Both, attended TAG programs, skipped a grade, was constantly criticized for not applying self more

Somehow both simultaneously

Both, depending on the teacher who wrote the report, or even the subject.

I had (and carried to Uni) a bad habit of correcting teachers and professors. Also asked questions that made educators interpret that I enjoyed bending the logic of what they were teaching.

Great for math and physics, but bad for weak egos and those who didn’t think deeply or creatively about the subject material.

Both lol. In elementary school I got very good grades and teachers really liked me. Except the ones that minded that I was constantly writing stories and drawing during lessons.

I got scolded often for not paying attention (who cares, I’m getting good grades, let me do my thing!!!) and some teachers would even confiscate my writings and drawings to keep me from being distracted.

One teacher especially didn’t like that I could not pay attention in class and still get good grades. She took away a story I had been working on for a while and never gave it back. I still get mad when I think about it.

Eugenia, if you’re reading this, I will never forgive you!!! >:(

I was in the “we’re going to put you in advanced placement as a form of special ed, because you get bored and start asking questions that are too advanced for the rest of the class” group.

Yes, those advanced “you’re so gifted and talented, so we’re going to put you in a cool class where you get to do logic puzzles instead of regular math” classes were a form of special ed. They were designed to sequester you away from the rest of your class. Not as a punishment, but because the modern school system relies on students in each class actually being at the same level. If students are above or below a certain range, they slow down instruction for the entire class, as the teacher is forced to spend extra time with just those individual students.

Most people think of special ed as just being the disabled kids, but the reality is that special ed is any kind of class that pulls you out of the rest of the class. Again, because class time is focused on the 80% of students who are at the same level, not the 10% who are above or below it. If you’re too far below, the teacher has to spend extra time rehashing material. And if you’re too far above, you end up asking a ton of questions that the teacher hasn’t built the groundwork to answer yet.

Maybe your class is learning module {A}, and students will tend to ask questions about {A} or maybe {B}. But you immediately grasped the concept of {A}, read ahead to {B} because you were bored, found a shortcut to get to {C}, and are asking questions about {D}. All while the rest of the class is still learning {A}. And the questions you’re asking won’t even be relevant until you get to {C} or {D}, so devoting time to answering them would be a waste of time for the 80% of the class that is learning {A}. So instead of letting you slow the rest of the class down, they ship you off to a “gifted and talented” class once or twice a week, to be with kids at your own level.

I was gifted, pleasant to teach, and distracted the teachers by asking tangential questions that were interesting enough for them to answer, thus derailing the entire class. One teacher actually put that in my report card and complained about it to my parents.

First one, then depression kicked in and I was neither

Yep

I was “would do well if applied self and stopped getting distracted” when - things were too new, too hard, too boring, too distracting (not engaging), too much memorization of random facts and rules (history/geography/language).

I was “gifted and pleasure to teach” when - I got all the support I needed and I was shown that there was a system that was logical that I can understand if I just tried (math/physics/chemistry).

I was the former. It went really well until college when I actually needed to study. I struggle to learn by reading and am terrible at being internally motivated so… College could have gone better.

🖐️ teacher’s pet.

Yes

I got sent to a special ed school that didn’t even have actual classes cause they thought us autistic kids were too stupid for that

The first one K-5th grade, the second for the remainder.

Both. You’d get different answers from different teachers.

Teachers who knew their shit and were flexible, would say the former.

Teachers who were authoritatian and barely knew enough of their field to pass minimum standards for teaching would claim I was “lazy” or “obstinate”.