@Mom2aphysicsgeek, sorry for putting gifted in quotation marks. I deleted a bunch of what I had written. The school system through testing identified approximately 70% of the class as being gifted. (We lived in Lake Webegon 
)
I felt that many, not all for sure, were in the program through parent involvement and not true giftedness.
I do believe many of the things you said. There were kids who were bored and unengaged. i just felt the process to identify the gifted was very political.