any "gifted" folks here - need stories @ curriculum

[tapitsbo]

I was in gifted classes because of some highly abstract pattern recognition tests on which I performed very well.

I was not nearly as successful in the actual classes (late 90s), which hardly resembled some of the exotic activities detailed here. I remember a big focus on unstructured reading, roleplaying, discussion, independent research projects, all of which was stymied by the extreme social awkwardness of some of the participants including myself. Mostly we retreated into acting out our fantasy worlds, even during class, to the frustration of the teachers.

[Luther Blissett]

I failed to mention that our proctor / teacher was definitely external to the school as well. Seemed to only spend the two or three hours per week or twice a week or whatever it was with us and then leave to go somewhere else.

Do you know those cheap "IQ" tests one can take online? The ones that seem to rely heavily on problems of geometry at their core? Whenever I take them now, I recognize them as problem-solving questions not dissimilar to my career. I assume that many graphic and web designers must score rather well on them, a lot of it is the kinds of stuff we have to do every day - visualization of complex streams of data, organization, parsing space, etc. I believe that a lot of my early gifted classes may have dealt with that kind of material.

[semper occultus]

[Elvis]

Semper, what is the source of those pages? Thanks

[semper occultus]

Sinister Forces 3 : Manson Secret by Peter Levenda


...and please tell me this is actually true...

A testament to how well houses were built back then, that house was originally built in the next field but was picked up by a tornado, with my grandfather in it, and set down where you see it there.

[Twyla LaSarc]

At this point, I can't help but wonder if the testing programs went anywhere, and what happened to the kids whom the test givers remained interested in.

[Nordic]

Yeah and do they still do this?

My son doesn't fall into these categories, so I won't learn about it through him!

[Grizzly]

They pulled me out of class and had me listen to words through some headphones and repeat them (probably) and play Candy Land with a couple other kids. It was actually more of a speech therapy class than a gifted class but I think a speech therapy class will make for a more interesting story.

That's so frigging weird, this very same thing happened to me, I'm not sure I like recalling this or how it makes me feel, now, but your description resonates. With both the headphone as well as the candyland game they were both methodical. i remember it like a snapshot of a picture in my mind. Which is to say not very well.

[zangtang]

At this point, I can't help but wonder if the testing programs went anywhere, and what happened to the kids whom the test givers remained interested in.

believe one of them ended up as 'the Unabomber'

- really must get round to hunting down his 'manifesto' & seeing if there's any prescience to it, after all this time.
then again, that'll prolly just initiate another flag on the file !

[BrandonD]

I have one vague memory. I scored highly in intelligence tests as a child, and was sent to a particular building. I was placed in a room and a man proceeded to show me a series of pictures, asking me what was wrong with the pictures.

I only specifically remember one of the pictures, in which a man was missing his ear - but for some reason this did not strike me as "wrong" so I did not say so. He stressed to me that this man missing his ear was "wrong".

[Twyla LaSarc]

They pulled me out of class and had me listen to words through some headphones and repeat them (probably) and play Candy Land with a couple other kids. It was actually more of a speech therapy class than a gifted class but I think a speech therapy class will make for a more interesting story.

That's so frigging weird, this very same thing happened to me, I'm not sure I like recalling this or how it makes me feel, now, but your description resonates. With both the headphone as well as the candyland game they were both methodical. i remember it like a snapshot of a picture in my mind. Which is to say not very well.

You have jogged my memory- headphones. Words thru headphones. Those bulky chocolate-grey things they used to have. I'm also remembering having to select words and solutions to problems from projected screens (to which I acribe nothing- same as computer screen nowadays, the original 'slideshow'.

[82_28]

Yes. I now remember those too, Twyla. I am trying to piece together the shit that was on the cards now.

[82_28]

This is interesting:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2542921/

[nashvillebrook]

Was this a public or private school? Just wondering, because the activities sound more like tests than educational opportunities.

Just catching up -- posted then got sick, am just getting back caught up.

Public school -- and not a very interesting one as far as I can tell. We lived in a small Central Florida town that was mostly retirees and agriculture. It always seemed to me that you'd expect this kind of experimental weirdness at a University School in a college environment. Not out in cow town.

[nashvillebrook]

I was singled out in first grade, and put in a special class of some kind with 2 other kids one of whom was my best friend. But nothing like you describe. We had regular teachers from the existing school as far as I remember.

What struck me as odd, and it wasn't that odd I guess, was that as I moved from place to place and school to school, there always seemed to be advanced warning as to my "gifted" status. When I moved to one school to finish 3rd grade they excused me from the regular class work and just had me draw pictures which she would then display to the rest of the class, in front of me. Then they just bumped me up to fourth grade.

When I moved to a small town in Wisconsin for the 8th grade they already knew about me but seemed to resent me. Maybe because my dad was a career Army officer and Virtnam was still going on? I don't know. It was strange because everybody hated me there, all the kids and, it seemed, the adults I met. But I remember this one asshole principal taking me to the offices and telling me he already knew about my high IQ. I never did know why he was talking to me about this. I asked what my IQ was but no one would ever tell me. My parents wouldn't either. I still don't know.

Then in high school, when I moved back to a big military town (which was something of a relief) I was assigned to a college bowl - type competition in my school before I'd even taken any tests or possibly established a reputation among the teachers (like the other kids had). I never knew who assigned me to that. I was the only junior; all others were seniors.

But nothing like you're describing. My dad was already on top secret military work so maybe that was a factor. My best friends dad was some kind of a real whiz, super smart scientist, not sure what he was actually involved in, but one night somebody took a shot at him from the darkness behind their house, the bullet going through the bedroom window and into the wall. I remember seeing the damage. Thrilling for a boy. Nobody seemed THAT concerned about it but maybe they were just playing that for us kids so we wouldn't freak out.

This happened every time I moved afterward and I noticed that some administrators copped an attitude with me, but also by the time I was in the 7th grade I was just done with the program and with "being smart" generally. I didn't embrace it again until college, really. Turned my attention to the sorts of distractions that were available to kids in the late 70s in beach towns in Florida. Good times

Also had a similar experience being excused from regular school work and being moved from school to school for "special classes." In the 6th grade our principal would literally pack all of us into his green Datsun B2-10 and drive us up the beach to the "nice" school where they had a "program." My independent study at this point was a really lame genetics thing using hamsters (I was trying to breed an all-black long-hair), but mostly I just liked breeding and selling hamsters to the local pet shops for spending money. Never got the black one. Moved on to an interest in Egyptian mythology after that, but there was piss-poor source material to study and I lost interest.