> And let's not even get on the subject of the
> teacher's attitude toward me. My memory of the
> classes is a bit fuzzy, I admit, but I
> distinctly remember wanting to use the
> classroom computer during my free time and the
> teacher not letting me. Heh. OK, so now that
> I look back, I can understand the view
> that "everyone else would want to use the
> computer if you use it" and such, but still, it
> upset me when I was still an elementary
> schooler. And the teacher was even *less*
> pleased with my reaction; I never was exactly
> tactful as a child, but then again, I'm still
> not the most tactful person even now. :)
>
> At least the *other* students were generally
> friendly toward a freak like me, even if the
> teacher wasn't... but it still got so bad that
> I dropped out of the gifted program my last
> year of elementary school and then quickly
> rejoined the following year.
>
> And *that's* when I began to actually like the
> gifted program once again.


I was in the "gifted" program in elementary school. It was called G.A.T.E., which stood for Gifted And Talented Education. Looking back, that name probably didn't do much good for the self-esteems of the ones not in it. Anyway, we met once a week. It was too long ago for me to really be able to remember what we did, but I remember that it wasn't much. We basically just met every week and occasionally got extra homework. Once a year we'd go off, while we were off-track, to some school for a week and they'd do a special thing with a bunch of classes that were completely pointless (well, no, the business one wasn't) but a lot of fun. Looking back, I think the whole program was probably just a big ego trip (but then again, so was my entire elementary school life. If I were to go back in time right now and meet my former self, I probably wouldn't like him.). There was some sort of test I took to see if I should be put in. It had math, reading, and some probably some other stuff I don't remember. I passed the test and got in. Some people who were quite bright didn't pass the test when they took it (it wasn't a schoolwide everyone-take-this-test test; I think it was just whoever's parents asked) and so they didn't make it in. I remember one girl, Carly Ann, who was probably the smartest person I knew, but she didn't make it because she didn't do well enough on the reading portion. Also, I think there were a few people who got in without taking the test. I'm not sure how that worked. And, of course, there were a couple people in it who probably shouldn't have been. I don't think there was any real reason for its existence.

In sixth grade, and for the rest of middle school, I was in the honors program. They just sort of stuck me in there. There wasn't any big fanfare about it or anything. I was just there.

In ninth grade it was different. Honors wasn't all-or-nothing anymore. It was possible to be in honors in one class but not in another. When we talked about the classes we always referred to them as the "smart class" and the "stupid class" or "dumb class." Everyone did this, even the ones who weren't in the honors classes. It probably didn't exactly make them feel great about themselves. German, at least, had three classes, the one between "smart" and "dumb" being called (at least by us) the "average" class. The names had nothing to do with the intelligence of the people in the classes, but a lot of people thought it did, at least subconsciously. (Well, actually, the ones in the "stupid" English and European history learnt almost nothing that year, although that was mostly the fault of the teacher [and whoever it was who hired him].)

This year our school is doing a bizarre experiment, and one of the side effects is that, at least for us tenth-graders, there's no honors class. We're split up into two classes, but they're both at the same level. The thing is, although the arrangement of the class was supposedly random and had nothing to do with ability or scholastic achievement or whatever, one class consists almost entirely of the slackers who don't do their work, and the other class is the diligent students who are hard workers and get everything done and such. At one point, almost the entire slacker class was failing math, while the other one was almost entirely passing. Almost everyone in the nonslacker class was in honors classes last year, while I don't believe that many people in the other one (my class) were. Many people have noticed this suspicious rift, and most of them don't think it was an accident (I haven't made up my mind -- it is suspicious, but a big conspiracy and a cover-up? That's not likely).

I'm on the Academic Competition team this year for the second year running. We have, I think, seven tenth-graders on the team, and I'm the only one from my class on the team other than Stephen, and he was originally in the other class (I'm pretty sure that the reason he switched to my class was schedule conflicts with the college courses he's taking). Speaking of the team, I tried recruiting a ninth-grader recently who I think would do a good job on the team. He declined, saying he didn't want to be in our "smart club for smart people." Last week, at our first match this year, the other team was wearing T-shirts saying "Genius Club" which they'd had printed up. According to the guy we talked to, their AC team called themselves the Genius Club informally, and other people did as well, although the coaches (I think it was the coaches) didn't like this term at ALL. So the students on the team had a bunch of T-shirts printed up with their title.

I guess people, or at least teenagers tend to split themselves up into groups based on intelligence, real or perceived. The teachers don't do anything to encourage it (other than occasionally saying "You're not the dumb class"), and sometimes they unwittingly (or even worse: wittingly) encourage it. It does no help for people in the "lesser" group, and probably doesn't do much good for those in the "greater" group, either. I wonder, though. Do adults do this too, whether in social groups or at work or whatever?


> -- codeman"i'm not weird, i'm...uh, okay, so
> i'm weird too"38


-eric "I'm not weird, I'm gifted." slea"No, I was just kidding. I really am weird."tor
Sun 18 Feb A.D. 2001