Were you in the "Gifted Program" ?

reply to post by Roundtree


I was in my school districts gifted program since kindergarten, the test they gave me, required me to recite my ABCs forwards, and backwards, count to one hundred, and some other tests to gauge my memory, and brain capacity, i thought it was all really simple stuff, because the year before i started school, i spent with my grandmother who is a retired teacher, doing pre-school, and she taught me more there, than i learned in kindergarten

After 8th grade, once we moved on to the highschool, there was no more special program for us gifted children, other than honors, and AP courses, with all the other kids.

I remember as a child in gifted and talented all the non-gifted children were jealous and liked to say things that made them feel better like "my mommy says that there shouldn't be a gifted and talented because we are all gifted". Apparently, even as adults, it still bothers the non-gifted.

I took higher learning classes. Which, as it turned out, I only "learned" in one of those classes. The others were just basic common knowledge, or what I considered to be anyway. It didn't take a teacher or book to tell me a^2+b^2=c^2


To be honest, the sort of singled out, group courses that you're referring to, sound unfair to the education of the other students. But, I must ask, was this some sort of private school that you attended? Or, was it a public school?

The reason I ask is that, if your parents were paying for such a schooling environment, then there's not much to say. They picked a better school for you. But, if this was a free public school and you were chosen based on any merits whatsoever, then it is unfair and down right under-minding the other students. Not to mention the other parents, who Im sure would prefer better education and a singled out group think type of setting, but were bound by the restrictions of the public system and finances that you and others should have been bound by.

Now, if it was a public school program that you may have been chosen for and in addition, your parents had to pay a little for, it still leaves me to question, whether other students with maybe lower IQs but higher merits in other areas were allowed an opportunity as well.

It just seems that such a program could be beneficial to so many, and to restrict such a program to a select few seems wrong, and almost contradictory. Such a program could do so much more if it allowed more demographics of children to participate.

reply to post by PurpleChiten


I couldn't possibly self-diagnose, but I do "feel" that from what I've read, I may have been somewhere within the autism spectrum disorders as a child. i've read enough to feel that certain aspects pertain to my behavior as a child and my socialization, manner of speech, how despite being talkative I shut up in crowded or noisy environments, and, of course a sometimes serious demeanor when someone is not being serious.

I literally get frustrated when people tell me "I'm just joking" because it's like a broken record. I'm constantly asking myself after each time a person makes such a comment what the hell I'm getting wrong in what they are saying to me and why it's such a big f-ing deal that I "took them (too) seriously". Maybe I'm just more literal-minded, but it's not like metaphors and poetic language are lost on me and I'm actually pretty good at making up puns and jokes and making people laugh on a whim.

At any rate, not to digress, I started thinking it might apply because I had read somewhere that many forms of aspergers/high functioning autism manifest problems in the individual to empathize with the interlocutor...in other words, you want to tell the other person what's on your mind but don't feel like talking about what's on theirs.

Hell. Nowadays I just feel like I don't want to talk about "what's on the other person's mind" because most of the time it's TOO BORING...seriously, shoot me! I stopped going to bars and drinking regularly about a year ago. Not because I felt like the alcohol was getting to be too much (I'm pretty moderate...had my moments, I'm sure)...anyway, I quit drinking regularly because people at bars are b-o-r-i-n-g...I got sick of saying "uh-huh," "well, you know how it is...", "I know that's right..." "Really? I didn't know that" It was like preprogrammed responses on a cell phone for instant text replies. I had to feign interest in idiotic ramblings and honestly, i should have been more of dick to people, at least I would be true to what I was thinking instead of just thinking it on the inside and saying "uh huh. you don't say. ..." Example: I remember one dude who would regularly tell me how obsessed he was with going to "New Amsterdam" because he wanted to smoke marijuana legally...After the 11th or 12th time he told me this I wanted to just grab him and shake him violently and say "It's JUST Amsterdam you idiot...unless you're going to take a time machine back to New York in the 1600s...and smoke out with Peter Stuyvisent (or however you spell it)"

Then again, I think I probably share this attitude with many on ATS as we all lament discussing the trivial BS of the day...you know, Kim Kardashian, the guy who did some stupid thing on the 7 o'clock news, the Obama-Romney race, a funny commercial for chewing gum, and other lame, water-cooler-esque topics.

But in all seriousness, and considering the buffer of semi-anonymity that a site like this provides, I'll go out on a limb and state that I've really been considering seeing a specialist to find out if I really am high functioning autistic and just went undiagnosed as a child. I feel like many people "diagnosed" as gifted (and as one poster earlier on said, "cursed") are actually manifesting or honing positivistic aspects to their non-mainstream psychological or social behavior. Nikola Tesla comes to mind.

reply to post by Roundtree


I was in one very similar to yours. Once a week they would come and carry the "gifted and bright young children" off to the other school. The day you went to the gifted school was determined by the school you went to within that district. I think only about a bus full from each school, of maybe 400-500, went to the other school. So it would be 20-30 kids from one school and 20-30 each from maybe 2 more schools. Was no more than 100 kids at the gifted school per day.

Of all the schools I went to, the school for "the gifted and bright" is my most favorite. Sadly, the school was only available for grades 4-6.

To answer your question, I don't think it was anything sinister at all. I think they genuinely sought to help us by challenging the way we think.

I've been to a magnet school, and when given an IQ test, they told me my IQ was well above average (I don't remember the number exactly, it was during middle school), but I was never in a gifted program... I don't think...

But, I was in a million different schools growing up, taking all different kinds of classes, each school more diverse than the last. So... I don't know... I might've been... I just graduated, though. I try not to think about school anymore. My memory is suckish about school.

It could very well be a way to exploit intelligent kids, or do a little extra brainwashing. Or, if they're really teaching kids to reason and put thought into everything they see, then perhaps they're the exact opposite of what the elite want the education system to be. If they're truly teaching kids to think rather than do homework, I would think they'd need a LOT of brainwashing towards the ideas of bowing to the government or military to go along with that kind of teaching, or else they would have created smart children that the government has no use for, and that actually have their own thoughts, goals, and lives.

They would never want kids to be intelligent and well-adjusted unless it was all dedicated to the government somehow. If these gifted programs don't preach the government gospel, then they aren't the enemy. Simple as that.

I was in a program in a private school called SPICE. They took us away from class a few times a week for "enrichment". Logic puzzles, reasoning skills, not a lot of math. We each had our own folders that we kept progress of our work. Wonder what that was all about.

reply to post by Sphota


I'm with you there. I think we just have so much going on in our minds that we get really bored waiting for other people to process it. By the time they get to what we were saying, we're a million miles past that stage and on to something else.
My guess with the seriousness stuff is that they just had a lousy sense of humor and weren't really funny so you didn't laugh but they thought you would because all their "normal" friends do whether they actually get it or not. I've had that happen myself... folks think they're hillarious, but it's really just kind of "dumb", then you lay absolute wit and wisdom on them and it goes right over their head.... very frustrating.

Gifted programs are run for students who are simply ahead of others, so they aren't held back from their full potential. In the county I grew up in, a large one with a population of over 800,000, there were only two schools that had gifted programs and maybe a three or four dozen students between them in the program. I actually just missed out on the program. In 6th grade they gave those of us with high aptitude scores (anyone who scored 98 or 99 percentile, I was 99 percentile) a test for entrance into what was called the Gifted & Talented Program, or G&T. I didn't take the test too seriously because I always tested very well, others were more serous about it. I remember one girl bursting into tears after one section because she didn't finish. It was the first time she ever didn't finish a test. The test was very difficult: as 6th graders they were testing us on high school and college level material. My scores were just a bit low to get in, I sometimes wonder if I had been more serious if I would have gotten in.

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 wasnt in the gifted class it was special class normally twice maybe 4 times a week when I had english time in grade school i was taken out of class along with 5 to 7 others because i had a unidentified learning disability like dyslexia but undefined the other kids werent really disabled just semi-retarded
i graduated with a 3.4 gpa and i walked first at graduation despite having the worst attendants/tardy record of anyone who graduated
heck i spent more time across the street from my high school then in class
But i only fail 2 classes English and Spanish
I have a spec ed file as thick as the FAA Regulation book it basically say the same # from 2nd to 12th grade

reply to post by IblisLucifer


I spent more time across the street from the high school than in it too!! .... but that's because I lived across the street from it
....sorry, couldn't resist

reply to post by Chickensalad


How does taking smart children, who are BORED in regular classes, out to study more complex things not fair to other kids???

Those other kids need to learn their multiplication tables and how to read without having to sound out every word first. Meanwhile, there are a handful of kids who just sit there with nothing to do while the normal kids struggle to keep up with regular education. Without those special classes how are we going to cultivate the next generation of scientists, doctors, engineers, architects, fine artists, etc. ??

someone asked what kind of degrees any MG kids grew up to earn. I have a bachelors of business admin (majored in business law and minored in risk management). Got my masters in education and became a math teacher for a few years after i had enough of the business world. My wife has her bachelors in arts (art education, graphic design and illustration - minor art history) and has her Masters in Art education in special populations (special ed, elderly, toddler, developmentally challenged). Meanwhile the kid I knew for a fact had the highest IQ in our program, I mean off the charts, is fighting a heroin addiction. My wife and I were both considered in the top 5, but this guy was light years ahead of us.

I feel that had he been in a special school for the gifted, he may have found the challenge he was looking for and not wound up with a drug problem. There were no teachers which could teach him in public school.

So when you say its not fair to the regular children , I say to you its not fair to the smart children to have to go at the pace of the slowest kids just so their mommy's and daddy's don't feel insulted. My friends gift was totally wasted when it didn't have to be. I think one day a week was not enough.

I attended a school which had a program for young and gifted students which they called the challenge program. I was tested several times to be placed into this program but was never selected. I always found this strange , and this may sound conspiratorial, but it seemed to me that in my school at least, only the children from affluent families were allowed to attend. I only say this because it is the only legitimate reason I have been able to come up with as to why I was passed over. I was always grouped with more advanced students in my regular classes and almost never completed homework yet passed every exam without study. My ITBS scores and such were 99th percentile and I was given a recommendation from my teachers and counselor to attend the program for young and gifted students at Western Carolina University called the Cullowhee Experience (any other Cullowhee attendees here?) when I was in 8th grade. We basically spent the summer at the University sampling various college course. We even participated in archeological digs. I would have continued to be a part of the program had it been more affordable. I believe it is now defunct and was a government sponsored program.

A question for people who were selected for these programs did you notice any demographic patterns in these programs? race, poverty level etc? Looking back I don't recall any black students in the challenge classes in my school nor at the Cullowhee Experience although they did have an international group from the Dominican Republic who attended regularly but I recall some of those kids parents were ambassadors and such.

reply to post by Bleeeeep


I'd agree with you, I don't think there was anything sinister about the gifted programs. I don't actually think Roundtree was talking about anything sinister (at least in the OP).

It's very possible that they kept track of all of us who went through the system. Ours terminated at the 8th grade, but from there nearly all of us ended up in the National Honors Society or some other group like that.

It's entirely possible they kept up with us, but I don't know how many resources a struggling education system could spend on that sort of thing. It very well could have been a test to gauge the effectiveness of new teaching styles on small groups. Our classes were taught differently. It wasn't uncommon to have discussion in every class, and we relied heavily on group work at times; both of which aren't necessarily a common part of the standard classroom experience.

If nothing else, the idea that the government would watch and train young kids through means of a special academic setting and a specialized curriculum is interesting. I could probably sit and piece together an interesting story about how they identify those who seem to have the most promise and how they set them up for success through these programs, in the hopes that they'll take the initiative and be the people who do make the world a better place. Maybe it's like their version of "semi-elite" training geared toward a select handful of people to be the ones that make the difference, armed with a vaste and specialized background on a variety of things and an inquisitive mind capable of solving complex problems. I could have a field day with that if I had time to write it...

Originally posted by NihilistSanta

A question for people who were selected for these programs did you notice any demographic patterns in these programs? race, poverty level etc? Looking back I don't recall any black students in the challenge classes in my school nor at the Cullowhee Experience although they did have an international group from the Dominican Republic who attended regularly but I recall some of those kids parents were ambassadors and such.

Our demographics were almost a perfect representation of our primary schools. We had two girls and a guy who were black in our classes. We also had people from every socioeconomic class present as well. They performed equally well and the demographics played no important role in anything we did.

Although, from our class of about 15 people we did have a few who didn't turn out so hot. One of my friends ended up going to the same university as me, but dropped out due to poor grades and a lack of motivation for success. Another went to college as well, but after a long series of bad choices also ended up dropping out. One girl didn't even go to college and opted to live at home and work at a grocery store; which isn't bad, it's just not what anyone expected of her...

There was one kid though, he came from a lower socioeconomic status than most of the rest of us. He had a strong tendency to cause problems, get in trouble, and yet he still remained in the class with us. I'm not sure what sort of criteria we had, but he managed to meet them all for the most part. The most unfortunate part of it is, right when he began to improve and turn things around in the seventh grade he was killed in a firearms accident at his home. I really don't think his socioeconomic status had anything to do with that event, but I felt it necessary to add that although that occured, he still managed to perform well academically even with his lower socioeconomic class status.

I don't think they are being tracked.

Lack of Accountability and Reporting • 18 states do not collect information about students in the state who are identified as gifted and talented. • 21 states do not monitor or audit district programs for gifted and talented students.

www.nagc.org...

I went to a small school. We were pretty much all white so there was no ethnic trend to be seen. It was just the kids who generally made good grades and showed extra potential.

As a child I was pretty quiet in crowds. Very insecure, introverted. I don't think I had any unusual mental health issues or disabilities, however. But what is unusual? What is normal on the outside doesn't tell what normal is on the inside. We can't ascertain what normal is on the inside because we only know one inside. The outside is a charade to some extent for all people.

For years I surrounded myself with the fun people, the cool ones. As an adult however these people bored me. I probably bored them, too. There weren't many at all that I could ever hold an interesting conversation with. When I finally decided to go to college I became much happier. Finally, people who understood big words, who actually had a deep thought every now and then. In this way I can identify with some of the other posts on here.

I only asked because it was just a general observation I had made regarding my experience. This is not to say that those factors are crucial or relevant to entry in the program or in regards to individual potential.

However it has been something that has bothered me over the years. I could not understand how I was denied entry into my schools program yet was given a recommendation from the very same school and teachers to attend a national program for gifted youth.

reply to post by Roundtree


You know, I was actually in something called "Think Fast". I remember thinking it was odd, it being a couple of the activities they had us do. Also I had a friend who in all honesty I consider much more intelligent than I, yet he was not included in this. Two activities that really stuck out in my mind was one of those cool puzzles you build with geometric shapes and it form a large rectangle, not really that bizarre to be honest but another one really stands out.

It was a test in which we were asked to take certain things with us into space but could only take x amount of items. It was really weird because at this time nobody had taught us much of anything about condition in space let alone on the moon. I missed one answer, I picked a laser gun over a parachute... Apparently I needed the parachute to shield me from a solar flare whilst upon the moon?????

Hell I picked the laser as a kid I suppose because of the hollywood conditioning toward ETs.... At 9 how was I suppose to know I needed a parachute of all things on the moon, and even more strange, why did they administer such a test what was it's purpose I mean it was such an off the wall thing?

reply to post by NihilistSanta

However it has been something that has bothered me over the years. I could not understand how I was denied entry into my schools program yet was given a recommendation from the very same school and teachers to attend a national program for gifted youth.

Because in some programs, there is no transparency where parents can see that everything is on the up and up. This leaves the door open to some backroom deals. One time they wanted my daughter to join the program. The teacher said they needed more minorities.