Were you identified as "Gifted and talented" in school, or went to a magnet program?

I was in a magnet program in Kindergarten but my parents pulled me out after about five months because I came home miserable just about every day. I was homeschooled after that and started taking college classes part time at 11 while I was nominally in high school. Began full time at a larger university when I was 14. In retrospect, I'm not sure if it was the best option, but I'm also not sure what else I could have done that would've been mentally engaging.

I lost most of what was supposed to be my senior year to a mental health crisis, so I took an extra year to finish. Probably about three-quarters of the other early college kids I've met dropped out before turning 18. Most eventually went back and finished, though. I don't think educational acceleration itself was to blame as much as the way that people (mainly adults, not so much other students) treat early college kids, though.

The single biggest thing I wish was different about my education was for people (my parents, teachers, parents of friends, etc) to have credited my grades to my ability to work hard and apply myself instead of focusing on "innate talent" and telling me that I wasn't fully applying myself because I wasn't doing even more (never mind the fact that I was also dealing with an abusive home life, clinical depression, and self-injury). It took me until the age of 22 to admit to myself that I wasn't lazy, and even now I sometimes have trouble internalizing that.

Plus, the superiority complex that a lot of people in the "profoundly gifted" community have is really gross (not referring to anyone in this thread).

Yes, I skipped a grade.

I was always sort of on the edge. I was held back from entering kindergarten as soon as I could have due to insufficient development and my birthday being on the edge of the usual cutoffs. I didn't get to go to any of the special classes in elementary school. I was selected to take algebra early because I took an aptitude test and already knew about 80% of algebra (doing calculations for text based games apparently does do some good). I went to a special summer program for students in the top few percent during my junior year of high school.

My older sister was in the special programs in elementary and middle school, and I'd make fun of her relentlessly because I was jealous. I had a huge chip on my shoulder about it, but I always thought she was smarter than me. Now we're adults and she says I'm smarter (but more stubborn) than her to her friends. Adults are strange.

Yep.

They called it "SOAR" around here, and I was in that. I was admitted to a special program for gifted minority students after 5th grade, and it placed me into a private JHS/HS where I took APs and Honors classes.

But I read my own press clippings, and coasted on talent/intuition basically until college. By that time, I had less than zero study skills/ability to retain info and got destroyed in my first year, and my first attempts at college. I thought I was some sort of super-genius, so the idea that school required effort and that I couldn't just get it by osmosis was beyond my comprehension. It took me a long time to get my shit together - and in many ways, I still feel like I'm struggling.

Reading this thread and seeing how many people had a similar story is kind of eye-opening.

Every time I go to a higher level of schooling people say "you actually have to study now, it's not like ____" and I still never need to study more than a day or two in advance. Y'all must be taking super high level engineering classes or something.

Aye. Was Gifted around 3rd or so grade. It continued well into HS, where I went to an Engineering Magnet program for a year(freshman).

It's been pretty rough since then and in College though. Went into a slump and haven't quite gotten out of it.

Yes, but all it amounted to was my teacher giving me more homework because they didn't actually have anything

In comprehensive school my maths teacher told my mum I was easily Cambridge or Oxford material. Then I failed all my A levels. But social life!

nah I was in regular classes while a lot of my friends ended up in those programs. I ended out coming out ahead of most of them degree/career wise which is nice cuz they would give me shit for being stuck in regular classes and not the advance math classes.

When I was in first grade I was deemed gifted and had to go to a gift school between classes at public school.

The pressure of "reaching my potential" has fucked me up that here I am at 38 and I feel like I intentionally sabotaged myself as a middle finger to the "meeting my full potential" bullshit thrown at me for the ensuing decade.

Yeah I'm dumb, I SHOWED THEM!

Yeah in second grade my teacher told my parents to get me IQ tested so I could get in the gifted program because I could read well or something like that
I got in and went to the same middle school that the gifted elementary school fed into (I was just in the program in a regular magnet school with a few other kids though)
Ended up getting into a really good high school as well but I dropped out of college after the first year because I dunno what to do

Tangentially related, I almost got put in speech classes, in addition to the Gifted classes I already got taken out of class for, because I had a lisp. I didn't even know and I told them I didn't want to be in those classes, but I got really self conscious about it and ended up fixing it myself. Surprisingly wasn't really that hard to train myself to not speak with a lisp

Yup. Big mistake was not killing some of the advanced classes in HS though. Taking advanced Biology was a mistake because I can't do rote memorization well.

BringBackSonics said:

As a parent, anything we can do? Anything we should advocate for?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

From personal experience, kids in gifted programs need help with social skills and presentation/public speaking skills. Neither are typically taught, but should be. You may have to do presentations, but don't often receive guidance for how to present effectively or how to manage nerves. Also, teaching how to pickup on social cues and networking practice would be of great benefit to many gifted kids I have met in my life.

Math is often a cakewalk for most gifted kids. Instead, most need more help interacting with other people, and they don't receive that help from school.

I was-but I was in elementary school in rural Georgia and I don't think there was much budget to do anything.

It was also so long ago I've forgotten most about it. I remember playing the board game Mastermind a lot.

My aptitude test came back with a warning for LOW INCOME POTENTIAL.

Fun times.

This is all cute and everything OP but have you ever made threads that aren't bragging about how much smarter than everyone else you are

Yep, I was noted as gifted in elementary and was the top student at my school through 6th grade. Made for a rude awakening when I got to a magnet school for middle school and actually had to apply myself to keep up with the other kids.

I was in such a program from 4th grade (a couple years after moving to the US) through 8th grade (when I moved back to France).

I personally really liked it, because otherwise I was bored in class. I feel like most of the kids who were with me are now doing really well. I even know a couple who did all of high school in one year and then went to college at 15. It sounds horrible at first (since college is more fun when you're 20 rather than when you're not even allowed to vote), but since both of them went on to do med school, it just meant they were done with their studies at a reasonable age, unlike most doctors.

Nope, I was seen as a borderline special education student. Even though I got mostly really good grades my councilors still recommend I not take honors/AP courses.

I'm partially glad I didn't take Honor's/AP Courses for the most part, because I still spent like four-six hours a day at home doing homework for on-level courses because of how slow my brain functioned. But on the other hand I was not prepared for college at all.

bloodyroarx said:

Oh yeah, my dad was more hands off in my education other then "do the work get good grades" so I dont know how informed he really was but he was the one who told me all this and showed me all the paperwork proving it.

My mother and I haven't spoken in a decade but yeah even before that I had huge problems with her over this. She had let me do a in school "gifted" thing in grade 5 that I did instead of math and it actually made problems for me cause I never learned how to do long division and I use to sit in tears at the dinner table trying to figure this out cause I was too embarrassed to ask the teacher cause I was supposed to be smart enough to miss math class.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I never learned long division either. I just remember spacing out when they taught it in grade school and when I moved on I just never bothered cause I didn't need it lol. It's like the cursive of math.

Brandson said:

From personal experience, kids in gifted programs need help with social skills and presentation/public speaking skills. Neither are typically taught, but should be. You may have to do presentations, but don't often receive guidance for how to present effectively or how to manage nerves. Also, teaching how to pickup on social cues and networking practice would be of great benefit to many gifted kids I have met in my life.

Math is often a cakewalk for most gifted kids. Instead, most need more help interacting with other people, and they don't receive that help from school.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

-_________-

The stereotype that kids in these classes are borderline autistic, and somehow have limited "skill points" to split between intelligence and charisma, needs to go.

That's not how it works. That's not how any of it works.

In grade 8, my teacher thought I loved math because I was doing so well in class and suggested a math camp to my parents. I already didn't like camping but imagine every stereotype of what a math camp would be and you wouldn't be far off. That was an aggravating week long experience, nothing even happened that was really noteworthy other than one kid finding out that they had been breaking their vegan diet by eating marshmallows and had a mini-existential crisis, staring into the bonfire while everyone else was eating smores.

Looking back on it now, I can't be mad at my teacher for actually giving a shit about her students and looking out for opportunities for them but I resented her for not even asking me if it would be something I would enjoy. She did ask me before suggesting a highschool with a specialized gifted program, but it was in front my parents so there was really nothing I could do there. Thankfully it wasn't as awful as that math camp though and was actually useful even if it did mean having period 0 classes at 7am on top of having to commute an hour each way everyday.

GrizzNKev said:

This is all cute and everything OP but have you ever made threads that aren't bragging about how much smarter than everyone else you are

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Crabs in the bucket OP.

Brandson said:

From personal experience, kids in gifted programs need help with social skills and presentation/public speaking skills. Neither are typically taught, but should be. You may have to do presentations, but don't often receive guidance for how to present effectively or how to manage nerves. Also, teaching how to pickup on social cues and networking practice would be of great benefit to many gifted kids I have met in my life.

Math is often a cakewalk for most gifted kids. Instead, most need more help interacting with other people, and they don't receive that help from school.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Thank you. We currently have him in cub scouts so he is definitely put in positions which is new/scary for him a bit. The presentation aspect is something I will have to look into (do they have toastmasters for kids? Lol)

I was until I became a shitty teen in high school. I purposely failed algebra so I could take the stupid algebra where it was split into a full year instead of a semester.

I had a friend stick through the gifted program through-high school and did well in university. Dude works at a car dealership as a service advisor. He should have just partied like the rest of us.

Governor's School last two years of high school.

I was in TAG but don't recall doing anything too special w/ schooling. Not sure what they have at the school my daughter will be going to (she's 4 now). I figure if she does well enough that she might get bored at school we just do more challenging stuff at home.

Ya, I was in the gifted program, but ADHD, and later on, severe depression didn't really help out that much. Aced most of my tests and exams, but failure to do homework and assignments tanked my grades.

In my state of Australia we have academic selective high schools where acceptance is based on an entry test, primary schools will advise parents if they think their child should try to get in. So it is just a whole school and a fairly normal experience.

Yeah but not til 3rd grade. We had to get a teacher recommendation and my first grade teacher hated me for some reason; she failed me on a test once with the reasoning, "he got all the answers correct but he's overconfident so I wanted to break him of that." The grade got overturned but she didn't recommend me for the gifted program at the end of the year. My 2nd grade teacher did, though.

Sort of a monkey's paw sort of deal though because twice a week the "GT class" ran through lunch and recess so we'd eat lunch during class.

Yeah, I was placed into a G and T program very early. In my district, that meant everyone in the program was placed into a class together that was accelerated. The weird thing is we were kept in this class through high school (for our English class), so we all got to know each other super well.

I don't know if it helped anything in the long run.

Yeah. I was in the special class one day a week in 5th and 6th grade. I did however have bad grades in my normal class because I couldn't pay attention and I didn't do homework. Then I continued to have bad grades until 11th grade.

I was really gifted with math but not much else.

One funny story I like to tell is I had to take 5th grade math 3 times. In 3rd grade I was going to a school that had separate classes for math depending on how good you were. I ended up taking 5th grade math that year. In 4th grade I was going to the same school. I took their highest math class, which was 5th grade math again that also went a little bit into pre-algebra. In 5th grade, I went to the school my mom taught at. They only had one class for everything, so I was forced to take 5th grade math again.

FreezerGeezer said:

Yep, coasted by up until upper school without developing any good study habbits and it came around and bit me in the arse come University.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Yep. Same.

Yeah, in 4th and 5th grade. It was fun, but I think it kind of screwed me up in the long run.

Nope. Actually kind of the opposite, I was put into remedial leg up programs in grade school. Then in high school I had to take remedial math and language, as well as summer school most summers.

I always knew that community college was in my future because my parents didn't have the money to pay for a four year, and some of that just led me to not caring in high school.

Once in CC I started to take school seriously, which has continued until today. Going into a PhD program in the fall.

I was in the Duke TIP (?) program. My parents insisted on Christian schooling though, which held me back academically. I didn't get to take a full load of AP classes until I transferred high schools senior year.

It was probably for the best, as high level math/physical science is utterly flummoxing for me while I excel in English/social sciences. Could only imagine the pressures that would have come from not doing so hot in an AP math course.

Since there's up to 364 days difference between one student's date of birth and the next, it's likely some students are more talented simply because our schools grades aren't granular enough. We know this from sports teams as well. Students born early in this 1 year span perform worse and have a lower chance of becoming a pro in the long term because of this.

So all 'gifted' students might just be born late in the span.

I never really understood what these programs were supposed to accomplish. I get that not everyone has the same abilities, but never understood why some schools would give smarter kids more attention. If anything it should be the other way around. it kind of sends the wrong message to kids who are not "advanced."

oneils said:

I never really understood what these programs were supposed to accomplish. I get that not everyone has the same abilities, but never understood why some schools would give smarter kids more attention. If anything it should be the other way around. it kind of sends the wrong message to kids who are not "advanced."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

So don't teach the gifted to their full potential?

Zoe said:

So don't teach the gifted to their full potential?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

More like, public resources are limited so try to help those who need it the most.

I somehow ended up in advanced mathematics class in middle school and that kinda pushed me forward all the way through high school so in my junior year in high school I was doing Calculus and shit. I'm not special or anything I just have a good work ethic and I can focus on tasks easier than my peers.

oneils said:

I never really understood what these programs were supposed to accomplish. I get that not everyone has the same abilities, but never understood why some schools would give smarter kids more attention. If anything it should be the other way around. it kind of sends the wrong message to kids who are not "advanced."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

It's not (in theory) giving them more attention, just getting them into their own classes with accelerated content. Gifted kids are in need of special education structures that allow them to develop to their full potential without falling prey to the social and emotional problems that often develop in gifted students. They see the world differently than their peers, and sometimes struggle to fit in even with other gifted kids because they might not be as "well-rounded." I have a ninth-grade student, for example, that just chews through the entire math curriculum at my school. He's learning integral and differential calculus now, while his peers are finishing up basic geometry. But he sucks at languages, including his mother tongue. Just doesn't get them on a conceptual level, and is not ready for higher-level concepts such as narrative perspective or diction/register. So he often gets frustrated and cries in my class, as he is a perfectionist but simply cannot wrap his head around something that other ninth-graders can seemingly intuitively understand.

The problem is that gifted students are generally more fun to teach for teachers. They don't have to be hand-held through simple content and are conscientious, even perfectionistic about their work, which makes the class much easier (in some ways) to plan and teach. So the better, more experienced teachers snatch those classes up as soon as they can, leaving the rest of the school with less experienced, less organized teachers who have to teach students who are less interested in learning or completing assignments.

I tested at a college reading level in 6th grade, so i was put in advanced placement/GT/K-Level, etc classes all throughout my school years. Though i was always bad/average at math, even in high school, i was still excelling in my writing/reading classes well beyond most of my peers.

Didn't realize we had so many Albert Einsteins in this forum. I sailed through college prep and elementary programs my entire pre college education, so unfortunately I m not gifted. However, I know how to make an excellent butter toast.

oneils said:

I never really understood what these programs were supposed to accomplish. I get that not everyone has the same abilities, but never understood why some schools would give smarter kids more attention. If anything it should be the other way around. it kind of sends the wrong message to kids who are not "advanced."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

You don't want children to be bored and disengaged with school. You have normal class for normal kids and gifted class for gifted kids. It's not about 'more' attention, it's the same amount of attention.

Nope...

Very nope.

Sort of I guess?

In 2nd and 4th grade they realized my Language Arts class was too easy for me and moved me to a different teacher that was supposed to be harder.

In eighth grade I somehow ended up in Algebra 1. I know I failed one of the six weeks grading periods in that class.

In high school I somehow ended up in AP classes for English for and History. I backed out of AP classes for Gov/Economics as a senior and it was kind of dramatic the difference in student/class atmosphere.

Xiaomi said:

It's not (in theory) giving them more attention, just getting them into their own classes with accelerated content. Gifted kids are in need of special education structures that allow them to develop to their full potential without falling prey to the social and emotional problems that often develop in gifted students. They see the world differently than their peers, and sometimes struggle to fit in even with other gifted kids because they might not be as "well-rounded." I have a ninth-grade student, for example, that just chews through the entire math curriculum at my school. He's learning integral and differential calculus now, while his peers are finishing up basic geometry. But he sucks at languages, including his mother tongue. Just doesn't get them on a conceptual level, and is not ready for higher-level concepts such as narrative perspective or diction/register. So he often gets frustrated and cries in my class, as he is a perfectionist but simply cannot wrap his head around something that other ninth-graders can seemingly intuitively understand.

The problem is that gifted students are generally more fun to teach for teachers. They don't have to be hand-held through simple content and are conscientious, even perfectionistic about their work, which makes the class much easier (in some ways) to plan and teach. So the better, more experienced teachers snatch those classes up as soon as they can, leaving the rest of the school with less experienced, less organized teachers who have to teach students who are less interested in learning or completing assignments.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure that i've seen that kind of programming here. When i was in school in the 80s and 90s we had "basic," "general," and "advanced" streams. Your aptitude in the subject determined the stream you were placed in. There was very little thought, that i could see, about tending to social or emotional issues.

But i get the idea, help them reach their potential. I don't know what evidence there is that gifted kids are somehow vulnerable and need a special kind of learning. If it's out there, then i guess it would be a decent investment. And the same for the kids who need remedial learning. In a perfect world, everyone would get the right structure they need.