Oh, brother. Where do I start? My siblings are all gifted (and older than me), so my parents had plenty of experience with gifted children. The oldest two learned how to read at 4 and skipped a grade, loved school after that, so my parents figured that I would be even better off since I did everything so much earlier than them. It wasn't the case.
I started ditching school in kindergarten. My teachers would yell at me every day and call me a devil child or the dumbest kid they had ever taught, as I refused to do assignments, struggled to grasp the easy concepts (yet would bring physics books to read during class), and derailed their lesson plans. I made friends with a teacher in the junior high next door, and he would let me sneak into his class during 1st-3rd grade (until my parents yanked me from that school after my dad visited and saw how bad it had gotten for me).
I started the new school with similar results, except that I found a friend at that school who also hated school as much as I did. With a new district, my mom was able to get accelerated work for me by junior high (college courses, independent studies--a dream come true!!!). I was fine for a year until a new administrator yanked me from my college courses and independent studies, stating that a thirteen-year-old should be in the 7th grade. This cycle continued until high school, when I finally gave up on school completely.
My teachers hated me, and I started ditching school in earnest with some new friends, getting heavily into the party scene to make myself act like the perfect student--sit down, shut up, and pretend to be engaged...
A few years ago, I decided to start college and enrolled in a top university's honors program. It was the first time I thatI actually learned in a classroom. My first year was a disaster, as I did not know how to study or even how to do an assignment or go to class regularly. I got through it and appreciated the learning for the next couple of years.
Now that my oldest is in college and my youngest is in high school, I have started an MD/PhD program where I have found people like me and have been able to explore my interests.
I tend to be very vocal and active in my community about giving an appropriate education to all children, especially in poorer districts similar to the one in which I grew up, and I tutor in districts without a gifted program so that no child has to go through the hell that I went through in school.
