Datasets:

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innovation-hacking2

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shitposting_dataset0

like 0

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\"." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid ." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:)." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases)." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up", ">\n\nIf you peaked in school that just shows how the rest of your life is going.\nAccolades in school do wonders for a child's self esteem but don't mean much in the wider world." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up", ">\n\nIf you peaked in school that just shows how the rest of your life is going.\nAccolades in school do wonders for a child's self esteem but don't mean much in the wider world.", ">\n\nThis is literally one of the most popular opinions on the internet" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up", ">\n\nIf you peaked in school that just shows how the rest of your life is going.\nAccolades in school do wonders for a child's self esteem but don't mean much in the wider world.", ">\n\nThis is literally one of the most popular opinions on the internet", ">\n\nDude, don't I know it? I was rejected from the gifted program at my school in the 2nd grade and accepted in 5th. All meant nothing. Lotta teen moms were \"gifted and talented.\" Im just lucky i graduated 😂" ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up", ">\n\nIf you peaked in school that just shows how the rest of your life is going.\nAccolades in school do wonders for a child's self esteem but don't mean much in the wider world.", ">\n\nThis is literally one of the most popular opinions on the internet", ">\n\nDude, don't I know it? I was rejected from the gifted program at my school in the 2nd grade and accepted in 5th. All meant nothing. Lotta teen moms were \"gifted and talented.\" Im just lucky i graduated 😂", ">\n\nI think there’s a lot of different elements to this. Though firstly, I want to agree with others here who said they’ve never heard someone actually bragging about being labelled “gifted” pre-college/uni, so that accusation sounds a bit like bitterness (which would be understandable, because implying to other kids that they aren’t particularly smart/don’t have the same potential can be damaging in itself and lead kids who would’ve gone on to develop well to be discouraged unnecessarily imo). \nI believe some given the label of gifted were just mislabelled that way, either because it was much earlier on in life and therefore mostly dependent on rote learning and just having a good memory, or because they developed quicker (like the better looking more “attractive” kids who actually just hit puberty and learned good grooming/fashion habits earlier). \nBut some that you refer to as having burnout or not being particularly materially successful in life may still be above average in intelligence (though not the smaller group of people who were genuinely uncommonly special and went on to be academics at the top of their field or do things outside of academia that are both fruitful AND complex). \nI’m sorry, but I just don’t buy into the idea that intelligence perfectly correlates with material success - I’ve seen too many genuinely stupid people do well (fall upwards) and there are people who capable of complex, nuanced, original, creative, problem solving thinking in novel situations, with clarity of thought and an ability to step back and understand things who don’t go on to necessarily become “high flyers” for various reasons. \nThe kind of material success recognised in adulthood is not only made more likely by traditionally understood intelligence, but also other factors: personality (are you tenacious or lazy, are you bold or timid etc.), emotional/mental well-being (can set the trajectory massively, and negatively involve things like being unable to maintain relationships, drug addictions or burnout), emotional Intelligence/social skills (which sometimes comes with traditional intelligence, sometimes absolutely not - but if you have this that’s intelligence in itself that may or may not have gone unrecognised at school), connections and socioeconomic background (are mummy and daddy wealthy/comfortable and well-connected?), physical attractiveness can help too, and finally, a necessary but not always sufficient ingredient- sheer dumb luck. \nSo yeah, sometimes I’d agree that lack of “success” is a symptom of what you say (the “gifted” label bring a misnomer), sometimes it’s more complicated than that and I’ll reiterate - although (traditional) intelligence is a somewhat decent predictor of success, there are plenty of dumb or average people raking it in, and plenty of people of genuinely above average intelligence (though it’s not exactly easy to quantify, but c’mon, there’s obvious differences between a typical fetal alcohol syndrome person and your average person, etc…) who don’t achieve material success for various reasons other than not being actually smart. Life is messy and complicated.\nETA: all of this assumes one definition of success (making serious money and/or having a cushy status symbol job), of course not everyone feels this way." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up", ">\n\nIf you peaked in school that just shows how the rest of your life is going.\nAccolades in school do wonders for a child's self esteem but don't mean much in the wider world.", ">\n\nThis is literally one of the most popular opinions on the internet", ">\n\nDude, don't I know it? I was rejected from the gifted program at my school in the 2nd grade and accepted in 5th. All meant nothing. Lotta teen moms were \"gifted and talented.\" Im just lucky i graduated 😂", ">\n\nI think there’s a lot of different elements to this. Though firstly, I want to agree with others here who said they’ve never heard someone actually bragging about being labelled “gifted” pre-college/uni, so that accusation sounds a bit like bitterness (which would be understandable, because implying to other kids that they aren’t particularly smart/don’t have the same potential can be damaging in itself and lead kids who would’ve gone on to develop well to be discouraged unnecessarily imo). \nI believe some given the label of gifted were just mislabelled that way, either because it was much earlier on in life and therefore mostly dependent on rote learning and just having a good memory, or because they developed quicker (like the better looking more “attractive” kids who actually just hit puberty and learned good grooming/fashion habits earlier). \nBut some that you refer to as having burnout or not being particularly materially successful in life may still be above average in intelligence (though not the smaller group of people who were genuinely uncommonly special and went on to be academics at the top of their field or do things outside of academia that are both fruitful AND complex). \nI’m sorry, but I just don’t buy into the idea that intelligence perfectly correlates with material success - I’ve seen too many genuinely stupid people do well (fall upwards) and there are people who capable of complex, nuanced, original, creative, problem solving thinking in novel situations, with clarity of thought and an ability to step back and understand things who don’t go on to necessarily become “high flyers” for various reasons. \nThe kind of material success recognised in adulthood is not only made more likely by traditionally understood intelligence, but also other factors: personality (are you tenacious or lazy, are you bold or timid etc.), emotional/mental well-being (can set the trajectory massively, and negatively involve things like being unable to maintain relationships, drug addictions or burnout), emotional Intelligence/social skills (which sometimes comes with traditional intelligence, sometimes absolutely not - but if you have this that’s intelligence in itself that may or may not have gone unrecognised at school), connections and socioeconomic background (are mummy and daddy wealthy/comfortable and well-connected?), physical attractiveness can help too, and finally, a necessary but not always sufficient ingredient- sheer dumb luck. \nSo yeah, sometimes I’d agree that lack of “success” is a symptom of what you say (the “gifted” label bring a misnomer), sometimes it’s more complicated than that and I’ll reiterate - although (traditional) intelligence is a somewhat decent predictor of success, there are plenty of dumb or average people raking it in, and plenty of people of genuinely above average intelligence (though it’s not exactly easy to quantify, but c’mon, there’s obvious differences between a typical fetal alcohol syndrome person and your average person, etc…) who don’t achieve material success for various reasons other than not being actually smart. Life is messy and complicated.\nETA: all of this assumes one definition of success (making serious money and/or having a cushy status symbol job), of course not everyone feels this way.", ">\n\nI don't know what it is but all the people I've met who were gifted kids were absolute assholes. I dated one for a year and she is without a doubt the worst partner I have ever chosen.\nI think something about telling kids they're better than everyone else from a young age just makes them into horrible adults." ]

[ "If someone has to tell you, as an adult, that they were gifted as a child, that means their life isn't going so well.", ">\n\nWeird part is I have never heard someone brag they were gifted. I have heard people laugh about how the gifted programs don’t really teach you anything more… or that it goes onto your fasfa as a disability: intellectually gifted. Weird choice… \nThe other weird thing I keep seeing here that is odd… you aren’t just deemed gifted by a teacher or parent or at least at the school I went to. You were tested by a school psychologist and if your IQ wasn’t above 130 you were not allowed in the program. You also had to have high grades and test scores, maybe every area does it differently? Every 4 years this was looked at again and they could 100% kick you from the program if any of these 3 fell.\nTo clarify being gifted doesn’t mean you will be successful, but also you would know if you took an IQ test… I feel like people pretend they were better as kids than they truly were sometimes. Why? No idea. Success in my eyes is being happy and has nothing to do with old ass achievement as a child. If you are thinking, wait was I tested, Iq test examples given by the school psychologist: 30 nonstandard emojis and say when you see this emoji, I want you to say this word. Then you read a story of only emojis. They would give you a chain of numbers and you would have to tell them it back in reverse order stops at like 15 numbers. They give you shapes and a picture and say make this out of these shapes… anyways being in advanced classes is not required in the least to be in this program. Most people in advanced classes get there by working hard. \nIt is also worth noting: I only knew 1 person who was in the gifted program that dropped out of college… they decided to be a nuclear reactor operator and now are a senior RO bank (easily 300k a year). I went to a public school if that helps, just trying to give an accurate account. One of the girls got her masters in biology and then decided to stay home to raise her little ones, not sure if that is seen as successful or failure but hopefully she is happy. I guess Wes made it as an engineer and was a manager but he killed himself through a drinking issue post divorce. So another not nice story… but depression feels very common with high IQ. We are all just people in the end.", ">\n\n\nalso you would know if you took an IQ test…\n\nThe only thing those are good for is telling how skilled you are at taking IQ tests.", ">\n\nBut is it really something that adults brag about? The only times that I’ve seen adults talk about being a former gifted kid is:\n1) if they’re applying for a job teaching in a GT program and need a cute anecdote to bring up in a job interview \n2) they’re talking about the flaws of the gifted kid model and how kids’ issues are not taken serious because their grades are great, therefore adults around them assume that they’re fine\n3) joking about being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or similar as an adult and citing being a “gifted kid” as an early sign\nThese things are not the same as bragging. If anything, it’s using their own experience to point out the issues with GT programs. Hey, OP, what context have you heard people brag about being a gifted kid? Is this something that actually happens?", ">\n\nHey these are the only situations I have ever heard someone talk about being a gifted child.", ">\n\n95% of the gifted children in the class I was in were burnt out by the time they reached highschool. A lot of them did find success in their real lives, but the mental health toil was pretty clear on them. I intentionally dumbed myself down a bit just so I could get into the Academic Support classes the school had just because of the fact I wanted an actual life besides homework. Gifted classes ain't really worth it.", ">\n\nIf there were 20 gifted children in your class your standards are too low", ">\n\nIn my experience it was the less academic kids that went on to learn a trade that actually achieved material success, or the kids who went into their family's business.", ">\n\nTruth is people get successful all kinds of ways. \nThe right skill. Whether you got that in academics or trades. (I'll put a psychometrician up against any skilled tradesman dollar for dollar). Family connection. Having lots of friends (As adults...which is a different skill than doing the same thing in high school). Sheer luck. Right place, right time. etc.", ">\n\nCan confirm; I was a \"former gifted child\" and by the time I was in high school I was just burned the fuck out from all the expectations that were put on me. My grandpa told me I was going to be president, and my mom used to say I was so smart that she was \"scared of me\". She constantly wanted me to skip grades and leave all my friends behind, and that certainly scared the shit out of me.\nI feel like being \"gifted\" also led to myriad of mental health issues being left undiagnosed, simply because my grades were always good, so yeah, I never felt it was anything to brag about. Nobody in the world gives a rat's ass how many straight As you got on your report card in 5th grade. I think I would have just preferred to be normal.", ">\n\nTo add a similar experience here, I had to develop my social skills later in life because I was never allowed friends. This hamstrung my career and left me socially awkward, at best, to this day. Being a gifted kid was more of a curse than a present, and I'm still playing catch up nearing my 40s.", ">\n\nYeah, social skills are another big issue. I wasn't the worst in that regard, but between being \"gifted\" and having a narcissistic mother, I basically had to unlearn a ton of backwards shit I learned as a kid. I'm 36 and still sorting shit out, so I feel yer pain.", ">\n\nMost 'gifted' Individuals I have encountered end up being nobodies and nothings. They never have to try or do and thus lack motivation, work ethic and problem solving skills. They eventually hit a challenge or don't have someone telling them the next step and they just, stop. They missed learning important skills and later in life they are just like everyone else. Some are annoying and tell you they are so smart and gifted but most just blend in.", ">\n\nTotally agree, well said. Really highlights the importance of all children, regardless of potential, to be told ‘no’ at some points and help them develop important executive function and interpersonal skills. I’m at an age in adulthood now where all the training wheels and all supports have been removed, and it’s glaringly obvious who never had to try and had everything go there way as a child.", ">\n\nDoesn’t even mean anything anymore when like 10% of people are labeled gifted", ">\n\nWhat's the proper percentage of a large population for gifted?", ">\n\n1.6% exactly", ">\n\nIn gifted people school I learned it was closer to 1.5%, but you guys may just round differently.", ">\n\n😂😂😂", ">\n\nI was gifted kid. I quickly learnt that I can achieve best scores and admiration from teachers with absolutely zero effort. It worked some time until it didn't anymore. I kind of radically slowed developing and my peers catched up and went past. Problem is I never learnt to work hard to achieve anything. I'm still struggling with this and I'm almost forty.", ">\n\nI'm a little easier on myself. I don't think it is not knowing how to work hard, it is lacking the foundational skills that others had to learn in elementary and middle school. As a graduate student, I literally had to have a friend explain to me how to outline a paper.", ">\n\nIsn't using the term \"former gifted child\" a self deprecating comment?\nAs in, I had so much potential and I ended up with this trainwreck of a life. FML.", ">\n\nIf someone brags about being a \"former gifted child\", just ask them, \"What happened?\".", ">\n\nAll it did was make me feel like I wasted my potential. I joined the military instead of going to college out of HS", ">\n\nAll being gifted did for me was allow me to establish terrible habits in terms of time management, organization, and studying. I could always ace tests without studying (even the SAT- though I didnt ace it but scored quite high), complete writing assignments we were given over a week to do in the study hall directly before class, and draw on information I somehow just knew to perform awesome during presentations. Then I went to college and needed to just apply even the slightest bit of effort and checked the fuck out. Took me until my early/mid 20s to get back on track as a more mature adult. Unfortunately, by then, I had dug a hole and college wasn't really an option. Now I'm doing well professionally and I do think being \"gifted\" has factored into my success as an adult, but not being challenged properly growing up absolutely contributed to some stumbles as an older teen and younger adult. I can see easily how a person without the support structure I was lucky enough to have could completely crash and burn after a few failures when previously everything was effortless.", ">\n\nit's not bragging, they're telling you they no longer have potential and their life sucks now. it's one sentence to sum up their feelings of inferiority. - \"former gifted kid\"", ">\n\nActual child prodigies are rare and super impressive. Most of these people were just doing well in elementary school and now are salty they need to put some work to pass their English 101 class in college", ">\n\nI mean, not really? A lot of them aren’t as gifted as their parents make us believe and most of them don’t become super impressive adults which is kind of the whole idea of a prodigy. Basically we’re putting expectations on children that will probably hurt more than help them and it doesn’t result in much.", ">\n\nAgreed, these aren’t just kids who are motivated at school work. One of the main differences between the prodigies and the normal super smart kids is passion/obsession with certain topics. It’s not like their teacher taught them basic arithmetic and then figured out advanced calculus from that lesson. They usually just love the subject and do a lot of extra study and reading. That level of passion, especially at an earlier age is rare.", ">\n\nSorry, I was being a little unclear I think? I'm saying that the children we are calling prodigies, just like \"gifted children\" are usually not as great as we are made to believe and that a child prodigy rarely results in the amazingly successful adult that we expect.", ">\n\nOh yes, I can see that too. If I’m understanding correctly, we hear about these kids graduating university at 16 or playing complex music at 7 but then that doesn’t translate to continual exceptional results as they get older, correct?", ">\n\nYes, exactly. Being exceptional at 12 years old means exactly that. You are exceptional for a 12 year old but usually that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you are able to play incredibly hard pieces at a young age because that doesn't mean that you are able to create your own scores or even work in music successfully because while you might be amazing for a 12 year old the field is filled to the brim with people better than you. Prodigies are maybe most common in sports because people believe that they are able to predict what tween has what it takes to go professional. And usually they''re wrong. Because someone who's the fastest at 12 can easily be behind their non-prodigy peers in just a year or two. \nMaybe the strongest argument (to me at least) against the idea of both gifted children and prodigies is that most of them do not really succeed despite being absolutely showered in resources. Resources that could have been spent on students who actually needed more help to succeed. Now, parents can do whatever they want with their own money of course but that doesn't take away from the fact that their kid got every opportunity and for most of them that didn't pay off.", ">\n\nGotcha, yes there is a difference between mastering existing material and being able to create. In theory, getting a PhD suggests they did add to the body of knowledge but it’s not like PhD and Masters students are all doing ground breaking research. I do think that a lot of these prodigies are just kids that are just hyper driven to achieve and progress, which is probably a different drive than the people who focus on writing music, starting businesses and research interesting things.\nThe resources thing is tricky because they are in a way special needs, but just a different type of special needs. On the one hand I agree that there are a lot of kids out there with tons of potential who get overlooked. On the other hand, gifted students can get frustrated and bored in class by the slow pace of school and can either act out or underperform because they are just uninterested, even if it’s easy. Though I understand what you mean that it’s a lot of resources that goes into what just amounts to helping a prodigy obtain a lot of education. I personally am not a fan of skipping grades because I feel like this forget that the social component is every bit as important as the content itself.", ">\n\nI agree and disagree. People are very stupid like ungodly stupid. Being slightly \"above average\" intelligence doesn't make you special but Ik for a fact it's not \"super common \". I was a \"gifted kid\" and I mean I was actually close to being a actual gifted kid I wasn't smart enough and I didn't have the drive . But thing is when my friends had to do homework especially in the non standard courses (honors /ap ) they would have to study and do homework for hours to pass (in my HS we weren't required to do homework it was there to help understand the material ) now I've never had to study , not once . I didn't have to read anything I had to review ten minutes before the test and I would at minimum pass (if it was a harder subject) . But thing is this is just book /academic intelligence those kids I knew could run circles ( and still could ) around me in cars , sports ext. If you judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree it will always think itself stupid .", ">\n\nI hear more people complain about this than brag about it. I personally was in the gifted program in school and it led me to measure my worth by academic success, have unrealistic pressure and expectations set on my by adults, and burn out with low self esteem by the end of high school. I think it’s just a way some people connect, by sharing experiences to find others who relate.", ">\n\nI'm a gifted person.\nIt doesn't matter in general, except I had some opportunities as a kid because I was Gifted. As a Gifted adult...I dunno. Lots of people are Gifted. It doesn't matter.\nI also have ADHD and Autism. I have learned, since people were willing to help me when I had issues, that I must have specific conditions to be successful. But everybody's different, right?", ">\n\nAs a former gifted child I can tell you it's not a walk in the park growing up either", ">\n\nI think a lot of “gifted” children find each other in adulthood because the pressure they experienced was intense and often lead to social and mental issues.\nSo it’s almost like a “tag yourself” thing, they aren’t flexing, they’re looking for people that understand their experience.", ">\n\nAs a \"gifted child\", I only ever speak about it when relaying a story or experience directly impacted by that situation.\nThat status being bestowed on me led to a lot of expectation, stereotyping, and a ton of stories of the things I experienced in the classes I was put into as a result.\nExample: I ended up using my intelligence to figure out a way to skip school and not get caught. I was supposed to go to gifted classes every monday. As we were gifted kids no one really supervised us going, or even made us go. (they stereotyped us assuming we were good kids) it wasn't unusual for kids not to go due to a test, or not liking the program or whatever. So I stopped going one day. My regular teachers all assumed I was in gifted class. My gifted teachers all assumed I was back in regular class. I took the day and did whatever I wanted. This went on for about 6 months before I got caught because one of the teachers who felt he had connected with me called my mother to ask why I dropped out of the program.\nBut generally I don't know a lot of former gifted kids who brag about it...it's more...this is something that happened to us. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing in a lot of ways. it's kinda like the \"I was a football player in high school\" stories or the \"Did I ever tell you guys I was a boy scout?\" It's not bragging, it's just part of what made us who we are.\nAnother time I talk about it is when people are hesitant for their kids to be labeled gifted. I tell them how I went through it, and what I experienced.\nLast is that I experienced some things in the gifted program that other kids didn't, sometimes I'm telling a story about when I read \"The Tempest\" or the first time I read \"MacBeth\". Or about how we were programming computers in 5th grade. In the 80s. Or about how I know how a darkroom works since i used one in gradeschool, etc.\nAll in all I think if you polled most of us \"gifted\" kids, most of us would have traded it all in to be normal and liked. People do not like people they think are smarter than them.", ">\n\nI never see this in real life but Reddit is riddled with totally average children who think grew up to think they were very gifted children and that’s why they struggle as adults.", ">\n\nHighly intelligent adults struggle. They can even be more likely to do so.", ">\n\nEh, this is dramatically overstated, but my main point is almost none of these gifted people are gifted in a way that makes them appreciably different from your peers.", ">\n\nThis is so true, especially when considering the 7 intelligences. It means that mainly the mathematics / logics intelligence type is considered gifted and totally overlooks the body / kinesiology type, the intra and interpersonal types (also called emotional intelligence and self awareness), and others.", ">\n\nI don’t think anyone who talks about being a former gifted kid is bragging. Entirely the opposite. Most former gifted kids are often neurodivergent and have suffered burn out since, making them way less average and ordinary since then. Hence why it’s necessary to bring up that they are formerly gifted, as it is no longer the case.", ">\n\nNot unpopular, everyone and their mother was in the gifted program. \nI was in it and I only lived in the US for 3 year.\nDidn't speak English the first few months.", ">\n\nI don’t understand why anyone would brag about it anyway. If you were gifted as a child, shouldn’t you be gifted as an adult too?", ">\n\nI think \"former gifted kid\" usually refers to someone that hit their peak early then everyone else caught up to them. They're average or slightly above average kids academically that were ahead for a little while in elementary/middle school.", ">\n\nI agree with you and I wish I could this without being attacked immediately after.", ">\n\nthe worst part about never having to try from elementary to high school is by the time i got to college and actually had to study i didn’t know how. and being the smart kid had become so ingrained as part of my identity that asking for help was a threat to that identity. what a nightmare.", ">\n\nMy husband is this and I love him but he has his hang ups as an adult. Ivy League attorney but struggles with common sense to the point of parody and is very unmotivated. Academics were his thing.\nI tend to believe these are often people who peak or develop but level off. In fact for him he had problems after he was done with school because he was no longer the golden child. Second marriage so I didn’t know him then:).", ">\n\nThat's not what a gifted child is though.\nEdit: It might vary based on state/country, but in my area gifted kids were the ones that often struggled to function in a normal classroom. They often excelled at one or more subjects and sometimes had behavioral issues due to that. \nMy school's test consisted of an IQ test. I'm unsure how close to an actual IQ test ours was, but I remember having a math portion and 2(?) other parts. During 1 I was asked about various analogies and there wasn't a correct answer. Supposedly the goal was to determine whether we thought differently from the \"average\" student or not. \nIt wasn't necessarily about how well we performed in school, it was just an indicator that a student MIGHT be gifted. In my class, we had many straight A students and many who performed poorly in school. We had many straight A students that weren't part of the program as well. Many of us struggled throughout middle and high school, maybe because the emphasis was less on exercising our brains and more so on actual school.", ">\n\nThis is so right because all the people I’ve seen using the term “former/burnout gifted kid” are the most unintelligent people I’ve ever met😭", ">\n\nOur gifted and talented program was only in elementary school and they didn’t really do much. No special classes, they took classes with everyone else, they just met separately on occasion and played games and such. I don’t think they were under any additional pressure that could lead to burnout. I was tested but found to be neither gifted nor talented. I still did better in school than the kids in the program for the most part with little effort.", ">\n\nI don’t mean to brag, but I was the top idiot in my household.\nI still am.", ">\n\nBeing a former gifted child is more of a humiliation than a bragging tbh.", ">\n\nMy worst quality is being petty. Growing up I had a difficult time grasping any school subject. My grades were good, but I had to spend hours upon hours every night studying just to keep up. \nEvery school morning hearing the gifted kids brag \"I didn't even have to study\" , it always made me super envious. \nDuring college something changed, my study habits remained the same and all of the sudden the gifted kids couldn't rely on just \"getting it\" the first time, because topics became more complex. \nI was happy everytime one of them failed, and now as an adult it always gives me a little joy when I'm doing better professionally than a former gifted child. \nThis is a toxic trait of mine, but I can't shake it. I don't say anything externally but feel internally basically every day.", ">\n\nI mean, I didn't have to study until college. But then I just started studying when I got there? Graduated with honors. Its not like reading and preparing is some crazy secret only you figured out.", ">\n\nNot suggesting it is. Im just saying years of having to study for everything prepared me for studying more intensely in college. Moving from really average in high-school to doing very well in college and post college.", ">\n\nAbsolutely, i was someone referred to with great potential, but here i am, unemployed, and i didn't even go to college", ">\n\nI didn't go to college either; by the time I finished high school I was just super burned-out and disillusioned, and my mother was just pressuring me to go to college, saying \"it didn't matter\" what degree I actually got, which seemed like pretty horrid advice, lol.", ">\n\nIts actually good advice in a sense. Most jobs just want a bachelor's degree, doesn't really matter what in unless it's a more competitive job with many applicants, but most places around just have bachelor's degrees as a requirement for the job. I've known many people getting into positions they are unqualified for just because they have that bachelor degree, and the degree is totally unrelated to the job. Stupid, yeah, but that's the world we live in.", ">\n\nIt can be a fatal fucking curse.", ">\n\nThey think they are the main character", ">\n\nWell who else is gonna be in charge of your own life?", ">\n\nThe only time I've heard grown adults refer to being gifted kids is when they're discussing their current struggles with mental health. Most gifted kids will spend their entire lives trying to live up to their potential and will feel perpetually disappointed with what they've accomplished. \nI was a gifted kid. I consistently earned top marks in every class and was expected to go on to do something great and high achieving. It was constantly hammered into my brain that I could do whatever I wanted to do. The result was I was rewarded for working hard and pursuing academic /creative goals, so I graduated without social skills, life experience, or the desire to work an entry level job, because I believed I was smart enough to \"cheat the system.\" I was too burnt out trying to be the best at school, I couldn't imagine doing another 4 years of it, so I chose to pursue a one year creative diploma instead of going to university even though I could have gone anywhere. However, I learned I didn't have the social skills or drive to succeed in a self-propelled creative industry which didn't consistently reward my achievements. \nI floundered through my 20s, became depressed, addicted to alcohol and weed, had to teach myself basic life and social skills to keep minimum wage jobs. I was diagnosed with BPD, which went entirely unnoticed by everyone because I was too focused on being the best and staying stuck in my head. I'm doing better now and work a good job, but it's not the job anyone would have imagined for a \"gifted kid.\" \nI have met many others with BPD who were also gifted children. Kids who were creative and talented and avid readers. Their emotional struggles were pushed aside in favour of achieving good grades and recognition. \nI think we cling to the idea of being gifted kids because it was our ultimate validation and since it was so hammered into us, we can never let go of that idealized image of ourselves.", ">\n\nI guenuinely believe they are actually not « smarter » and that a lot of it is actually related to their upbringings\nDon’t you think it’s odd when most gifted kids(at least from my experience) are either rich or have highly intelligent parents(most of the time they are maths or science teacher, or have some other kind of intellectually stimulating jobs); isn’t being smarter than most kids at school predictable when you grow up in a highly elitist environment?", ">\n\nFacts", ">\n\nI mean...nobody's really a former gifted child. People who comment on that with resentment need to rework their perspectives.", ">\n\nI agree, but not really unpopular. I think most people roll their eyes when they hear this sort of thing. \nNot sure you can even consider it an achievement, just a burden of expectation from others based on some promising signs of potential (or just blind optimism in some cases).", ">\n\nThere was a guy two years younger than me and two houses over. He always bragged about being in the Gifted program and all that.\nHe WAS an animator at Blue Sky but...don't think that's possible anymore.", ">\n\nEvery single parent I've met has gifted children. It's honestly truly amazing. I can't believe how many gifted kids are out there!", ">\n\nWho the hell brags about that lol I would probably laugh right in someone’s face if they pulled some shit like that", ">\n\nsometimes gifted is in the minds of the parents", ">\n\nWhen did kids who easily did well in school become classified as gifted? Formerly gifted sounds odd.", ">\n\nNobody does this.", ">\n\nI use it as a joke when talking about my burnout in college. I’ve also learned it’s a lot more common to be gifted and neurodivergent and it’s often a way to not actually help kids who need it. Sure I was way ahead in reading and math but boy oh boy was I bad at being a person", ">\n\nI don't think I've ever encountered that. As far as the label is concerned, though, I can comment on that. My eldest was in such classes, based on her IQ score. Quite high, as it happens, but that was the reason, not any \"doing well\" in school sort of thing. She never bragged about it as far as I know, though.", ">\n\nI cant remember the last time (if ever) ive seen someone brag about being a gifted child.... except for maybe in like highschool, but I dont really see it online", ">\n\nWhat is a \"gifted child\"? Someone who got accepted into TAG in 4th grade?", ">\n\nI have autism. I hate being called gifted when I will have no job because all my interests are so weird.", ">\n\nI have an uncle like this. The guy is the oldest of his siblings, in his 70s, was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life. He had been accepted to a school with an 8.8% acceptance rate when he was finishing high school. He dropped out. Rumor has it he had a mental health crisis. He's never dated or married, he was a cook at Denny's for most of his adult life and his social life consists of RPGs and occasionally going out with his brother. \nThere's no doubt he's intelligent and well-read, but you can't tell him anything. He knows more about everything than you. After all, he was the one who was accepted to XX school. So 'I know'. \nHe's narcissistic but usually harmless. I've felt like saying, \"Oh? When did you graduate? Oh, you didn't? So you were really smart when you were seventeen then? What have you done since then?\"", ">\n\nI don't get the \"former\" part. You're \"gifted\" or you're not, that doesn't change. Or are you talking about people getting off about being, idk, good at school as a kid and calling it gifted?", ">\n\nI know.. :/", ">\n\nThose gifted programs had bad criteria for getting in anyway.\nAt my school it was based on how you did on a reading comprehension exam but I got in when I was tested. Teacher thought I had ADD but was just bored.\nBut to the point there were kids in the gifted program who weren’t even that smart anyway. Not that I was the smartest there (I wasn’t and I maintain that perseverance beats intelligence any day), but some others I remember later on struggled to pass basic non-honors classes in high school.\nAnd there were kids who weren’t let in to the gifted programs back then who are now fairly accomplished engineers or med school students.", ">\n\nKind of like making little league all-stars. Little guppy in a really tiny pond.\nPresumably these gifted kids realized the actual extent of their gifts when they finally took the SAT.", ">\n\nI def agree with you. The one that drives me up the wall is when adults brag about their IQ. When considering the equation for IQ is [(mental age / chronological age) x 100], who tf is to say what a 30+ year old should know as \"average.\"", ">\n\nWhenever someone tells me they were a \"gifted\" child, I immediately assume they have a giant ego. 90% of the time I'm right.", ">\n\nAs a former gifted kid, I have only ever shared it with others with a sense of regret. Most of the formerly gifted kids I know missed out on foundational lessons (like long term project planning) and at some point it caught up with us. For me it was college. I couldn't skate by on \"giftedness\" and it all came crashing down.", ">\n\nDoes this really count as unpopular opinion? Kind of like common sense to me.", ">\n\nAll true but the burnout is REAL. I got severe senioritis in 7th grade.", ">\n\nAre they bragging?", ">\n\nWhat's the problem it wasn't wrapped up or something. Must of been Jesus.", ">\n\n“Gifted huh? What did you do with it?” They will shut up or you will get and interesting story, either way a win.", ">\n\nIf someone has to brag about being gifted, they probably weren't/aren't.\nI was a \"gifted child\" and am very dubious about the value of being gifted. They put me in a special school for gifted kids and I was doing stuff at our local university in my early teens. \nThat and $6.99 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. \nOur economy and culture does not reward genius. It's calibrated for people of slightly-above-average intelligence. Being too smart threatens people. Insecure co-workers or bosses will punish you for it. \nIf you happen to have an entrepreneurial bent, or be lucky enough to be an early employee at Google, then sure, being really smart leads to dollars. That's the exception, not the rule.\nOne big frustration is spending so much time waiting for everyone else to catch up. A conclusion that seems obvious to you from the get-go may take hours, weeks, or months to get other people to understand. Being really smart can be a recipe for frustration and boredom.\nMaybe if I'd been a college professor or a scientist, being gifted would have been a big plus, but as it is, it's an interesting oddity that probably gets in my way more than it helps.", ">\n\nThis is incorrect, getting into a gifted program is extremely difficult. Students who get in are really really high IQ, genius level. \nBut just being really high IQ is not an indicator of success. In fact, imo, it is a contraindication. The best is being at the high end of normal. Everyone will see you as really smart, but without all of the huge problems that go with genius IQ. Geniuses are perceived as weird, and they have lots of emotional problems. And they are typically lazy because they get used to succeeding with no effort.", ">\n\n\nstudents who get in a really really high IQ, genius level\n\nNot in the US. All it requires is:\n\nthose who perform or who have demonstrated the potential to perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.​\n\nWell, that, and pushy parents.", ">\n\n\nPlus it's not like it's an indicator of future success or whatever. \nPeople online who refer to themselves as gifted children often talk \nabout how as adults, they are unmotivated or burnt out.\n\nYou're so, so close to the point", ">\n\nWeren’t gifted kids sometimes just the older kids in the age group? I remember this was written in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers", ">\n\nAs someone who says this, we don’t say it as a brag but more of a fun fact to our lives and how we were once considered promising only to fuck it up", ">\n\nIf you peaked in school that just shows how the rest of your life is going.\nAccolades in school do wonders for a child's self esteem but don't mean much in the wider world.", ">\n\nThis is literally one of the most popular opinions on the internet", ">\n\nDude, don't I know it? I was rejected from the gifted program at my school in the 2nd grade and accepted in 5th. All meant nothing. Lotta teen moms were \"gifted and talented.\" Im just lucky i graduated 😂", ">\n\nI think there’s a lot of different elements to this. Though firstly, I want to agree with others here who said they’ve never heard someone actually bragging about being labelled “gifted” pre-college/uni, so that accusation sounds a bit like bitterness (which would be understandable, because implying to other kids that they aren’t particularly smart/don’t have the same potential can be damaging in itself and lead kids who would’ve gone on to develop well to be discouraged unnecessarily imo). \nI believe some given the label of gifted were just mislabelled that way, either because it was much earlier on in life and therefore mostly dependent on rote learning and just having a good memory, or because they developed quicker (like the better looking more “attractive” kids who actually just hit puberty and learned good grooming/fashion habits earlier). \nBut some that you refer to as having burnout or not being particularly materially successful in life may still be above average in intelligence (though not the smaller group of people who were genuinely uncommonly special and went on to be academics at the top of their field or do things outside of academia that are both fruitful AND complex). \nI’m sorry, but I just don’t buy into the idea that intelligence perfectly correlates with material success - I’ve seen too many genuinely stupid people do well (fall upwards) and there are people who capable of complex, nuanced, original, creative, problem solving thinking in novel situations, with clarity of thought and an ability to step back and understand things who don’t go on to necessarily become “high flyers” for various reasons. \nThe kind of material success recognised in adulthood is not only made more likely by traditionally understood intelligence, but also other factors: personality (are you tenacious or lazy, are you bold or timid etc.), emotional/mental well-being (can set the trajectory massively, and negatively involve things like being unable to maintain relationships, drug addictions or burnout), emotional Intelligence/social skills (which sometimes comes with traditional intelligence, sometimes absolutely not - but if you have this that’s intelligence in itself that may or may not have gone unrecognised at school), connections and socioeconomic background (are mummy and daddy wealthy/comfortable and well-connected?), physical attractiveness can help too, and finally, a necessary but not always sufficient ingredient- sheer dumb luck. \nSo yeah, sometimes I’d agree that lack of “success” is a symptom of what you say (the “gifted” label bring a misnomer), sometimes it’s more complicated than that and I’ll reiterate - although (traditional) intelligence is a somewhat decent predictor of success, there are plenty of dumb or average people raking it in, and plenty of people of genuinely above average intelligence (though it’s not exactly easy to quantify, but c’mon, there’s obvious differences between a typical fetal alcohol syndrome person and your average person, etc…) who don’t achieve material success for various reasons other than not being actually smart. Life is messy and complicated.\nETA: all of this assumes one definition of success (making serious money and/or having a cushy status symbol job), of course not everyone feels this way.", ">\n\nI don't know what it is but all the people I've met who were gifted kids were absolute assholes. I dated one for a year and she is without a doubt the worst partner I have ever chosen.\nI think something about telling kids they're better than everyone else from a young age just makes them into horrible adults.", ">\n\nI never needed to study to get good marks all the way through primary , middle and highschool\nNow I procrastinate like crazy, can only study/work in several hour frenzies and I rarely find motivation for doing any smaller tasks because my work ethic is so shitty \nDOES THIS SOUND LIKE A BRAG TO YOU?" ]

[]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case" ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained" ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing" ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something" ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something", ">\n\nIn Pakistan the courts are some of the worst on the planet. If you are rich you get justice or decides what justice even means.\nChances are a big shot lawyer/politican has connections with political families or the military. When you have that you do what you want with impunity.\nThe junior lawyer likely knew that. If he was wronged gravely this was probably the only thing he could do." ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something", ">\n\nIn Pakistan the courts are some of the worst on the planet. If you are rich you get justice or decides what justice even means.\nChances are a big shot lawyer/politican has connections with political families or the military. When you have that you do what you want with impunity.\nThe junior lawyer likely knew that. If he was wronged gravely this was probably the only thing he could do.", ">\n\nIts something of a uniquely South Asian problem. Massive population, and particularly dense concentrations of humanity. And overall system poverty, so nowhere close to having the number you need of judges, law officers, clerical staff, policemen, forensics, etc on a per capita basis. \nAnd a legal system that was forged in a colonial experience designed to be deeply hierarchical and slow, and made even slower by the procedural morass added onto it over the decades.\nIf you ever wanted to see a game of Snakes and Ladders come to life, all you gotta do is study how the law works in South Asia." ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something", ">\n\nIn Pakistan the courts are some of the worst on the planet. If you are rich you get justice or decides what justice even means.\nChances are a big shot lawyer/politican has connections with political families or the military. When you have that you do what you want with impunity.\nThe junior lawyer likely knew that. If he was wronged gravely this was probably the only thing he could do.", ">\n\nIts something of a uniquely South Asian problem. Massive population, and particularly dense concentrations of humanity. And overall system poverty, so nowhere close to having the number you need of judges, law officers, clerical staff, policemen, forensics, etc on a per capita basis. \nAnd a legal system that was forged in a colonial experience designed to be deeply hierarchical and slow, and made even slower by the procedural morass added onto it over the decades.\nIf you ever wanted to see a game of Snakes and Ladders come to life, all you gotta do is study how the law works in South Asia.", ">\n\nSouth Asia definitely shares a lot of the flaws brought up by the remnants of colonialism. Many laws were meant to protect the British elite in a way, so you get stuck in this almost 2 tiered system.\nBut while I can't speak about specifics of the other countries, Pakistan specifically has a problem with elite capture.\nFrom the media to the judiciary, you get the perspective of one class of society which is often skewed away from the reality of the masses (if not heavily censored by the military).\nThis really prevents equal justice, because their so much is done to protect the wealth of the rich." ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something", ">\n\nIn Pakistan the courts are some of the worst on the planet. If you are rich you get justice or decides what justice even means.\nChances are a big shot lawyer/politican has connections with political families or the military. When you have that you do what you want with impunity.\nThe junior lawyer likely knew that. If he was wronged gravely this was probably the only thing he could do.", ">\n\nIts something of a uniquely South Asian problem. Massive population, and particularly dense concentrations of humanity. And overall system poverty, so nowhere close to having the number you need of judges, law officers, clerical staff, policemen, forensics, etc on a per capita basis. \nAnd a legal system that was forged in a colonial experience designed to be deeply hierarchical and slow, and made even slower by the procedural morass added onto it over the decades.\nIf you ever wanted to see a game of Snakes and Ladders come to life, all you gotta do is study how the law works in South Asia.", ">\n\nSouth Asia definitely shares a lot of the flaws brought up by the remnants of colonialism. Many laws were meant to protect the British elite in a way, so you get stuck in this almost 2 tiered system.\nBut while I can't speak about specifics of the other countries, Pakistan specifically has a problem with elite capture.\nFrom the media to the judiciary, you get the perspective of one class of society which is often skewed away from the reality of the masses (if not heavily censored by the military).\nThis really prevents equal justice, because their so much is done to protect the wealth of the rich.", ">\n\nThis reminds me of a rule I’ve always held close:\nWatch who’s head you step on , on the way up, you may see them again on your way back down." ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something", ">\n\nIn Pakistan the courts are some of the worst on the planet. If you are rich you get justice or decides what justice even means.\nChances are a big shot lawyer/politican has connections with political families or the military. When you have that you do what you want with impunity.\nThe junior lawyer likely knew that. If he was wronged gravely this was probably the only thing he could do.", ">\n\nIts something of a uniquely South Asian problem. Massive population, and particularly dense concentrations of humanity. And overall system poverty, so nowhere close to having the number you need of judges, law officers, clerical staff, policemen, forensics, etc on a per capita basis. \nAnd a legal system that was forged in a colonial experience designed to be deeply hierarchical and slow, and made even slower by the procedural morass added onto it over the decades.\nIf you ever wanted to see a game of Snakes and Ladders come to life, all you gotta do is study how the law works in South Asia.", ">\n\nSouth Asia definitely shares a lot of the flaws brought up by the remnants of colonialism. Many laws were meant to protect the British elite in a way, so you get stuck in this almost 2 tiered system.\nBut while I can't speak about specifics of the other countries, Pakistan specifically has a problem with elite capture.\nFrom the media to the judiciary, you get the perspective of one class of society which is often skewed away from the reality of the masses (if not heavily censored by the military).\nThis really prevents equal justice, because their so much is done to protect the wealth of the rich.", ">\n\nThis reminds me of a rule I’ve always held close:\nWatch who’s head you step on , on the way up, you may see them again on your way back down.", ">\n\nNow he gets all of the top clients and since he's such a ~~good~~ connected lawyer he'll beat the murder charge." ]

[ "This reads like something out of a Phoenix Wright case", ">\n\nSeems likely any posthumous objection would be sustained", ">\n\n\n\"The killer, a junior lawyer who was wearing his gown, opened fire at close range and then handed himself over to the police,\" said Ijaz Khan, a senior police official.\nA legal assistant, Muhammad Rizwan, who witnessed the shooting, said the attacker told police: \"don't shoot, I had a feud with him and I have taken my revenge,\" before being arrested.\n\nHonor killing", ">\n\nyou'd think a lawyer could come up with some better way to provide consequence to criminal action\nlike a court or something", ">\n\nIn Pakistan the courts are some of the worst on the planet. If you are rich you get justice or decides what justice even means.\nChances are a big shot lawyer/politican has connections with political families or the military. When you have that you do what you want with impunity.\nThe junior lawyer likely knew that. If he was wronged gravely this was probably the only thing he could do.", ">\n\nIts something of a uniquely South Asian problem. Massive population, and particularly dense concentrations of humanity. And overall system poverty, so nowhere close to having the number you need of judges, law officers, clerical staff, policemen, forensics, etc on a per capita basis. \nAnd a legal system that was forged in a colonial experience designed to be deeply hierarchical and slow, and made even slower by the procedural morass added onto it over the decades.\nIf you ever wanted to see a game of Snakes and Ladders come to life, all you gotta do is study how the law works in South Asia.", ">\n\nSouth Asia definitely shares a lot of the flaws brought up by the remnants of colonialism. Many laws were meant to protect the British elite in a way, so you get stuck in this almost 2 tiered system.\nBut while I can't speak about specifics of the other countries, Pakistan specifically has a problem with elite capture.\nFrom the media to the judiciary, you get the perspective of one class of society which is often skewed away from the reality of the masses (if not heavily censored by the military).\nThis really prevents equal justice, because their so much is done to protect the wealth of the rich.", ">\n\nThis reminds me of a rule I’ve always held close:\nWatch who’s head you step on , on the way up, you may see them again on your way back down.", ">\n\nNow he gets all of the top clients and since he's such a ~~good~~ connected lawyer he'll beat the murder charge.", ">\n\nHaha good one though! Well I think this goodness must be stopped then the country and the people can't take it anymore !" ]