Posted on 07/17/2006 6:09:55 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
I remember a high school class where we were asked to write an essay about whether we were a conformist or a non-conformist. Of course, everyone wrote that they were non-conformist except for ME. I figured that if you are a TRUE non-conformist you would go against the crowd and actually proclaim yourself a conformist PLUS I also figured out that we have to act as conformists in at least 95% of what we do in order to function in society. For example, speaking a common language, abiding by traffic regulations to avoid accidents, getting vaccinated, etc.. Of course, my essay stood out from the rest of the other essays of the "non-conformists" proclaiming themselves to be non-conformists. Likewise we now have the DUmmies proudly asserting that they were all young geniuses in this THREAD titled, "new du group- former gifted children?" Yes, DUmmies, you are all just too good to be true...in your own minds. So let us now watch the DUmmies engage in an orgy of self-congratulation in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, who learned to speak by the age of nine, is in the [brackets]:
new du group- former gifted children?
[new du group- current braggarts?]
i know there are lots and lots folks at du who are what the pinheads call gifted and talented. at the risk of sounding like a braggart, i am, at the age of 51, finally realizing that my membership in this group has kinda screwed up my life. living among "normal" people (no offense intended) can be extremely difficult. most of us wish we were just normal folks. most of us deny our gifts, and consequently make a lot of bad decisions in life. gifted and successful go together a lot less frequently than most folks would think. gifted and miserable, or troubled, probably outweighs that by a lot. i think it would be great if there was a du group where we could hang out with our peers. anybody?
[strange how this "gifted" dummie never learned learned the rules of capitalization.]
Agreed. The world rewards superficially affable mediocrities -- the more well-connected, the better, of course -- over those who see and speak clearly...and it infuriates me. Always has, always will.
[We're just too good to be true.]
I can remember being told I was "gifted". I can remember being told that teh sky was teh limit. It was all a lie because society today no longer rewards the genius (I say that without any trace of snobbery, it's simply a description), it no longer rewards the free-thinker or teh maverick, it rewards the mediocre, the safe and dependable. You have to put up with being resented your whole life, called an "elitist" because you don't think the world should be run by mediocrities dumber than a box of rocks and as a child, you get physically attacked too.
[I can't help it...I'm a friggin' GENIUS!]
Often, we have problems with personal relationships as well. We often end up with minor mental illnesses (depression most often) too. Theories vary as to why but the most common one is that our minds are set up for analytical thought and therefore, we have problems with the irrationality of emotion (my own theory is that this is why so many of us end up in computing or hard sciences. If something goes wrong, it's not because teh PC doesn't like you or resents your intellect or is having a bad day, it's because you got something wrong and you can go through and fix it).
[MINOR mental illnesses?]
There was a time, when my own depression was at it's worst (I was unmedicated at the time which didn't help) when I wept and wailed and would have given absolutely anything to be "normal". To be happy with the small life of the masses, to believe what I was told, to not see the complexity of everything.
["Please make me stupid like the normal people!"]
I too was a "gifted" kid, and the hardest part for me is that real life has matched up to the endless possibilities I was told would be open to me because of my intellect. I think it is very common for people who work with gifted children to present this idea that gifted kids are guaranteed success, and it can be kind of a rude awakening to discover that being gifted doesn't give a person any more opportunities than anyone else. Sometimes being gifted can even be a disadvantage because, as you said, society rewards the mediocre. Being very intelligent just makes a person appear strange or like an outcast or misfit.
[Nice try. You are a misfit and an outcast so you blame it on the fact that you THINK you are a genius.]
In many ways I see gifted education as a form of special education, because gifted kids aren't able to fit in with mainstream kids in many cases and they need different education taught at a different pace. There have honestly been many times I wished that I were just average, and I didn't wish for my kids to be gifted. It seems like life looks a lot easier when you don't have the inclination to analyze or question everything.
[This looks like a common theme in DUmmieland. A bunch of socially maladjusted misfits who blame their creepiness on the fact that they THINK they are geniuses.]
When you clear away all the BS, American culture is very anti-intellectual, and very punishing of people who are different. Sports is an acceptable means of standing out —- it’s terrific if you are a star at basketball or football —- but gods forbid you should mention excelling in calculus or English class.
[Then the jocks promise not to beat you up if you let them cheat off you in class.]
You are absolutely right about how American society not only doesn't value intellectual ability, but it distrusts it and discourages it. There is a strong and growing anti-intellectual attitude in this country. Just look at the 2004 elections and why people said they voted for Bush - they would prefer a guy they'd like to have a beer with than someone they considered "too smart" like Kerry.
[Too bad for your theory that Bush scored HIGHER than Kerry in a military INTELLIGENCE test required for officers.]
My beautimous and bright daughter, "Kaghime", was in G&T classes from 1st - 3rd grades. It was quite the experience and thankfully, at the time, there were progressive thinking folks in the schools of Colorado (mid-80's). Unfortunately the program was axed when she hit mid-3rd. However, she continues to be very gifted and talented, IMNSHO.
[You're such a genius for naming you beautimous daughter, "Kaghime."]
i went to lutheran schools my whole life- and there was no effort made to seek out nor accomodate "gifted" students- after all, god loves everyone equally, right...? had i been in public schools, i would most likely have been skipped ahead- instead i was pretty much told to "hold back" to be fair to the other kids.
[A DUmmie blames the Lutherans for being a misfit.]
I am now a classic underacheiver who has struggeled with depression and substance abuse issues for most of my adult life. I do ok - have a decent job, etc. but I deeply unsatisfied with my life. I feel like I think everything through too much and come up with the notion that most of what goes on in daily life is just pointless. I think part of that is depression, but I believe my thinking is what gets me depressed in the first place.
[Thinking about what a nerd you are is what gets you depressed in the first place.]
It would be interesting to read this group though I am not quite sure what kinds of people you would get.
[I'll let the next DUmmie who wins a Kewpie Doll for having a brief moment of mental clarity answer that question...]
Lots of smug superiority, methinks. So it WOULD be interesting to read.
[And FUnnie!]
lots of jealous, insecure, mean spirited onlookers i suppose. just like life.
[lots of entertained onlookers.]
i was also a very gifted child. i would like to be part of this group
[if you are a dummie with warm blood flowing through your veins and have a false sense of smug superiority hiding the fact that you are an awkward maladjusted creep, you qualify as a former gifted kid despite the fact that you can't capitalize.]
Being in the "Gifted Program" in grade school only got me shunned, beat up and recess deprived by the same type of people who are running our country now. Being in that same program in Jr. High made me an outcast and a nerd. By the time I was in high school, I had given up on academics and just did enough to get by. I was grateful to get to college and realize that everyone was "gifted" in one way or another. I am not so sure that being branded as "Gifted" when you are nine years old does one any good.
[WAAAAHHHH!!! George Bush beat me up for being "gifted!"]
I was in a g/t program in grade school. One of my grade school teachers gave my parents advise AGAINST me joining this program but we went ahead with it. I had to change schools, make new friends - mainly new friends who were a lot more 'book smart' than I was. It did nothing for my self esteem. In fact, I think it destroyed my self confidence. The expectations were high. I could never live up to them. I could talk an owl out of tree when it came to current events and politics at a very young age. I had zero interest in learning anything about science or math. Even those branded as gifted have different gifts. I felt like a failure. I never measured up. It took me years to get over this...I don't know if I really ever have.
[You are correct. You never did get over the fact that you are a socially maladjusted NERD.]
I know as a child I imagined myself as being an alien from an advanced society who was implanted in my human mother.
[An alien from the Planet Cretin.]
In the first grade, in 1949, I had a teacher who was outraged that I could read; that I "read ahead" in Dick and Jane and finished in ten minutes what she had planned for a whole week's reading aloud experience. Her response was to isolate and humiliate me in front of the whole class.
[She must have been an EVIL Republican.]
When I was four years old I marched into the local library and asked the Librarian to give me the hardest book you could ever read, because I was smart and could read Anything.. and I was dead serious, I'd been reading at High School level or higher at age 4.. She gave me Kant, philosophy.. smart lady.. but I realized that while I could read the WORDS that the concepts were meaningless to me as a child, so I put the book back on the shelf and vowed to have many life experiences so that everything in that philosophy book would ring true when I was older, and I knew I'd have to be much older to completely comprehend Kant and others (my younger brother's middle name is Durant, after Will Durant, my father's favorite philosopher)..
[Too bad the librarian didn't give you a book by Whittaker Chambers.]
had four scholastic scholarships and a 136 IQ and lost it all first semester in college to go completely wild. and i still once in a while fight the resentment that my parents or anybody did not step in to see what the hell was going on with me.
[A DUmmie is angry at OTHERS for not keeping him from acting like a jerk.]
Yeah I could use a group like this. Giftedness f*cked me over bigtime.It lead to alot of the abuse I went through growing up.It is so very hard to relate to people when they do not understand. It sure had a way of alienating me from day 1. I could use a group like this,alot.Please DU add it,and I'll join it!
[Please DU, add a group of fellow misfits who also conveniently blame their failures and social awkwardness on being "gifted."]
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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