Of course. We need to give them the opportunity to be sensible about all these things. In the link posted above by @MWolf :
I see this on the blog:
There is an industry around it, but the different parts of the Davidson system are all non-profits. The Academy in Reno is part of the UNR (like IMSA is part of the U of I system). There is no cost for becoming a DYS and accessing their resources, either
Most gifted programs are non-profits, but not all. Iām sure that there is an entire industry for parents who feel the need to have their kid designated as āgiftedā, but thatās a different story entirely.
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How much this article resonated with me. I likely have something approximating brain damage from how much boredom and ostracization I endured in school. I made it to what yanks would call high school until I stopped engaging altogether and fell behind from absenteeism. The schoolās reaction was (quite hilariously, at least in hindsight) to stick me in supplemental remedial classes with the kind of kids whose reading comprehension made them functionally illiterate, around the same time that Iād scored 140 on an IQ test administered by a psychologist the school referred me to and online test at https://iqtestonline.io/. I soon dropped out entirely and never looked back at academia.
All the way I was made to feel defective by my peers, the teachers and most egregiously my parents - theyāre not bad people, they were just hopelessly out of their depth and had no one to guide them. Itās only now in my thirties that Iām very gradually getting over all the inhibition this childhood instilled in me, working toward that āspreadsheetās eyeā expectation. though these things leave a persistent mark. Much of the damage is likely permanent.
First, Iām sorry that you had to deal with this. It is still shocking to me that not only individual teachers but entire school systems are so badly trained and rigid that they have no idea how to deal with any kid who does not fit the few types that they recognize. Iām sure that the remedial classes that your were taking were filled with bright kids with undiagnosed learning disabilities.
The brain is much more plastic than people realize. While it does take work, and I hope that you have good professional help, you can recover.
[Aside]
I do urge you to test for conditions such as ADHD. My own ADHD went undiagnosed for most of my life, and I spent an inordinate amount fighting it head on. Conditions such as ADHD or dyslexia can mask giftedness in everyday life and even in the classroom, which at the same time, the person with these conditions will test as gifted by psychologists.
While gifted kids do get bored in regular classes, most are able to churn out the work and get back to the things that interest them. However, a very common characteristic of ADHD is to a very low tolerance for boredom, so gifted kids with ADHD are either unable to do the work, or are unable to do anything but the very minimum.
[/aside]
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