why i like my job

[siren52684]

when i was in grade school i, along with several other children in my grade, was in these pull-out classes for "gifted children." once a week we'd hop on a bus and go to the district offices and do weird shit like logic puzzles. once we did something about genealogy. another time we had to invent something (someone remind me to write about this, i

Comments

[mathwhiz78]

You were clearly in a dumb district. My school had enough gifted kids to pull them out but keep them in the school.

And those superiority complexes? Some of us still have them. :)

~mike~

[siren52684]

nah, i was just in an obscenely HUGE district.

there were about 50-60 third graders that got pulled out every thursday from my grade school alone, because the school didn't have a space large enough to put them without displacing other students. other schools did the same thing, but on other days of the week.

[nevershagagreek]

me too :-) Once a week, I went to the "gifted" class, which was held at the HIGH SCHOOL. I was *big time*. The high school was a loooong ways off because the whole county got bussed in to one high school. I'm talking like 4 towns away.

Our gifted class was called "TIPS", and it stood for "Tomorrow's Innovative Problem Solvers". I had SUCH a big head when I'd get back from those classes. Like you, it was drilled in to my head all the time how special I was, and how I would always be different because i was a GENIUS. I'm sure my other classmates knew I basically thought of them as peons.

[siren52684]

my first few years of pull-out gifted were called PEP...Primary Enrichment somethingorother.

and in junior high, if you were extra smart, in 8th grade you got to take math at the high school. oooooooh.

[squirrelallie]

I was in LEAP, taught by a strange woman with frizzy hair, bullet-proof glasses, and a head that wobbled like one of those sports figurines.

Being labeled a "smart kid," is a dangerous thing. The majority of us developed the mentality that it's better to Not Try than fail and paper airplanes really can stick in someone's hair for heroic periods of time without the carrier noticing.

[siren52684]

funny how those "gifted" teachers are always really really odd-looking people.

we developed the "we are smart and therefore we do not need to put forth any effort in order to do well" mentality.

[siren52684]

haha, and you've got a big stash of red pens, don't you?

[mandolinsrcool]

my school made us have classes with the dumb and average kids, but we got math split up every day.

i used to hate having classes with dumb or average kids (anyone NOT smart), esp in middle school. everyone would get like, lame grades and i'd get and A and would feel self conscious about it. it's not my fault that i'm smarter than 99% of the ppl on this planet... sheesh.

i don't have a complex though. just a realistic view of where i stand intellectually compared to everyone else... :p

[siren52684]

i remember being in pull-out math in 6th grade.
and in junior high i was in "discovery classes" which were "designated smart kid classes".

and it was about then that i stopped knowing who people were in my school. in high school, if you weren't in AP, i didn't know who you were at graduation.

[mandolinsrcool]

high math was always a grade level above regular math... they got us a bit ahead in elementary school and then you just jumped up in junior high to get pre al and algebra before high school. i'm still pissed about the way they did that though, b/c fifth grade math was a total waste of time and seriously, no reason why we all weren't done with calc 2 by graduation.

anyway yah, then in high school there were two levels of honors math, and obviously honors and then ap levels of everything else, so i definitely only knew non honors kids from sports or junior high, and i was definitely friends with hte upper honors kids (top 5% of the class or so).

i liked that about k-12.

[mandolinsrcool]

err okay my first sentence made no sense but i meant to say they always pulled high math out from everyone else and in elementary school we were moving about 2x as fast as everyone else but they didn't necessarily let us get a grade ahead, just taught us harder stuff for later.

i maintain they give you two worthless years of math tho... 5 and 6 grade math. they are useless. i got knocked down out of the high class briefly b/c i slept every day in 5th grade, didn't even pretend to pay attention, and didn't try at all. and then they were like um no and poof. no problem catching up. how worthless was that year? alegebra is way more analytical and important overall and schools would do well to get that down earlier and get deeper into higher math later...