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Yes, at a regular school.

No, I didn't qualify.

No, my school didn't have one.

I went to a school for gifted kids.

Other (explain below).

[pmcd9]

In the end I'd have rather been a D student who had good parents.

I was a C student with good parents.  Whoo hoo, I'm living the dream.

[smick]

I was that D student.   I got yanked out of the program because I wasn't doing my homework in regular classes.

Which was kind of nice:   The program was called "Tessera" and the other kids decided that was for "Test Tube Babys".

[V-Adore]

I copy LFM's story -- in GT for the duration, despite some social/fine-motor problems; in 7th grade, I even went to GT in the mornings because I couldn't get the real class into my schedule. (This, perversely, helped my social issues immensely, because it turns out that if you go somewhere with a ton of dorky kids much like you, those dorky kids will want to be your friends.) Then I moved to a district that actually had advanced-level classes and not just a "GT class," although I eventually did stuff like language mentoring that continued to take advantage of the program. This eventually segued into an education at the best liberal-arts college in the nation, although I was not in the top echelon there (graduating with a 3.3, whooo!).

Now, I'm 24, unemployed after a brief grad-school flameout, and I have no idea what to do with my life. So, so much squandered potential am I.

[KeithHernandez]

I was in honors classes after grade school but I don't think we had an organized thing.  Either that or I wasn't invited after I was moved to advanced math?

[jay-ell]

Wow.  Not a single "didn't qualify," and so, so much trauma. 

Basically the reason I'm not a grad school dropout is because I'm married to a man who thinks smart chicks are sexy. 

That's where all my fancy G/T education got me. 

[Doc]

Just to counter-act some of the trauma:
I slid a bit in my academic stuff in the last couple of years at high school, didn't get into the advanced first year courses at uni and just scraped through managing to keep my gpa above 5 due to majoy flakiness in my second and third year (actually in the end I think it was 4.9 or so). I then hit the jackpot with my honours supervisor, got a great project and finished with first class honours and am now gainfully employed doing a job I find very rewarding and already planning on advancing my academic life further.
So I mean, I did kind of well, got through mostly untraumatised and am happy with my place in life.
Do I get kicked out of the club now?

[wombat]

Wait, I forgot all about this other part of my story... I am so old, that when I was in grade school, they didn't have these newfangled special gifted programs. So instead, me and this other kid, they gave us extra work to do, and then skipped us a grade.

BUT, what they didn't realize was, I was advanced in reading but not in math. In fact, I couldn't multiply. Instead, I was just smart enough to know that you could get the answer to 3 times something by adding it together three times.

Yeah, it apparently didn't occur to anyone to tell me to memorize the multiplication tables. I mean I know this doesn't make sense, but I think all they did was put us at a separate table together and give us different work to do.  And since my answers were correct they assumed I knew what I was doing.

The result was that I was behind in math for the rest of my life. I somehow still passed the test to get into the gifted school in seventh grade - I don't really know how.  It was an all girls school at the time, so maybe they didn't expect much in math and science? I have no idea.

Hmm, I wonder whatever happened to the other kid. He actually knew how to do the math.

[side_show]

I was a C student with good parents.  Whoo hoo, I'm living the dream.

Oh, that poem is a doozy.  Tell your dad he made an imaginary person on the internet all misty eyed.

[Nabubrush]

Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful that I fell in love with education and had some outstanding teachers over the years because it could have just as easily have been sex or drugs I could have turned to for my gratification.

Eh, I don't know. I had absolutely no drive. I kept getting put in the gifted program, and wouldn't do anything but the tests - just enough to get Cs or Ds. Then, of course, I tried the solutions you lined out above and did that for ten years or so. Eventually I wandered back into college and got a degree I don't even use, and I'm doing ok.

Kids, take this to heart. Go ahead and smoke up, you be a'ight.

Disclaimer: You may not, in fact, be a'ight. You may end up dead.

[littlefallsmets]

See, I'm in this weird phase in my life where... like... "failure" is meant in kinda a positive way. As if I am saying it the same way a minority would turn a slur against them around as a point of empowerment.

Such as "yeah, I have failed a lot and here I am still and I probably even learned something from it!"

Such as "yeah, I have failed a lot but I am pretty sure that if you don't fail enough you ain't trying!"

It's a little hard to get across online, though, definitely.

[jaydub]

Basically the reason I'm not a grad school dropout is because I'm married to a man who thinks smart chicks are sexy. 

He's not alone.

[Nabubrush]

He's not alone.

Word.

[Nabubrush]

Smart chick Hi-5!

::slap::

Did I ever mention I married a material engineer? Not an accident!

I married a chick smart enough to marry me, so . . .

After asking her about 500 times.

[theinevitable]

the brain is the sexiest organ, that is for sure. mmmm.

[Nabubrush]

the brain is the sexiest organ, that is for sure. mmmm.

And the most tasty, coincidentally enough.