Were you in the "Gifted Program" ?

I'm sure many of you have heard of the gifted program, if not, it is a program set up basically to first identify "gifted" children, and then bring them all to different schools to learn different things, once a week. They took IQ tests, constantly gave us projects which were high complexity for 7-8 year olds, as well as other mentally challenging tests. The wierd thing was out of say 7-8 schools in the area, there were only 20 of us in the gifted program, called Odyssey in my region.

Was this an attempt to get the intelligent children on the books? find out who they are and watch them as they mature?

Also, how many of us ended up here? the gifted program taught us to reason, to ask why and how things happen, which is what this and other conspiracy sites are all about. Id advise you all to research star children, and compare the characteristics to the gifted program. I'm sure that we are in a record somewhere, identified as possible star children or something, what are your guys' thoughts?

reply to post by Roundtree


I was part of one of these programs. It was called Segul. We had 16 people or so in each class, and our district ran two classes per grade. We had five different schools that all came together at a central place to learn and study. It was incredibly interesting. While everyone else was busy learning text book materials like geography, art, and natural science, we were busy hearing from people who worked in those fields. And, at the conclusion to every "unit" we took a day or a weekend and went on "field-study" trips. These were very interesting excursions that lead us to places like the rocket center in Huntsville, Alabama, government centers in Washington DC, behind the scenes at Zoo's, or to an ocean front state park to learn from marine biologists. We went on fossil digs in South Carolina, a mineral trip in North Carolina, we tagged and released endangered birds with ornithologists, and we even had a week long trip to a camp to learn basic outdoor survival and navigation techniques in the mountains.

This program instilled an investigative mindset that I've held on to for all these years. As far as I know, at least eight of us have successfully graduated college and have done well. I'd have to give credit to those teachers and to that program for being one of the things that did in fact bring me here, it gave me a desire to learn and hear other people's thoughts on things, and the ATS community really is one of the best places I've found on the internet to hear from people of all walks in life.

reply to post by Roundtree


I don't know, anythings possible.
My school didn't have a Gifted program per se, They had Advanced classes, that we would go to if we seemed to do better at a particular subject. It was all held at the same school though. I have taken IQ test when I was in school, but everyone took them. Now my nephew went to what they called a "Magnet School", which sounds more like what you described. They took the IQ test every semester, and his brother and sister who were in regular school never took one.

Where I went to school it was called the gifted and talented program. We were taught in a class aside from the other students. I gained entry when in the 4th grade I showed up in class having not done my short story assignment. I had arrived about ten minutes before class. I hurriedly scribbled a page and a half story. The teacher watched me write the story as she was at her desk. I never heard a thing about it until months later when I had been informed that it had been published in a national literary journal. I was given an IQ test. They never told me my score, but from then on I was placed in gifted and talented classes.

I never thought of it as a conspiracy. It does tickle my fancy to think that I may be special. A hybrid. I've always thought I was special and that I'm surrounded by dullards...but don't we all. LOL.

Originally posted by Roundtree
I'm sure many of you have heard of the gifted program, if not, it is a program set up basically to first identify "gifted" children, and then bring them all to different schools to learn different things, once a week. They took IQ tests, constantly gave us projects which were high complexity for 7-8 year olds, as well as other mentally challenging tests. The wierd thing was out of say 7-8 schools in the area, there were only 20 of us in the gifted program, called Odyssey in my region.

Was this an attempt to get the intelligent children on the books? find out who they are and watch them as they mature?

Also, how many of us ended up here? the gifted program taught us to reason, to ask why and how things happen, which is what this and other conspiracy sites are all about. Id advise you all to research star children, and compare the characteristics to the gifted program. I'm sure that we are in a record somewhere, identified as possible star children or something, what are your guys' thoughts?

I went through this at 9. IQ tests, leaving my school once a week to go to another school to participate in the program, etc. This was in Canada, and I'm not sure where you are from but the experience you describe is strikingly similar to my own.

Personally, I enjoyed the program (which was called SOAR in my area. No idea if it's an acronym for anything). I found it offered me a brief respite from the tedium of the daily classroom grind. We learned about the human brain, how synapses work, etc at the age of 9. We read interesting literature, were encouraged to have round table discussions, and were allowed to draw during reading periods or lectures. I asked my parents to be taken out of the program after 2 years as I didn't get along with the teacher who replaced the woman who was running it originally.

I doubt it was some kind of experiment or watch keeping but I obviously cant say for sure as I never stayed in the program for more than 2 years. I can say that your assessment of the percentage of students that qualified is very similar to my own experience in the area I was living at the time. Entire classrooms of the brightest students were IQ tested, and only a handful were selected after all was said and done.

when I was a kid, man...I was insanely rebellious. I would pretend to be stupid so I didn't have to do anything.
I would sneak away during vaccines, or come up with stories for whatever I needed...

School was not my forte at all except to learn how to manipulate people or situations I didn't like.

I was in my own gifted program.

There were no classes or schools like that where and when I grew up (60's-70's), however, the entire idea of separating out and focusing on a small group of children sounds very much like an experiment.

This reminds me of the British Documentary Seven_Up!

Following the lives of 14 seven-year-olds since 1964, selectively. I saw this documentary many years ago. There is a playlist available on youtube if anyone is interested in it.

Did the OP ever run into or keep friendships with these other "gifted" classmates? I wonder if it isn't more than "Par Excellence".

I was in a program like this when I was in elementary school. It included grades 4-6 and entrance was based on a combination of reasoning, spacial reasoning, IQ tests, and word association tests. We were pulled out of our normal classes one day a week on a rotating schedule. This program included unit projects where we were tasked with everything from stock watching to engineering to creative writing and brain buster type assignments. Every year ended in a huge science fair for all of the kids involved with the program. It was probably the most memorable three years of my life, and my teacher was the greatest. She had a very kind heart and was very supportive of all of our individual talents. When I aged out of the program, I was being sent to high school level classes for english and history for the remainder of middle school and Jr. High, because I was so far ahead of my peers. The district wanted to skip me to 8th grade from 6th grade, but my parents wouldn't allow it, fearing social ramifications from that big of a leap. In either case, I gained much more on those days than I would have in my regular classroom, being bored to tears by the same "Goodnight Moon" and "Hatchet" style books. I was reading Michael Crichton and other science fiction mystery books by the time I was 8.



-TS

I was in the first wave of the "gifted" program in the Los Angeles County area (called "MGM" for Mentally Gifted Minors"). We were given individual IQ tests by psychologists from UCLA in 1970.

I cannot imagine them keeping track of all of the children over the years, all over the country. I mean, it's possible, but what would be the purpose? To see how many of us woke up many years later? Your thread and questions open up many possibilities for potential conspiracy as far as population tracking, but I'm having trouble visualizing the reason.

Gifted Program
I don't think we had this in the UK
I went to the school of Hard Knocks
And the University of Life

Cran

I went to school before there were Magnet Schools and Gifted Programs ... but, we had a corollary which was called "accelerated classes".

Without the accelerated classes, we would have bored (fallen asleep) of the slower-paced classes.

Later on, they made "grade skipping" for those who excelled.

They wanted my younger sister to skip a year but my brother was a year older and had already flunked one year so they were in the same grade. If my parents had let her skip a grade, she'd have been a year ahead of her older brother ... so, they disallowed it. She bored of school and dropped out. Flunky brother went on to graduate.

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing here, but back in the mid 80's I was singled out as a 'gifted' child. At the time I was only 11 but was made to take the SAT's (Something usually reserved for HS Juniors). I was not told my actual score but was told I ranked in the 99'th percentile and was quickly invited to attend schooling for gifted youth at Johns Hopkins University.

WOW!!!

Roundtree, a star for you my friend!!!

Though I admit my motive is a bit selfish...let me explain. Reading the original post was eye-opening enough, but to keep reading and see what others have said...wow!

My whole life I have been seemingly on some strange path that someone, somewhere sent me down. I have thought, for years, that I was somehow "hand-picked" by a friend/colleague of my father's (they are both psychiatrists, and used to work at the same clinic with the same specialties), whose name I have seen associated with speculation about MKULTRA and similar programs (later in his career, after my father no longer worked with him).

Note: I realize that what I wrote may be a run-on sentence that is difficult to follow due to the parenthesis, but bear with me as I am quite tired from working the night shift and then only napping afterward.

Roundtree's post completely blew my mind. I was in one of the so-called "gifted programs," as much as a third grader in a small town elementary school can be. I was always an early learner and much more mature than my peers. My first memory of this was when a friend and I were put in the hallway outside the classroom in Kindergarten, and we were writing one-page "book reports" on short stories, while most of our peers were in the classroom still learning their ABCs. Anyhow, in third grade I started to be pulled aside with a small group of kids in my grade who were allegedly very smart. I was the one whose job it was to go get the two second graders who had been picked to be in the program as well (their real initials were K.H., a male, and J.C., a female, just in case someone who remembers is reading this...please email me!!!). I would go down the hall to their classroom and get them, and walk them down to the small classroom where our group met. All that I can remember is that we had no textbooks, frankly no materials at all, and we sat around with someone who came from outside the school and possessed a doctorate (Dr. Robert S.), and discussed what we were doing in our classes, and shared our ideas on how the lessons could be improved. Sometimes the doctor would fetch a teacher and we would debate with the teacher about his or her way of presenting the materials to the class. Sometimes we just sat around and socialized and discussed the school in general. In retrospect, I am not completely sure why we were told that we were especially smart, because just about any child who was well-spoken enough to argue about their lessons could have been in that room with us. Intelligence only played a part in it, I am sure.

After some reflection, and reading the posts that others have made, I am wondering if I am now onto something.

Thanks again, Roundtree, for making what could end up being a life-changing post for me!

I am now considering telling my whole story, which I have never done, not even to the woman who is the greatest love of my life and whom I trust completely...it is so incredibly strange and confusing. I have considered sharing it with ATS for years, however I have never actually sat down and typed it all out. Well, specifically, the one event later in my life that really and truly made me aware that "something" was going on in my life. Frankly even 18 years after it happened, I am still so scared that I have never told anyone. I need to sleep on it, literally

I too was also in the gifted program. I was taken out class one day in elementary in 5th grade and put in this new prgram which they said was for Gifted children. Again as was mentioned before I was taken on feild trips to different locations around LA County, I was taken too the L.A. zoo, Gene Autry muesum, some place off the coast where they rehabilited sea life, like penguins and sea lions; we got to clean them and see how all that worked. We were encouraged to ask quesitons. Then in middle school. I got accepted to MATH&SCIENCE Magent in which again is a course for gifted children, we learened how to disect frogs and were learning Algebra in the 6th grade. Geometry by the end of 7th grade. We were trained in the schools computer lab how to be profecient with computers and networking, also my science teachers which were 2 sisters who thought they were klingons from Star Trek and always wore their Star Trek clothing hahaha. We learned many things in that class like the periodic table and had science experiements with rockets and different fuels to power does rockets. We were taken to a digging site where we dug and searched for fossils of dinasours millions of years old. We were taken to Lockheed, SKUNKWORKS where all the military planes and jets are built, by a Commander in the military by shear coincedence when me and a friend of mine struck up a conversation with him and he offered to take us there on a field trip with only a selected group of students from my school. We were shown around, how they train their pilots, what they train them in. We got to take part in differenet excercies they had planned for us, We got to stay there for 2 or 3 days can't be sure as this was 10 years ago. We got to see a lot of aircraft and the building process that went with it. There was a simulator there which pilots and use to train for the flights which we got to go inside and check out. Very cool stuff. Very bright people in that building. I think Nasa had a department in that Lot. Then my best friend since 1st grade and the Commander that took us there and I were having a converstaion with a high ranking offcial of the Air Force in his blues mind you this is 10 years ago telling us that their technology was 20 years ahead of time maybe more then what was known to the public. I think my friend also asked him about aliens and he just acknowledged with a shake of his head that there was. They even had a model airplane right were we standing and talking of a UFO shaped flying saucer type craft there. We got to talk to pilots and learned all kinds of things while there. When I graduated middle school with Math & Science Honors I got accepted to Van Nuys High School in there Medical Magnet progam for gifted and accelearted students, there we learned many things about bacteria, microscpes, virusus, biology. They also took us to hospitals to learn about virusus and bacteria, how the hospitals work met with Staff and Dr.s there. We also got to work with mentally handicapped children at a school specifaclly for these type of children, there were children there with all sorts of conditions. Oh and I also didn't like the way the system was setup in school so I always challenged them. I started ditching school and doing other things with my time. Eventually I missed so many hours and got caught by the polic for ditching and they kicked me out. So much for L.A.U.S.D as I didn't even like the system and was already way smarter than most everyone around me. So I just got my G.E.D later on in life.

lol well so much for the 'gifted' program. seems like everyone was invited. and yes i as a child was told i was gifted and taken aside to do tests. guess what, i'm as dumb as a box of frogs.
people will tell you your special, you might think youre special. but youre not.

My school didn't have a gifted program but I most certainly would have been part of it due to my college reading level that materialized around the time I was in the 4th grade.

Even if you are gifted, it's often more of a curse and not worth it.

We didn't have a gifted program, exactly. The top 20% or so of the class of each grade would be put through a more advanced curriculum. It was still stupid easy, and I usually skipped a good chunk of class, failed to do any homework outside of school, yet aced the tests and passed most of the classes.

Whatever program I was in was a joke. In high school they took the kids with the highest standardized test scores, yet low grades into a experimental sub-program called "school within a school". It had all of my friends, the "freaks" as we were called back then, plus a few oddball individuals. We basically just tormented the teachers, and breezed through the mindless material.

yes i was in the gifted program, kept getting pulled out of class and getting tested with 10 others.
I only remember 1 other kid who was with me, it was a chubby girl, i remember her because she was really shy and didnt like talking with other kids. I saw her on facebook a while back and it turns out that she dropped out of school and moved away to another state. I dropped out as well.

idk, in 6th grade i had a teacher that was into the new age stuff and he kinda pushed me into the spiritual side of things. He believed i was "different". he kept asking me weird stuff about dimensions and aliens ..i think he was testing me because when i lied to him, he lost interest. I do remember asking him why he thought i was special and he said i had a strange aura.

He stopped talking to me for a few years but recently he came back into my life.
obviously i used to consider myself special growing up, mostly because people told me i was, but now, idk i feel average if not below average lol

alot of people had high expectations for me and well, i think it was too much for me and i fell, so now im a bit lost..i used to rely so much on other people and when i failed them, they left me..so im trying to get used to not having support..but who needs them anyway, im a smart guy, i can do this, i dont need anyone, i am the grand warlock after all

but no, i dont think we're being watched, at least i hope not