I went to 15+ schools before I graduated highschool, and depending on where I was I was either put into “gifted and talented”, the “extended learning program”, “fast path”, or “Accelerated Track”. Every place had a different philosophy of how to deal with kids who already knew how to read and do math.
Sometimes I would end up in a class with a bunch of quiet bookworms who wore church clothes every day and other times I would be surrounded by rambunctious and highly enthusiastic nerds.
Usually we would play computer games or play games designed to make us engage socially, but sometimes we would actually study interesting stuff in a deep way.
Every one of these programs seems to be a totally improvised and locally unique program. Nothing from the words they used for things to the books, brands, or activities seemed to have any consistency. Since I usually moved in the middle of the school year I would often see multiple versions of each grade’s program.
It made me really glad I didn’t grow up in a small town. Those people are getting screwed.
This is exactly it. So much of it was improvised. And that’s largely by design when you account for how most American schools are funded: unevenly through local levies.
My gifted program (late 90s) literally consisted of:
~ these classes were literally in a closet which was a part time “gifted” room.
What I wished they’d taught:
I went to 15+ schools before I graduated highschool, and depending on where I was I was either put into “gifted and talented”, the “extended learning program”, “fast path”, or “Accelerated Track”. Every place had a different philosophy of how to deal with kids who already knew how to read and do math.
Sometimes I would end up in a class with a bunch of quiet bookworms who wore church clothes every day and other times I would be surrounded by rambunctious and highly enthusiastic nerds.
Usually we would play computer games or play games designed to make us engage socially, but sometimes we would actually study interesting stuff in a deep way.
Every one of these programs seems to be a totally improvised and locally unique program. Nothing from the words they used for things to the books, brands, or activities seemed to have any consistency. Since I usually moved in the middle of the school year I would often see multiple versions of each grade’s program.
It made me really glad I didn’t grow up in a small town. Those people are getting screwed.
This is exactly it. So much of it was improvised. And that’s largely by design when you account for how most American schools are funded: unevenly through local levies.
Dang, THAT was the entirety of your school’s genius program? I assume your school was not in an affluent area.
mine was the same.
my school was in the bottom quartile of systems in my state. a quarter of the students were in poverty.
we also only had like 2 computers so we all had to play on them together and work in teams.