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Comment by true_religion | Hacker News Reader

I think it's orthogonal to the article. Under a system designed to the lowest common denominator, those on the low end have to put X amount of effort in order to pass. Those who are gifted have to put in X-Y effort where Y can almost nearly equal X (leading to kids not ever learning how to study).

The Swedish system basically begins with the proposition that all students should put out X effort. Gifted children get more advanced work, or more quantity of work till they are putting out X effort.

This isn't designed to make them better adjusted, or less 'weird'. It's just there to equip gifted students with more skills relative to the mean.

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It's an interesting idea and I agree with the argument.

Having been one of those 'gifted children' and gone to gifted schools where I wasn't challenged, I think this is a good idea.

I basically never had to put any effort in until my last year of high school and completely breezed through my education. Once I hit university and couldn't get away with that anymore, I was totally unequipped to handle continuing my education or holding a job that matched my capabilities. I hit a wall of failure pretty hard.

It probably took me another 7 years after that to get my life together where I had the habits to try and achieve things through consistent effort.

And yeah, all of the depression, anxiety and substances abuse that you would expect happened too.

I breezed through university. I might have worked a little harder to get a 4.0, but I knew even then that barely anyone outside of academia cares about GPA, and that I didn't want to be an academic. So I did the math, and I even made some strategic decisions to not complete some graded assignments in my last year. I'm not particularly challenged at work now, either.

I'm not a very good employee. I have on several occasions had one of my bosses tell me not to do more than the minimum effort. Don't improvise. The company doesn't get paid more for excellence. Just do as you're told. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and that guy wants "Rock and Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter (aka the Hey Song) for the 50th time in a row rather than whatever crap it is that you would prefer to play.

I feel like I could accomplish very difficult tasks, but I also feel that the effort would not only go unrewarded, but that other people would actively resent me for doing them.

If society loved genius, it would pay more for it. I'm not even a genius. I'm either slightly smarter than the median, or just egotistical enough to think that I am. But now I'm just a mediocre, run-of-the-mill software professional on paper, because that's what companies around here are willing to pay for, and so I eased off my throttle far enough to pretend to be that for them. Being on HN helps a lot when I'm just filling a seat.

Naturally, this hasn't exactly produced a healthy relationship between me and the rest of society.

I think that maybe schools don't want to produce geniuses, because they are very disruptive, and hard to please, and it's harder to keep them in line with a load of BS. There may actually be a tiny kernel of truth in the conspiracy theory that public schooling intentionally dumbs down the smartest students or endlessly occupies them with useless busy work, even as it trains up the others to be more useful as workers.

I finally was able to start my software development career in my early 30s and I found happiness working on a small team where there's a lot of work that needs to be done.

I can't necessarily do things the best way every time, but we have enough difficult problems to solve and its always appreciated when we make the marketing team's job easier. I love that my work either directly translates into more cash coming in or saves us a bunch of cash.

I'm a mediocre developer and okay with that I guess. I know that my potential is way higher, but I also feel like there's some greater calling out there in my life that is not my job/career.

It takes the edge off that feeling you're experiencing -- I definitely felt the exact same way in previous jobs.

Love the Ren & Stimpy reference in your name btw.

Schools don't intentionally dumb down the smartest students. They just care about compliance and control more than unleashing human potential. Dumbing down people, distracting them with fear and anxiety, and stamping out creativity is merely a side-effect of school's primary purpose - handling children when parents can't keep up with their own controlling tendencies.

What does it take to get into a gifted class in the US? Where I grew up, anyone can apply for these schools (not everyone gets in of course).

Education in the US is controlled mostly at the state and local levels. Some states have requirements on gifted education; some don't. Gifted programs vary from completely nonexistant to prevalent and easy to access depending on the school district.

When I was growing up it was a combination of high incoming aptitude/IQ tests, teacher recommendation and a battery of other cognitive tests before being granted entry.

I was nominated by my counsellor and teachers in 5th and 6th grade. This was South Florida, other schools districts are different. I took an exam of puzzles, math, and wordplay. A few days later I received a later saying I qualified and to meet the ESL/gifted counsellor.

At the time I had 8 classes. 6 of them were required: math, english, history, etc., and 2 were free electives: sports, music, technical (computers and woodshop). As a 11yo these were the few freedoms we were allowed in school and the work didn't feel like work. I enjoyed making music. I enjoyed making stupid, wooden gifts for my family and friends. So the counsellor says we're dropping your 2 electives so you can have take our gifted classes. And that is when I hoped right out of it.

Now that is the gifted (also called ESL) program in none exceptional schools. It's usually just an extra class. There are schools of excellence, governor's school, magnet school, etc. Which focus on different curriculum. These will have an emphasis around math, language, arts, sports. You apply by filing an application or submitting a portfolio. Some, you have to be nominated by your teachers.

In my public school system, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, admission to the gifted program was largely based on the results of IQ testing.

That was back in the 1980s and 1990s; not sure how things have changed.

I have to say... I thought our school system did a good job with gifted students. We had some classes with other gifted kids and a lot of classes with the school's general population. We weren't treated as elite freaks or anything, were never told we were "better", and all in all I think they did it right.

It depends on where and when you are talking about.

When I was growing up anyone who was nominated by their teachers would simply skip grades or get shifted into an honours program if it was available for their level.

Just as I was graduating high school however, all the gifted programs were phased out as being unnecessary (or unfair depending on whom you talked to). There was much hay made about the tight school budget needing to go to support students who were being left behind by the new national testing standards.

Now, though, ten years later, they have magnet schools for the talented which are by nomination only.

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