30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted

The only people who aren’t terrible on skates go on to the stanly cup

Got my old butt chuckling.

Yeah, same. I just had tears well up.

As someone whose parents decided to do this with me... (my last year of "normal" school was 7th grade... I was homeschooled after that and I took the GED at 13 and started college at 14) I was miserable... and I was ABSOLUTELY socially screwed up. I'm 40 now, and let's just say that I never really recovered or adjusted. Starting college at 14 was horrible. It doesn't matter the "genius" level of the kid if the kid is miserable :(

I didn't skip those grades but still ended up socially screwed until university, so I'm not convinced that him skipping a couple of grades would have mattered that much.

My mother worked at a local university and they apparently had a "child prodigy" come to study at some ridiculously young age. She was indeed smart, but had clearly been pushed too far too fast because she had no social skills and no idea how to take care of herself. It all ended in tears, of course.

Trust me. Not skipping is no better. My mom refused to let me into a program where I would have graduated at 12 because "she wanted me to be around people my own age." I never fit in and the slow pace left me alone AND bored. She died two days after my 14th birthday and there I was, stuck in high school and not caring about the world anymore because she was gone. I did fine in life, but have never really used my "intelligence". When I talk to people and get in depth about things, they ask how I know so much and I sit there wondering how they know so little. Not out loud, but it's at least as hard not skipping as skipping. At least if I had, I would have been engaged and likely in an environment better equipped to continue going forward.

No he wasn't, being that smart he was probably an outcast anyway, and he got out of high school and on to college earlier where like me he probably made some friends that were as smart or smarter than him

Good point. But as a special education teacher (I taught both disable kids and gifted) not skipping would also be negative for his development. Either way has +s and -s

I was in this boat, but not allowed to skip grades because of the social aspect. Surprise surprise, I didn't fit in with kids my own age, either. Finally I dropped out of high school and got my GED just after 10th, because my test scores already got me accepted to MIT.

Imagine how much bullying he skipped. Trully terrible...

i have a friend like this, suuper smart kid. Age of a seventh grader, does eleventh grade classes. He likes to just do other activities (sports, art clubs, of the like) and just not tell them his grade. Hes amazing, recently moved to a new state an i miss him

When you're smart enough to skip grades, your classmates don't want to talk to you anyway. Still socially screwed, just 2 years slower to the finish line with relentless bullying in the interim.

But from an adult standpoint, being demonstrably smarter than everyone else around me has caused me innumerable social problems. I'm generically attractive and modestly funny, so was popular enough, but my relationships were all incredibly unhealthy and most of my problems came from poor social skills, mental health, and choices. I love where I ended up as a person, but I feel like there had to be a better way. I'm 36 going on 26 and it's a very sheltered 26 😅. In fairness tho, learning the wrong things is worse. I didn't learn anything about race until I got here and dumping a blond/blue Aussie kid into a poor urban school in 90s Detroit USA wasn't a good intro. I went from one extreme to another, unlearning hate is a LOT harder than teaching empathy, understanding, and history. I sounded funny and was new, kids did what kids do, but when I went to adults they would say I called them names and the constant abuse/injustice packaged with my first lesson on race in America was def bad

Not skipping grades can be just as bad or worse. If a kid is that far ahead academically they will be seen as a freak regardless of whether they skip grades or not. Anyone who has a kid like this, please pay attention to their mental health and to how they are treated by other kids. And help them know what future possibilities exist for them in the world so they can direct their own education toward their interests.

Most times gifted students are advanced even socially and are waiting for others to catch up to where they are.

I went from 5th to 8th. Didn't phase me because I am a loner. 59 years old and still alone. Doesn't bother me though. I do have one friend I see once in a while.

I love that you get how important that part of school is. I left school full time after 6th grade and had a lot of issues that I shouldn't have. My partner's son is 5 now, and he's actually impressively intelligent, but already has social issues (his auto response to being upset was storm off to have tantrums, I didn't figure out that he'd been trained at his old school that any time he got upset he needed to walk away from everyone else and sit with his back to them silently until he calmed himself down). The thing that troubles me the most is that he's so much better than he used to be and he's not unique in being affected by the pandemic, someone could have corrected these things early on instead of sitting him in the corner whenever he got irritating. If he understands something he does it himself, eg. he makes a noise when he's irritated, but telling him it's rude is enough that he tries not to/apologizes, so what happened teach him to be invisible/look away until calm?

That sounded like me... I made that same conclusion when distance over time graphs. . 'Try plotting time travel now without teleportation. ' is what I would have said to him. (The answer is to place another graph over the top of that one and create the point over the top of it.) Also. I didnt have friends in my classes cuz I was already socially awkward for being smart and my mom said no to early advancement because she believed I'd be 'socially screwed' if I did... reality is... I probably would have garnered a more healthy social life becoming friends with people mature enough to look past my age rather than ones too stupid to look past my brain. We will never know. I'm homeless now. But I can go back in time and change that if I want.

My parents refused me skipping grades, as offered constantly. I ended up bored and unmotivated, in a class who hated me and me them. Who cares about social skills, I wanted to graduate fast!!

My son skipped 1st grade, though the school was hesitant to do it when we first asked. He could already read everything and was doing multiplication and division. He had zero social issues, he was very tall for his age so he fit right in that way. Later in 5th grade, his teacher suggested he skip straight to 6th, but we didn't want this exact issue so we declined. Two years just seemed like too much difference with his peers. Ironically, in jr high and high school his main group to hang out with was kids in the next grade up. I've still never had any regrets about not skipping the 2nd time. Social interaction has a huge impact on kids' development and happiness.

For certain children, I always wondered why not find a learning environment that's separate from social development and then fill in the social development elsewhere, like sports leagues and clubs or 4H, etc.

In elementary school, I was in a grouping of kids being evaluated to determine if we could skip a grade or two. I was among the group of kids who weren't advanced enough to skip a grade. Of the students who were being allowed to skip grade levels, many were not mature enough to handle it. Yes, they were smart enough, and did skip one or two grades, but spent their remaining school years trying to catch up emotionally. So being advanced academically doesn't always mean that child is ready to complete with kids who are older and at a different maturity level.

Catalina Lemmon started university at 11 years old, is 16 now and is amazingly well adjusted, thoughtful and has friends. I know she's only one person but a part of the lack of social adjustment could be on the parents not knowing how to help. Catty's mother went through it herself and knew what to expect.

Not necessarily, since he would have likely been changing schools after 5th grade anyway. But even if so, social life in middle school doesn't matter in the long run, and it was probably better that he be able to learn at a more appropriate level instead of becoming bored and disillusioned with school. I skipped but I was bullied BEFORE the skipping, so the skipping was good for me because it gave me a fresh start (with kids that didn't know about the bullying). After that it wasn't socially a problem until college, at which point people were afraid to do much with me since I was a minor...

Has nothing to do with skipping, people with different minds just don't click with the average school aged kid. He/she won't find friends until they are on equal intelligence levels or find a common interest, which is usually the hard part when the "smart" kid has been focusing on just studying. I started to make more friends the moment I let my grades become affected, so it's definitely a personal choice making friends or prepping your future... I personally never liked hanging around my classmates in the AP classes, because of their likelihood of going to an expensive college, I didn't like the thought of it, and found the hooligans in different grades and classes more appealing 👌

Agreed. I started school early so I was already almost a year younger than most classmates. I had natural intelligence and after 1st grade the school told my parents they recommended me to skip 2nd and go straight to 3rd. I'd have been now 2 years younger than everyone. I was already socially awkward and weirdly enough my parents left the decision up to me at such a young age. I decided to stay the course and do 2nd to stay with my friends. Looking back all these years later, I don't regret it. I already had expectations with my intelligence and skipping a grade would have done nothing but put more pressure on me. I stopped really trying once I hit 7th grade and relied on the natural intelligence and by 10th grade pretty much knew I didn't want to pursue higher education as I was just burnt out.

You have no proof of that.

I went from 5 to 8 th grade in math. I’m in 7th grade now, currently in 9th grade math but trying to skip to 11 when I go to 8th grade. It’s not as hard as it looks. You just need determination.

You are correct. My birthday was on the cusp of not bring eligible to start first grade. The cut off was the end of Sept. I had an Oct. birthday, so my mother pulled some strings and got me enrolled. After finishing 6th, I went to a private school where we got tested for grade level. I was placed in 8th. My maturity level was way different. I didn't care about boys and other teen things. When I went to college There were numerous Norman boys who had already been on their missions. It wasn't until I was almost a senior before I finally "caught up" socially.

I know a person who skipped one grade...he turned out fine. He was incredibly bright, and the class clown. We dated in high school for a bit, I needed help with math and he taught me in a way that made sense to my left thinking brain. Don't know what he's doing now. But he was very bright. Skipping a lot of grades would be difficult. Your social skills are just as important.

Yes! I’m glad someone said this. Also, as a former gifted kid I am against skipping grades/gifted programs. They don’t prepares you/challenge you enough and yeah itll mess up ur social life.

I skipped 4th grade it sucked

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That kind of nerd was probably socially screwed anyway lol

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Posting a story that isn't relevant to the conversation would be considered spam. The down votes are indicating the OP made up a story (extremely likely) and the community is calling the work of fiction spam. Hence the down votes.