Posted on 07/17/2006 6:09:55 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
Wow, what a bunch of whiners. I did most of my schooling in the G&T program (1 day a week in 4th grade, full time in 5th and all the way through high school). It was cool, having school actually be a challenge was nice, the most important thing I got out of it though was not always being the smartest guy in the room, taught me to listen. Also having my 3rd grade teacher strongly opposed to my even being tested (she didn't believe kids could ever be "gifted", didn't think the program should even exist) taught me not to blindly trust authority figures. All the successes I've had in my life stem from the G&T program.
Oh, yeah, these guys (who can barely write a coherent paragraph without at least one spelling or grammatical error or express any strong emotion without falling back on the f-word) are "gifted". ROFL!
All the successes I've had in my life stem from the G&T program.When I was 12 (in the 70's)I was attending a school with a Ford Foundation Grant. My first day of Gifted Special Ed. included learning the rules of the game "The Peter Principle," while lounging around on non- threatening shag carpeting instead of actual furniture. We were told that we would not be graded on things like "work" and "attendance." I made a buddy, Ken, and looked forward to the next Wednesday.
The next week, we were blind-folded and given objects that we were to silently "experience" with all of our other senses. I was given a leaf. I distinctly remember being told to "taste it." I asked, "You want me to eat a dried up leaf, and I'm not getting a grade or any credit for this?" Ken piped up, "A leaf? You're lucky. I have a rock." Ken and I spent many wonderful Wednesday afternoons cheating the Coke machine (the old kind that distributed Coke in cups with ice) secure in the knowledge that attendance and work were not mandatory. I sometimes (OK- never) wondered what happened to our rock eating classmates.
So being gifted exempts you from having to spell "the" correctly, DUmmie?
I'd rather have a boy named Sue than a daughter named Kaghime.....
When I was little the power that be judged me to be "gifted and talented" and my parents even stuck me in a school for the "gifted and talened". Hence, I used to have the same self-absored, "oh, look at me, the suffering genius" mentality as these people. Unlike them, I eventually got over it.
We never did any wierd hippy crap like that. In elementary school the gifted program was pretty unstructured, there were a few class projects but for the most part the tools were made available to us (lots of self paced things, plus ready access to the library) and we could learn what we wanted to. We had to set goals for every quarter and that was the source of our grades, but we were always told to leave room to "explore". We could kick back and read, even play with toys if we could figure out how it was "educational" (Rubik's Cubes and other puzzles were popular, as were some RC hovercraft one kid brought in, and the teacher gave every kid an issue of Games magazine for their birthday). The big thing was to let us fill our time without being a distraction, breaking the cycle of finishing a project the teacher thought would take an hour in 10 minutes and being bored for the next 50. If (when) we finished early we could go do something else, use the opportunity, which still helps me out today.
I was literally stuned when I read that. I wish I had some lose change for everytime that happens.
By the special education teacher?
More likely by the janitor. That's who you hang out with if you spend a lot of time in the school basement skipping gym class. Gym teachers are so, well, so focused on competitive stuff ya know, and that just isn't fair to gifted geniuses like DUmmies.
No DUmmie, what people mean is that you may be gifted with tools that allow you to create success - which no doubt will take some work - even for the gifted person - worse, it may well require a lot of work. Opportunities my XXXXXX
We'd also be rich for the substitution of 'series' for 'serious'.
All that, and riotously FUnny, too.
The first half of the meeting (the "socializing") was spent with most members talking just as these DUmmies are posting....victims and unappreciated for their intellect because the rest of the world was jealous or intimidated by it (so they had convinced themselves.)They'd also talk about their frustrating encounters with the stupid people of the world. Which, by the way, included everyone except the 50 or so people standing in the room.
The second half of the meeting (the "entertainment") would be spent listening to a guest speaker do a presentation on various topics. No matter the topic, when the speaker was finished and the floor was opened for questions, the members would "what if", and "but, if" the speaker to death with hypothetical questions that were so far out in left field the speaker, I'm sure, thought this was some sort of sick prank, a Candid Camera episode, or he'd been kidnapped by some mental ward patients and there was no escaping the situation. It was the Hotel MENSA. After attempting to answer the questions as completely and politely as possible, the questions would eventually get so bizarre, the perplexed speaker(remember, he thought he was speaking to people with supposed superior intellect) had no option but to simply answer, "I don't know", or, "You've got me, there". YES! JACKPOT!!! He doesn't know the answer! This would be followed by the members' deep sighs and rolling of the eyes.
Once again, the speaker didn't know enough about his own topic to be able to adequately answer their "simple questions". One who somehow managed to get the title of "expert" in his field, that obviously any MENSA member is more qualified to have....if it weren't for the fact the world of normal people was conspiring to hold them back. Another disappointing encounter with an "average" person.
Except, it wasn't really disappointing at all. No, in fact, the badgering of the speaker to the point where he couldn't answer their "questions" was when the real fun began. It didn't matter if the members agreed with what the speaker had to say or not. In fact, I doubt many of them had formed an opinion either way or were even interested in the topic. This was not about learning about or debating an issue, it was about verbally torturing the speaker of "normal" intelligence to the breaking point for two hours no matter how idiotic they had to get in their questioning to do so. Of course, their success in doing this, and thus proving their superior intellect, was in their minds only.
I got the impression that, with the exception of these monthly meetings, most of these people rarely left their homes or enjoyed much social interaction. That is, if they had a home to leave in the first place. Many appeared to be homeless and/or had no regular bathing facilities available to them.
This was just my impression of this one chapter, of course, and I mean no offense to all MENSA members or the organization as a whole. I'm sure not all chapters are like this one . I've heard the one in this particular area has difficulty getting/keeping new members even though there are many qualifying candidates.
I was going to write "seriesly stuned," or "hughly stuned." But I think the number of people who abuse "literally" is literally hugh. (I literally died laughing when I read this post, for example.)
Everytime/Anytime when "every time"/"any time" is correct is also a common one, although very few people seem to pick up on those. I guess if folks can't get it's-its, they'res no scents being two picky.
This doesn't surprise me. Leftists like to talk about having high i.q.s and being intellectually superior all the time. Those that truly are gifted rarely have a need to brag about it.
One things (:>) for sertain, we can all ways count on DUmmies for giving us a laff over the use of words.
"...everything else) turned into whiny libs is that they've always been taught that the world owes them a living."
Interesting point. I'm not going to claim to be gifted or brag about my grades or high IQ. What I will talk about is work ethic. I (my group of friends had similar lives) had a paper route at 12. Bused tables at 15. Washed dishes at Restaurants through High School. Played 3 sports through High School. No matter how smart we were (or thought we were), we had to WORK.
Oh, btw, my condolences on your passing, having literally died of laughing. Who finished your comments?
I didn't go quite that far but kept myself in the figurative realm (there's no one else here to finish my posts if I go literally).
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