I am fairly new on here but it is obvious that all our little apples did not fall far from the tree. I am curious about everyone's experience's in school/life growing up when there was even less acknowledgement of giftedness. Did you like school or not? Did you somehow get what you needed there or get turned off? If you went to college how was that experience? Did you choose a life or profession that utilizes your talents? What do you wish had been different, if anything?

I had some trouble with school. I tended to do really well in areas that interested me and did not do things that did not interest me, which resulted in grades of As and Fs. I also tended to get carried away at times and change trajectory on assignments, which they do not approve of in traditional classrooms. When I was tested in 3rd or 4th grade, my school had a GT program that was outside of the regular classroom. It encouraged creative endeavors and allowed freedom of choice and movement among various activities (somewhat Montessori-style). This was great for me. I loved my time there. Then we moved to a district where GT meant placement in advanced academic classes only. That is where I struggled. I think GT kids also tend to have some problems with social interaction, and may really benefit from encouragement and guidance to help develop those skills. I think that might have been helpful for me. I had the experience of working with elementary age children as a college student, and I felt like I was learning some of those social rules that come naturally to children late in life! Looking back, I notice that I had trouble shifting between levels (Jr High to High, High School to college, etc) and exhibited some symptoms of ADD. I don't know how often this is a comorbid condition, but I was never assessed/diagnosed formally. All in all, I think things turned out well for me. Once I got into my major and specialty I did well and I enjoy my career, although working within an organization is trying at times (red tape and nit-picky rules). My first child will be born soon, and we'll see if he lands near the tree!

I think I was one of the ones that fell through the cracks. I remember getting called to the principal or counselors offices a lot because my state testing would be 98-99 percentile and my grades were Bs and Cs. I would get As on my tests and never did my homework. I asked to drop out of school in first grade. 8)

When I would get put into advanced classes I would get kicked out for not doing the work. Copying pages of definitions was not my idea of fun when I could just read them and remember them.

I loved college and had a 3.98 GPA overall. I am a SAHM now. I still don't know if my major was really what I should be doing. I think one of the worst 'perks' to being gifted is you are good at most everything you try so it is hard to find your passion.

Oh, gosh, let me see if I can answer without writing a novel.

I have always been a worksheet person. I love them. So, yeah, I liked grade school for the most part. I did have huge conflicts in K with my teacher, who was horrible and patronizing and tried to make me dance with letter people despite the fact that I was already reading at at least a high school level, and who eventually recommended that I be held back for failing to learn to tie my shoes. After grade school, school was just a place for socializing and daydreaming as far as I was concerned.

I turned off big time in about the 8th grade. It wasn't as if I was learning anything anyway...and that is not just what I thought at the time, but what I still believe today. I did everything I could, including actually asking my teachers for extra work. I was not given any accommodations.

I did go to college. I expected it to be challenging, but it wasn't. Then I went to law school. If it hadn't been for the law review, that would also not have been challenging--though I did at least feel that I was learning.

I am now a stay-at-home mother of a (highly+?) gifted child. I think that it is a profession that utilizes my talents. Also, when I did work as a lawyer, there was a lot of challenge, and it was reasonably fulfilling.

I wish I had not been in grade school at all. I wish someone had recognized that I was PG before middle school. And I wish that in middle school when I was tested someone would have bothered to change my educational situation instead of just being surprised and going on with the status quo. I wish I had known just one other PG person. (I did know a HG girl, but she was years younger than me, and while I enjoyed her company, it did not provide me with a true peer.) I wish I had not spent my entire childhood "learning" that hard work is pointless, that nobody gets me, and that nobody has any knowledge to share with me.

The irony is that I was in my district's gifted programming and participated in many enrichment activities, summer camps, etc. I am sure that my parents thought they were doing enough. I know they fought for me--after all, I would have flunked K if they hadn't intervened.

I am a homeschool mom of two precocious kids, now, and love every minute of it. Okay, there are times I want to yank my hair out and I have recently come across some gray hairs, but for the most, there are way more great days than not.

I'm feeling too lazy to type more than the above; here's copy paste of my response in a similar thread "Adults who were accelerated" on this board.
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Tagging this onto the the end of this thread. My story is a bit different, as I wasn't accelerated in school - well not *exactly*. The option for multiple grade skips was presented twice during my years in elementary school. An offer from 1st straight to 4th was declined by my mother and another offer during 3rd grade to 7th was, also, declined. Both times my mother reasoned that she did not want me to be around older boys. I remember pleading during the 1st grade meeting and leaving in tears. I managed, over the next two years, to remain fairly optimistic about school. Then came the 3rd grade meeting, I had been aching for. Again, my hopes were dashed. I distinctly remember this audible click inside my head and I officially gave up on school and became the classic under-achiever - still received mostly "A" grades.

During the summer after my 6th grade year I became very ill and had to be hospitalized for about a year. Despite this, I completed all of 7th grade work via independent study within my first 4 months in the hospital; so they sent me 8th grade work.

Fast forward to when I was healthy enough to return to school. I was surprised to be on the middle school campus, as I fully expected to be starting high school. I was in a wheel chair and with the claim that I needed special accomodations the school placed me in 7th grade special education "classes". By classes I meant I spent all the time in the library and didn't get any actual assignments - there were none to give me, as I'd already completed middle school - or even see a teacher much of the time. I'm an avid reader, but much of what was in the small library I had already read and we spec. ed. students were required to stay in a specific area of the library. There must have been an invisible trigger for a silent alarm, because the moment one of us left our designated area a librarian was there to admonish us and send us back where we belonged. All that to say, I was in effect held back and in spec. ed. classes for two years.

At the end of 8th grade, I decided on two things a) I was going to walk again - no matter what, and b)I was done with school. So by the time the first day of 9th grade came about I was, indeed, walking without assistance. Then I approached my mother. I made my demands quite clear, either she sign the papers to let me start taking college courses or I take her to court and start emancipation proceedings. She signed the papers and by the time I was 15 I had two Associates degrees, started two different business that were fairly successful. (I made enough to purchases two houses by the time I was 19 years old and pay off all the student loans I had incurred.)

I must admit, I still haven't finished my Bachelor's degree. I actually, have enough credits, minus a small handful of courses, to graduate with degrees in, at least, two majors. I joke that I should have multiple doctrates and my husband agrees and always says that it would "be so easy for you". It simply isn't my focus right now, and that's okay.

Anyway, that's my accelerated adult story.

After noticing that I was bored in school, my 1st grade teacher recommended skipping me to 3rd, but my mom declined, thinking she was doing me a favor by ensuring that school would always be too easy for me. My 2nd grade teacher's solution to the problem was to pair me with the slowest person in my class, so that I could help her once I was done with my work. I resented the arrangement and probably wasn't a very good tutor as a result. Beginning in 2nd, I was also one of two people in my grade who were pulled out for a gifted enrichment program once a week. The enrichment activities gave me all my best memories of grade school but didn't change the fact that the classroom curriculum wasn't challenging me.

Being an overachieving, perfectionist, teacher pleaser, I kept my mouth shut, did what was expected of me and got As all through junior high, high school, college, law school and graduate school, only to wind up underemployed in a job I hate. To this day, I'm plagued by perfectionism and the fear of attempting anything I might not be good at. I shy away from real challenge and, as a result, will probably never come close to meeting my true potential, although I am currently looking for a more challenging job, having realized a lot of these things about myself only recently.

I'm doing everything I can to make sure my son has a different experience. For starters, I've enrolled him in kindergarten a year early at a gifted school where every child receives an individualized education. This kid is going to be challenged from day one.

I also think a lot of my trouble growing up has to do with class as much as anything. My parents were rural, poorly-educated, blue-collar, working class people who didn't read, travel or enjoy any kind of intellectual pursuits. They frankly had no idea how to give me what I needed--no enrichment activities, no mentoring, no encouragement (actually told me at age 10 that college wasn't in the cards for me)--so I'm sure I should be enormously proud that I've made it even as far as I have.

Right now, more than anything, I feel very fortunate to have the education, awareness and income to be able to give my son all those things I didn't have. And to see him thrive and blossom in response! When I try to imagine him being raised by my parents in the community I grew up in, it makes me incredibly sad. I think that raising a HG or PG kid as a ND kid is akin to child neglect. At the very least, it makes for a real screwed up adult.

I was also one of the lucky ones during elementary school, I think. I had lots of issues with talking during class and getting in trouble for it. In third grade, a teacher recognized that I was bored and recommended my mom test me for the gifted pull out one day a week. I got in, and I loved the program.

Then in fifth grade I moved to a new school that had gifted integrated as part of the curriculum. We would go to regular classes in the morning and spend every afternoon in gifted. That is also where I began to do Odyssey of the Mind.

In seventh grade, my mother had me tested for a pretty accelerated private school in the area. I received a scholarship there. While I liked the people and the teachers, once again, the work was easy. With the smaller class sizes though, the teachers were able to work with me a bit, and I never felt overly bored (that and I was allowed to read during class a lot).

I made it through high school with no study skills to speak of, and still received a 3.5 GPA. Then, I got into MIT and suddenly having no study skills was killing me. I was forced to learn the hard way during my college years, and even though I had a C when I graduated, I was proud of how much I learned.

I tend to make mild transitions in job function about every two-three years because otherwise I become bored. I do pretty well, though I still feel like I should be doing something more meaningful. I also push the schools to give my children challenging work because I feel like the school system failed me in a very fundamental way. I think gifted kids need to learn the study skills that most other children figure out in their elementary school years.

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.

Wow. Great response guys. I know that for me a lot of my angst over DS education has to do with how I feel my education failed me.

My main concern, like Artana, is that gifted kids often learn poor study skills along with thinking that being "smart" means everything will come easily.

I went to good solid schools but there was no GT programming and no tracking or recognition of such. I remember desperately wishing that I could have the teacher all to myself so I could move forward quickly and explore questions even when they went off on a tangent. I did enjoy school for the social aspect as life at home was not happy and in school there were happy pleasant adults and kids to play with, otherwise I think I would have not enjoyed it as much.

In fourth grade my Mom was very ill and I had to move to NJ to live with my Dad for a bit. I went in October and within weeks contracted Hep A. I missed the rest of the school year except for the last few weeks when I got back home but they did not make me repeat the year even though I did no school work from home that year. I also graduated from High School a year early...a local option for those who would otherwise be taking mainly A/P classes. This was great too but by then I had terrible study habits and was more interested in moving away from home to pursue boys and parties. :-) My major for the first few years was Electrical and Computer Engineering and I managed to maintain a B average despite hardly ever going to class and being completely not into the subject. I wanted to double major in History and English but my father told me the social sciences were for stupid people (sorry...not my feelings) and I guess I was the stupid one because I listened. I ended up so turned off however, that I switched majors senior year and since I had the most electives in Pyschology that is what my degree is in. I also graduated college one semester early. This left me graduated at 20 with no practical degree, little ambition and no direction. Now, 20 years and four kids later I am three classes shy of my Master's in Education. I still would love to go back and major in History/English but no loans for extra bachelor's degree's and no money to spare.

Funny thing is my siblings are all quite gifted also but the one who I would say least so is the most successful going down to the most gifted having the least intellectually challenging job.
I think this is a scary thought in that our children now...if they don't get their needs met may not only not reach their potential but be huge underachievers.

I also agree with the parents that no matter what our "jobs" are raising our kids is a challenge to all our talents. :-)

I often wonder how my life might have been different if my education was different and does different mean better?

PS. Artana, do you recommend Odyssey of the Mind? I have been looking into it and talking to the school to see if I can help put a team together hoping this may be a good outlet for DS and other GT kids in the school district.

Breakaway,
I have not been involved in a while. I am just beginning to become a part of it again. My main experience is from being a child in Odyssey of the Mind. I absolutely loved it. It made my school day worth it, and I felt like we could be as creative and silly as we wanted. It was one of the first places where I got to be self-directed, having to coordinate with my team members, but not having an adult tell me whether I could or could not try out one of my ideas.

I love these responses, they are reminding me of why I am letting me DDs skip a grade next year.
I was bored s a kid and never studied, but my parents wouldn't "push" or allow me to go ahead. Both of my parents had skipped a grade plus entered early, so they both graduated high school at 16 (this was in the late 1940's). They both regretted being so young at graduation so they never allowed me to skip. I felt pretty lost since the schoolwork and projects were never engaging.

I wrote about it here.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/18674

College was fun. I got 100s on most of my finals. Unless I found something that really interested me.

DW skipped 1st grade. She won a lot of awards in 6th/7th grade, but by the 8th grade the school system ignored her. She graduated MCL from college. She was made President of a BU of a public firm in her early 30s.

What would I have done differently?

Had I had a mentor in the sciences when I was 8 years old who was a steady presence AND/OR had we stayed in the school district that radically accelerated me - I would have had a much deeper commitment to schooling.

Although my elementary school took me out of K and put me in 1st grade, so I was advanced a year throughout my education, school was mostly boring. I was a compliant child, though, so I did my work and then sat in my seat and read. My sixth grade teacher caught me reading between writing the words on a spelling test -- she thought I was cheating at first.

I got A's and B's in middle school and high school without doing any real work or learning any study skills to speak of. At that time students were allowed to take community college classes after their sophomore year in high school. I went to the local college that summer and took Algebra II in 6 weeks, got an A, and continued on to precalculus at the HS the next year. My senior year the HS had no math class for me to take (this was before the proliferation of AP courses), so they stuck me back in with the precalc class, gave me a calculus book, and said, "Study for the AP test." I did this on my own and scored a 4 on the test. Despite my self-acceleration in math, not one person at the high school took me aside and said, "You know, you're pretty good at math. Let's see what you can do with this to get into a good college." I didn't even fill out the scholarship application for the local grants and scholarships, because I thought I wasn't good enough -- I didn't have the long list of activities and community service that the more engaged students had.

I went to the local state college and still had plenty of time to read and work part-time while completing my classes with mostly As. The first time I finally ran into something that was very difficult for me to learn was in my third-year college math courses, and by then I had no idea how to approach learning something really difficult. I struggled to get B's.

Now I teach math at a community college. I have twin sons who are HG and 20 years old. Even though I advocated for them in their education, they were also not challenged enough in school -- although they handled it differently than I did, having completely different personalities. They just quit doing any work, starting in 8th grade, except in classes that interested them (music, drama), and graduated from HS by the skin of their teeth. They no longer have any interest in academic work, although they are highly curious about the world, and will delve into topics of interest on their own. They are using their abilities in creative work with music. They are looking for a higher education program that will foster this work, but not force them into what they see as meaningless (and boring) general education courses.

I know this is long, but I think it is pertinent to the discussion -- our family is an example of how the system has failed two generations of gifted students. (But we would count as successes for NCLB -- all of us got high scores on standardized tests and graduated from HS.)

Gosh, this thread is kind of sad. 8(
I sometimes wish I could go back but, I wouldn't change anything really. I am very happy with how my life turned out. I still wish I could find a challenging career but, I don't have to worry about that for a few more years.

I was also a very compliant child. I was very quiet and shy too. I remember misspelling spelling bee words so I wouldn't have to talk in front of my class.

When I was in fourth grade we moved to an army base for a few months and I went to school there. My Dad was in National Guard. The class literally was in the first grade soft cover reading books. It was like "here honey, do you think you can read this? 'Spot saw Jane throw the ball.'" I was reading Little Women at the time. The teacher acted like she never saw anyone read before. They finally had me reading with the sixth grade class but, it was a book I had had the beginning of third grade. I remember being stunned by this.

BigBadWool, you remind me of what I meant to mention, but forgot. I am also a very happy person and I would not change my life as it is now. I am very aware that if I had not had these issues I'd have ended up in a different college, and probably would never have met my DH or had my DD. So it is only when I think about my educational experience as divorced from my life as a whole that I have regrets.

I don't know if I'm 'gifted' or not, but after dealing with my ds, I suspect I could probably get a classification if I was in school now.

In school, I did well with ease. I didn't really have to work at school too much. I graduated with extra credits and audited some classes in high school. I took AP classes and seem to remember enjoying them. I also skipped alot of school because there were better things to do.... I believe underachiever was used by more than one of my teachers.

I was ill-prepared for college. My studying skills sucked to say the least - I'd never really had to, so it wasn't something I was good at. I didn't really give college a decent chance. I hated sitting in classes listening to someone talk - I preferred to do things on my own. I think I might have enjoyed internet classes.

This is what I'm trying to avoid with my ds - the apathy that comes from boredom. I'm trying to keep him engaged in school, so that he doesn't lose interest and have the attitude that I have. DH and I have had many good natured discussions about my being a slacker when it comes to school and why that may have been. I love to learn, read, educate myself, etc. I just didn't do well in a formal school setting - could it have been because I wasn't getting what I needed? Maybe.

I don't know that I wish anything had been different - I've done well. I may not have had the formal education, but I am an educated person who's living a great life. Of course, as a parent, I want more for my child. I hope to instill a love of learning (even if not in a traditional setting) and I also hope he encounters teachers who can bring out the best in him. He's had a couple already, we've been fortunate. And of course, there's DH who balances me out, LOL.

"I didn't really give college a decent chance. I hated sitting in classes listening to someone talk - I preferred to do things on my own. I think I might have enjoyed internet classes."

Too funny, made me remember something. In college I went to the first week of all classes, then I would decide if it was a go to class and listen to lecture (rare but sometimes there were great lecturers) or skip all classes and just use text (had to show on test dates of course). I received my Master's online and I loved not having to go to lectures and I liked the self-pacing.

Ditto. That's what I like about my medical school. All of the material is posted on-line, along with taped lectures to supplant the material, so there is no need to go to class unless one enjoys sitting through a boring lecture or wants to goof off with classmates in the back of the room.

If only showing up for test dates had been an option . It's funny, well not really but... when folks ask if I went to college, where, etc. I have to say "Well, I was enrolled, until they asked me to free up the space for someone who actually wanted to be there and attend classes." I'm sure there's a term for that - academic somethingorother.

Funny JDax! I went to a big school where there was no attendance requirement. I spent one semester at a smaller school where attendance was 15% of your grade! I argued the ridiculousness of that with the professors. If you can get a 4.0 and not show up why force attendance? Conversely, if you need to show up to do well and are not smart enough to show up...well...I hope I don't hire that grad! I think by the time you are in college you should be either able to manage your own time or figure it out quickly.

BTW LIlMick - What med school are you attending? I didn't realize the online option existed for medical school.