes for it. Didn't help a bit in the long run though.
I skipped a grade so I was always younger than the rest of my classmates and had high marks in most everything but math and was put in a few "gifted" programs or whatever you'd call them. Then puberty hit and I just lost all interest in doing anything but the bare minimum and stopped applying myself, outside of a few classes I really enjoyed. If I don't enjoy something or have a shit teacher, I just can't focus or put effort into it. The few teachers in high school that went above and beyond really helped me flourish in certain subjects, but lack of motivation was always an issue for me starting in junior high. It didn't help that I moved every couple years and never spent more than 2-3 in the same school. That's really, really rough on a kid.
No but I always wondered what the hell went on in that class since they were segmented from the rest of us and no one knew who they were
Yup. My G&T program was a step crazier than most places do it now. We all got shipped to a "magnet" school instead of our neighborhood elementary school. For one thing, this meant that a lot of us were no longer going to school with the kids in our neighborhoods, so it became a lot harder to have walking-distance friends. For many, including me, it meant a daily commute much longer than normal and involving riding the bus with middle/high school students at points, because there was no direct bus to and from my school. In hindsight, it's also where we traced the beginning of my depression after I was diagnosed at 15. Oh right, and the other kids *HATED* us. Like, so fucking much. Our day was slightly shorter (presumably due to the complex bussing), and we often got to do different or special things. There was a solid bit of bullying that came from the "regular" kids that we went to lunch/recess/etc beside.
The thing that was always weird to me was that we *only* did it in elementary school, so once I got to middle school, I was just back with all the "regular" kids and there wasn't much difference past that. Sure, I was in all honors classes, but most of those classes weren't kids who went to the G&T program. The only major difference was that me and the couple kids I'd been in elementary with had a more advanced math class.
I dunno, all that shit feels like a lot of pointless pain and heartache in hindsight. In efforts to figure out what was "wrong" with me in my teen years, I went through a lot more random testing, and all of that shit always stuck me firmly in the 99th percentile or above on pretty much everything. So, there is some theoretically-sound measures that mark me as genuinely gifted, but it honestly always just felt like a lot of fucking burden. I was never performing to anyone's notion of what I "should" be, my parents fought constantly about what to do with their clearly-broken kid who was supposed to be just dominating the world with brilliance or whatever.
Perhaps needless to say, I'm still working through a lot of that.
I do feel like I still stick out among my general peers and people tend to recognize that. It's taken a lot of work and introspection to get away from a lot of the shitty arrogance that growing up being told you're exceptional (rightly or not) does to a person.
At some point, I did largely break away from the feeling that I wasn't living up to my potential or being the person I was "supposed" to be, and focused my abilities on living the life that worked for me, and being the best human I can be to the people in my life. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job at that, generally speaking.
The thing that was always weird to me was that we *only* did it in elementary school, so once I got to middle school, I was just back with all the "regular" kids and there wasn't much difference past that. Sure, I was in all honors classes, but most of those classes weren't kids who went to the G&T program. The only major difference was that me and the couple kids I'd been in elementary with had a more advanced math class.
I dunno, all that shit feels like a lot of pointless pain and heartache in hindsight. In efforts to figure out what was "wrong" with me in my teen years, I went through a lot more random testing, and all of that shit always stuck me firmly in the 99th percentile or above on pretty much everything. So, there is some theoretically-sound measures that mark me as genuinely gifted, but it honestly always just felt like a lot of fucking burden. I was never performing to anyone's notion of what I "should" be, my parents fought constantly about what to do with their clearly-broken kid who was supposed to be just dominating the world with brilliance or whatever.
Perhaps needless to say, I'm still working through a lot of that.
I do feel like I still stick out among my general peers and people tend to recognize that. It's taken a lot of work and introspection to get away from a lot of the shitty arrogance that growing up being told you're exceptional (rightly or not) does to a person.
At some point, I did largely break away from the feeling that I wasn't living up to my potential or being the person I was "supposed" to be, and focused my abilities on living the life that worked for me, and being the best human I can be to the people in my life. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job at that, generally speaking.