Funny, I was just thinking about this earlier today before seeing this question. I was pretty oppositional ("C"s in conduct also would have described me!). But when I look at the environment I was in, it doesn't seem like a surprise. One of my stongest memories is taking a reading test in 4th grade and scoring at the 12th grade reading level. The teacher hauled me to the principal's office and accused me a cheating (teacher said, "I couldn't score that high on this test, so this kid MUST have stolen the answers."). Of course, I didn't cheat. That teacher loathed me, and I returned it. I spent most of my recess time in side that year writing this sentence: "I will learn to remember to raise my hand before I speak in class.". Argh. That was the worst year, but in general I remember school as just being so DULL because it was so slow.
I read for hours every day (including when I should have been doing schoolwork). And spent many hours practicing and perfecting my skills on my musical instrument. I actually don't remember doing homework hardly ever, even in high school. Don't think I had to. But I honestly did not have any clue that I was signficantly smarter than everyone else (I would have just said that I read faster, and was "weird") until I was a senior in high school and was told I had the highest SAT score in our county, then won an automatic scholarship for an ACT score in the top 150 in our state.
College at a top university was a shock to me, as I did not have good study skills. Really, I never did develop them, even there I was mostly able to get pretty good grades without a lot of self discipline. (which I have since developed -- have been thinking about going back for another degree, wondering how I would do now. Or would I just revert back to my old habits?)
