It's funny. I was in the Gifted Education programme since I was in Primary 3 up till my final year at Secondary 4. 7 years of that. You have no idea what being branded with the word 'gifted' does to young kids. It's just as bad as being pariahs. Our classes were small, had the same group of friends in each school which was usually 2 classes in each of the same year.
You get put in a different section of the building. Your curriculum is different. You get put through educational hell because they want to basically force us into being better like the pattern tests claimed we were; and then we the rest of the student body didn't like us because we were special and we different things.
The word 'gifted' does foster prejudice and segregation. I've faced it firsthand, and I don't even know if it was for the better. They, the Ministry of Education, discontinued the programme and reused what they got for a different one. So in the end my own batch was the last batch of an experiment. Freaking guinea pigs.
You can probably tell I'm still bitter about the circumstances...but I won't deny the experience did shape me for the better. I guess.
no subject
You get put in a different section of the building. Your curriculum is different. You get put through educational hell because they want to basically force us into being better like the pattern tests claimed we were; and then we the rest of the student body didn't like us because we were special and we different things.
The word 'gifted' does foster prejudice and segregation. I've faced it firsthand, and I don't even know if it was for the better. They, the Ministry of Education, discontinued the programme and reused what they got for a different one. So in the end my own batch was the last batch of an experiment. Freaking guinea pigs.
You can probably tell I'm still bitter about the circumstances...but I won't deny the experience did shape me for the better. I guess.