gifted kids

[alice144]

Were any of you identified as gifted as kids? Growing up, did feel that your environment was stimulating enough? Could you relate to your peers? Were you by chance one of those lucky kids who enrolled in college early?

Trying to get an idea of others' experiences.

 

[the]

Were any of you identified as gifted as kids? Growing up, did feel that your environment was stimulating enough? Could you relate to your peers? Were you by chance one of those lucky kids who enrolled in college early?

Trying to get an idea of others' experiences.

Yes. Lack of stimulation was never an issue for me. I was put in all kinds of classes especially for smart people although I was eventually kicked out for not participating in an assignment. I could relate to my friends and we were in all the same things anyways: cub scouts, gifted and talented program, walking distance between houses, etc. Eventually I moved and they all got into drugs and are still recovering. I didnt live near enough to anyone to get to do many drugs so I lucked out there.

I probably could have and I should have gone to college early but I didnt want to go to college later in life and I didnt have the money or transportation.

 

[Stella]

I was.

I thought it was really cool. Other "gifted" kids and I went to a magnet school where we all went through about 4 years of education (3rd through 6th grade) together and it was a blast. I felt like I really fitted in. I had a ton of friends, even. The only bad part is that because we lived in a larger city and came from all different areas of the city, we could never really hang out outside of school. In 6th grade, however, I moved to a different state and they threw me in with everyone else. The kids were terrible. I guess I was used to kids who understood me and thought similarly. I had 1 or 2 real friends. Suddenly everything was at the lowest common denominator and it was just terrible.

I started taking classes for college credit in 9th or 10th grade, but I didn't enroll in college early.

Rant about the GT program where I moved to follows:

Spoiler

The gifted and talented program sucked in the district I had moved to. You had to make an "advanced learning plan" and all that was was basically a tiny goal for English and/or math, depending on what area(s) you were identified as gifted in, for the year. I remember mine most years were to get an A in English and math, which I did with no problem. There was no real enrichment. My sister is gifted as well and apparently they've "revamped" the ALP system. Her ALP this past year was to research Emily Dickinson and make a little "robot bug" from a kit. She did both in one night. There was no enrichment whatsoever.

 

[AKM]

I was identified as gifted in elementary school. The was an enrichment program where one day a week you got out of your "regular" class and as a group would get to do some project. We did lego logo, created paper mache planets, created recipes, mostly "creative" things (and I'm not creative in ways that people generally like...nor do I work well in a group.) I would hide under the teachers desk to avoid group work. In junior high and high school I was in advanced classes, but got kicked out of some of them for stupid reasons. The advanced math class in junior high required you to take notes in T form, and to show your work. I did it in my head, and didn't need to take notes on the chapter because it was easy. You also had to use pencil (which I still don't like using.) She dropped grades based on these nitpicky things, and so I wasn't invited back. In high school there was an error with my schedule, so I wasn't put into the advanced English class until a month into the school year. They'd already gotten most of the way through the first book of the year and I didn't get time to catch up, so I failed the tests on that book, which ultimately dropped my grade in that class. There were a couple of years the school wanted to skip me, but my parents wouldn't let me. I was one of the youngest in my class, and I graduated at 17.

As for relating to peers. Nope. I've never been able to do it. Even in elementary school I'd rather interact with the teachers or other adults. I am unable to see why things that are obvious to me aren't obvious to others, even after I try to show or explain it.

I was forced into college (I wouldn't have a place to live otherwise) but dropped out as soon as I could. I had no idea what I wanted to be or what I should focus on. I took college courses two more times relating to jobs I was working, but dropped those as soon as I wasn't working the job anymore. Even to this day I have no idea what sort of career I should pursue. I take assessments and career counselors are THRILLED to tell me that whatever I want to do I can succeed at, and that I'm strong in just about every area. I bang my head because that's NOT what I want to hear. I also get bored with most subjects after studying them for a time because the aren't that interesting or I don't see a challenge anymore.

 

[barbad0s]

I was.

LOL.

It was bullshit. I hated being pulled apart from kids and being put in "special" classes. All they did was gave me a ton of ridiculously boring homework and repeatedly IQ tested me and told me/reinforced the idea that my role in society was to be an arrogant assburgery nerd. Am I any smarter or more motivated today because of that? No.

Once I hit puberty, I raged and started to not care about school and get high off of getting C-'s and failing classes. My parents curled into balls and wept. I ended up becoming depressed and barely graduating from high school.

I'm now working on rebuilding my sense of self-motivation, as well as trying to fill the void in my brain that was created from all the years of not caring about my education. I missed out on so much.

 

[Barnabas]

I took remedial and advanced math classes in one year of middle school. I'm not sure what that makes me.

 

[jyrffw54]

I was identified gifted in elementary school as well. I went to a special school once a week for art and music, while otherwise, the teachers found ways to challenge the gifted kids. We got harder spelling words, harder math and we had to read more books a month. I still found it all easy though. In fifth grade, we started meeting with a gifted resource teacher once a week, and we did activities and puzzles, and that is where I first read "The Giver". I would say that it was stimulating in this phase, because I was doing middle-school level work.

In middle school, the gifted kids would meet in the gifted resource room once a week after lunch, and were free to peruse anything in the room that stimulated their minds (puzzles, games, writing, reading, chatting with each other about ideas, etc). Again, I found it stimulating, but not to the level that it was in elementary school.I was already taking high school classes, so I suppose that made up for it.

In high school, being gifted didn't really seem to matter anymore, and I lost interest in the program, stopping by Gifted Resource only occasionally, when I felt like I needed a break from the mundane atmosphere of study block. I just wasn't feeling it anymore, and by then I was already taking mostly college-level classes...I didn't start college early, but I came into College as a Sophomore. : )

 

[hk427f3]

I was in a gifted class from grade 4 to 8, and then I did sooome IB classes in high school. The only IB class I actually finished up to the highest level was art, lol.

It was nice to be with the same kids in every class for 5 or 6 years or whatever. I could identify with them more than people in normal classes. I don't know about stimulation, but I took normal english and social studies classes in grade 12. It was brutal.

It took me years to see how being told how amazing and smart I am over and over totally fucked me up. I never developed any kind of work ethic and rationalized my terrible performance with a firm belief in my own intrinsic ability. I wish someone had told me that intrinsic ability is bullshit.

Middle school was fun, though. All we did was sit on the computers doing 'independent work'. I read through all the paperwork that the school district sent to my parents to put me in the program. There was a little parent questionnaire on one of them. My mom wrote about how good I was at LEGO.

 

[AKM]

I was in a gifted class from grade 4 to 8, and then I did sooome IB classes in high school. The only IB class I actually finished up to the highest level was art, lol.

It was nice to be with the same kids in every class for 5 or 6 years or whatever. I could identify with them more than people in normal classes. I don't know about stimulation, but I took normal english and social studies classes in grade 12. It was brutal.

It took me years to see how being told how amazing and smart I am over and over totally fucked me up. I never developed any kind of work ethic and rationalized my terrible performance with a firm belief in my own intrinsic ability. I wish someone had told me that intrinsic ability is bullshit.

Middle school was fun, though. All we did was sit on the computers doing 'independent work'. I read through all the paperwork that the school district sent to my parents to put me in the program. There was a little parent questionnaire on one of them. My mom wrote about how good I was at LEGO.

This too (minus the cursing) was my experience also.

 

[5r6jhd]

Yup, but nothing was ever done about it for various reasons. I got tested in the 7th grade...apparently the results were really good, but I was diagnosed with discalculus (basically dyslexia to do with numbers etc) and was told I would be exempt from ever taking an IQ test because of the way it affected my problem solving abilities. Apparently I was well above average, but due to the tests nature, I would be set up to not do well.

I Won't claim I was massively gifted in all areas, I really stuggled with things like math and languages because of the discalculus but there were certain areas that made me stand out.

I also suffer from a severe mood disorder which wasn't properly diagnosed and treated till I was 18, so I spent most of my high school years failing or doing poorly, and as a result of my illness ended up dropping out of high school.

I'm smart though, so I managed to get into college with no qualifications. Having a good work ethic and spending a lot of time since the age of 12 volunteering in a variety of areas really helped too.

 

[Billy]

Lol... I wish. I was made to feel embarrassed about my curiosity and desire to learn by my mother and father who thought I was acting "uppity" if I utilized vocabulary and theories they had never been exposed to, which was a lot.

"that's so gauche" is a phrase that makes my blood boil, my father and his little parrot (my brother) said that to me growing up a lot whenever I used a word thayer didn't know... Fucking assholes.

 

[DimensionX]

Yep, I'll forgo the story lol, no, no annnnnd nope.

 

[Faye]

Were any of you identified as gifted as kids? I was, so supposedly I have an IQ of 130+ as well as whatever other requirements they had. I think the whole system is ridiculous though.

Growing up, did feel that your environment was stimulating enough? No, I was bored out of my mind. Elementary school was painfully boring most of the time. In first grade, I would sit next to the fish tank and watch the fish because I couldn't stand listening to the teacher. I would feed them anything I could find on the floor of the classroom.

Could you relate to your peers? I could to a point at a young age, but once I got to middle school, I could not relate to anyone. It was even worse in high school.

Were you by chance one of those lucky kids who enrolled in college early? I wouldn't consider going to college early a lucky event, but I would consider finishing high school early to be lucky. I could have gone to college early, but I didn't. In retrospect, that was a very dumb decision.

 

[Gaze]

We didn't have gifted programs or classes when I was in elementary school, nor did we have IQ tests. You were either "brighter" than everyone or whatever. I struggled with math but did well in reading/Literature. I think I may've been gifted in those areas but there were no accelerated programs. I think I had verbal/linguistic intelligence but social smarts was on the low side, and that mattered more. I was told I was bright and along the way, told I was smart, but I had no idea what that meant because we were always told that if we worked hard, we would achieve. We had class rankings, so we'd be competing for top spots. I still remember, being surprised that I was one of the top three in my class in 6th grade, especially since I struggled with math. I did fairly well but not very well academically. Maybe if the focus was more about developing specialties in one particular subject, maybe I would've had the chance to develop my reading/composition skills much earlier. In high school, I enjoyed literature or literature analysis the most. Wish I'd majored in literature instead of communication. Think I would've done better. I'm not sure if a gifted label would've helped anything since at that age. Would've just made life more difficult since I was an already quite obnoxious and arrogant, although shy child. So, don't think it would've helped to be in a gifted program. I wouldn't have had the maturity to handle it unless it was some sort of homeschooling or independent study.

 

[Untitled]

Were any of you identified as gifted as kids?
I come from a family of people who are gifted but never managed to utilize it in any way. If I did well on something the reaction was "Oh..." followed by disinterest. My mom did have a very angsty attitude towards most people that they were for the most part a bunch of morons to her and that you should hide the fact deviate from the norm, because the morons are dangerous. Yet you're nothing special at the same time because everyone in the family is smart and talented and it never got them anywhere...so welcome to Misery. Enjoy your stay. Ah happy times... :flypig:

Growing up, did feel that your environment was stimulating enough?
My mom had a large book collection so that kept me busy for some time but other than that, no.
There were no gifted programs in school and in any case I wasn't thought of as particularly smart. I was visibly more talented in the arts but I wasn't really present, more in my own little world, and the teachers I had for the most part found that offensive. I was mostly confused because I could have sworn I was more intelligent than most but my grades were really average. I never did any homework or studied. I was bored out of my skull most of the time. At the same time I should have studied .
There's no IQ testing in the school system where I'm from...not back then atleast, unless you're making trouble and sent to special class. Then there may be testing. My math teacher, this really curious minority complex ridden sexist dude, took it upon himself to make us do the mensa quick test and to his (and mine) shock and horror I had one of the top scores of my year. The guy with the top score designs some type of artificial organs and is a millionaire btw. He was the classic nerdy science guy and was already considered smart. I was the spacey emo teen who scribbled bleeding flowers on my math book and solved problems you were supposed to use algebra for by using the elementary school methods of adding, substracting, multiplying, dividing and special aid of drawing weird squibbles. He joked that I must have cheated in the Mensa thing in front of the whole class. I don't know how, since they guy with the only higher score sat on the other side of the room. Must be my Ni mindreading superpowers... Ah happy times...:rip:

Could you relate to your peers?
Not in that way. I could relate to having a crush on some guy or liking a band or some movie. Other than that not so much though there were a few really bright kids, but they were into maths and physics. I sure wasn't.

Were you by chance one of those lucky kids who enrolled in college early?
That is not allowed where I'm from. I wanted to believe you me. Coming into what would be the equivalent of High school +community college level in our system we did an exam which was supposed to illustrate to us all the wonderful things we'd learn in the coming years as a kind of a fun thing I guess and I aced it. It just made me very sad and I dropped out after a while. I wasn't ready to go through more of what I can only describe as chinese water drop torture with nothing to look forward to.

I'd like to add though that from what I gather having taken some short WAISS and the short mensa test and by guesstimate ( comparing to my close friends) I'm probs around 130-135 area which puts me in the moderately gifted bracket... so I can only imagine what someone with a very high IQ experiences. From what I've heard the experience has ranged from the happy level headed genius to quasi-criminal hooked permanently on lithium administered in school to make you blend in...

EDIT: Meant Ritalin. See above.

 

[alice144]

quasi-criminal hooked permanently on lithium administered in school to make you blend in...

Is this why my friend Brandon does so many drugs? That sucks. Maybe I should send him a nice letter.

He was the classic nerdy science guy and was already considered smart.

Yeah, how come this sort of intelligence is 'useful' and ours is not?

This is kind of off topic, but what are infjs good at, after all? I know that for me, math doesn't come nearly as easily as everything else, and while I like it, read about, etc, I'm nothing like my nerdy engineer friends, either.

A lot of people here have mentioned that they were very talented with the arts, which is congruous with my own personal experience. What do you do with the arts, though? Everyone keeps telling me that social science degrees are useless, and I can't quite see why. I mean, isn't society made up of... people?

 

[This]

In elementary school, yes. By the time I reached jr. high though I had changed my outlook. The smart nerdy kid was an identity I didn't want to jive with. I also had become extremely interested in girls at this point and didn't really give a shit about school. So I stopped doing my homework because I was too busy hanging out after school over at girls houses or nights at the roller rink. My test scores were still good enough that I slid by, but I never really took school seriously again after that point in time. Same thing happened in high school, but it was workaholism that distracted me that time.

 

[the]

Everyone keeps telling me that social science degrees are useless, and I can't quite see why. I mean, isn't society made up of... people?

They probably mean it is not profitable to the individual who is performing the social science. Art and other feelery things are very useful, but not as immediately profitable as most people would like.

 

[This]

They probably mean it is not profitable to the individual who is performing the social science. Art and other feelery things are very useful, but not as immediately profitable as most people would like.

Yes, also a lot of those arts degrees are useless because you don't need the degree to get into the field. For example, I do a lot more audio work than my friends with audio-technical degrees. The reason is connections and experience.

 

[Untitled]

[MENTION=4283]alice144[/MENTION]
Don't ask me... ;D My measuring stick for success and usefulness is from a different set than the one they usually use to hand them things out to most people. I can only give you really unpractical advice.

I have the memory of a goldfish...I meant Ritalin.... I heard a friends account of a mutual acquaintance who is a genius by any standard. He built robots for fun as a kid. Put his teachers in the gifted programs to shame. The problem was he was constantly bored. He was being disruptive, was diagnosed with ADD and put on Ritalin. He developed an addiction to it and long story short got into other drugs too. Really sad story.