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Not deemed gifted, yet nerds grow into somethin'


shootingstar

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I grew up in small city and went good public schools and public high school in Ontario. There was no such thing as programs for "gifted" students. We did have several excellent teachers. I personally had excellent experiences with public schools.   I was surrounded by some bright, extroverted peers. I felt  shy and in slight awe of their verbosity. 

I just checked out some classmates.  Hung out with basically nerdy/academic students. 

Sometimes the nerdy, very bright and basically good students just … later, became incredible /accomplished in their fields or  in their fields.  I'm happy for them...  I so relate to the comedy series:  Big Bang Theory.  It wasn't about the sororities/frat houses/nor the football/volleyball/basketball teams....but the world of happy nerdom as a teen and post-high school, with others.

 

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2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

Sometimes the nerdy, very bright and basically good students just … later, became incredible /accomplished in their fields 

My next door neighbor (about a half mile away) studied vocational agriculture in high school and now he’s out standing in his field.

That one never gets old. :)

Right?

 

Bueller?

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Interesting...there was a very bright Korean-Canadian in my class.  She never socialized with any of us...meaning even the rest of girls who were bright.  We knew she was ripping off high marks in math, sciences and on debating team with the boys (at that time debating was not cool with the girls :()  .

She is now a intellectual property lawyer in Boston area..with speciality in drug trademarks and technical products.

Am happy she did well....when the rest of us ignored her.  (We had a hard time relating to her ...because she was so brilliant.)

 

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8 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I so relate to the comedy series:  Big Bang Theory.

I can't, tried to watch that show once and they kept getting to many basic theories wrong, I had to turn it off as I kept yelling at the TV.

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8 minutes ago, Indy said:

I can't, tried to watch that show once and they kept getting to many basic theories wrong, I had to turn it off as I kept yelling at the TV.

:)  It's a show and are we a lot better than them in understanding science?  (Well, I have to be careful here....with some family members who teach science/are paid researchers).

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Just last weekend my HS graduating class had our 47th reunion. In our case it seems that the guys and gals who worked minimum wage jobs in HS were doing better. The best example is Jack. He worked as a gravedigger in a minority graveyard where he was the only white guy there (including the dearly departed). This was in Kentucky around 1970. Now he's the co-owner of 3 banks, a construction company, a concrete company, and a company that flips houses (he bought 200 houses during the housing crisis). The garage in his weekend lake home is big enough for two large city buses plus a lot more. He says that his grave digging job taught him some valuable lessons on life and about people. Other classmates went on to do things like owning plumbing companies; become engineers, and even become college presidents. That was Greg who worked at a pizza parlor all during high school.

I went to a Catholic HS and our education was much better than that of the local public schools. One guy was flunking out so in his junior year his parents moved him to the public school. He suddenly became an A and B student. He said that he'd learned all the stuff they were teaching there 2 years beforehand. So I guess we all had that Catholic education advantage.

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12 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Not deemed gifted

....

There was no such thing as programs for "gifted" students.

Seems like it wasn't that folks weren't deemed "gifted" or not, but rather that even if kids were recognized as such, there just wasn't anywhere to place them within the schools back then.  I know by the time I rolled through elementary school in the late 70's, the "gifted" programs were in place.  In the 80's, those seem to have become the "talented and gifted" programs, and now , speaking to my nieces, it has morphed into another thing call "AAP" for "Advanced Academic Programs". 

Regardless, I'd say it shouldn't be a surprise when bright kids turn into bright adults.  I worry more when bright kids turn into ignorant adults. Or worse, willfully ignorant adults.

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I was a nerd in high school, just without the intelligence superpower.  My father in law was a genius, so at least the kids got some help from her side of the family.

I suppose the nerd gene passed on to my kids.  The eldest now is a teacher wit a masters in theoretical math.  The middle is an engineer, nerd WITH the intelligence superpower.  We used to think he was Sheldon until we met his wife, next to her he's Penny.  He's put his post grad on hold while his wife finishes her doctorate which got delayed so Stanford could make some coin from her RNA discovery.  She's full on nerd.  My youngest was a stealth nerd, she's a jock, but still quite intelligent, working as a nurse while she decides a specialty for post-grad.

Same thing with the Catholic education.  None of them had a clue until they got to college, and were shocked to find how far ahead they were, not just in education, but in educational discipline.

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11 hours ago, ChrisL said:

Nerds doing well in their fields doesn’t seem an earth shattering concept.  Slacker surfer boy who pulled a C- GPA going on to college and excelling in his field, well that’s more improbable...

A brother-in-law scraped along in 60's grades for some subjects in his sr. high school years.  He is now, a professor in engineering sciences (which according to dearie is the hardest engineering disciplines compared to civil, mechanical, chemical and electrical) and does research in quantum physics at a top university engineering faculty in Canada. Some of the conferences he presents are sponsored by NATO.

Not just me, but all my 5 siblings had excellent experiences in public high school. Some of the girls were transferring from Catholic girls' school to our high school. It was our high school trying out new teaching approaches.

The Korean-Canadian ,now American lawyer ….she went to Harvard and Princeton for her education.  Yea, the girl from unknown city (to many Americans) in Ontario.  

We are influenced by parents, other significant adults in life ...but also our closest/best friends in school help us grow also.  Here are my best friends from elementary school through to final years in high school:

*all A grade student. She also was a local beauty queen, did her Master's in Pharmacology, got job with a big Pharma global firm, then dropped out to become a...naturopath.  2 kids, divorced and remarried.  During school and university she was a server at a local restaurant.

*Greek-Canadian who learned English in grade school. Worked as au pair in Paris for a family. Returned to Canada. After university, she was a French teacher for whole career at the same high school we both went. 

*Friend 3 shared book passion and art in middle school and onward. After university, she taught courses in religion, English lit.  She also published several books on a spiritual leader where she and hubby worked for a group home for mentally disabled.  Ever since I've known her, she did cartooning on the side and did some paid jobs for people.  She brought gentle humor to her faith through her cartoons. 

And so on. …...Am I influenced by the friends who I knew for a long time? Of course.  They enriched my life ..by knowing them, I learned other perspectives.  

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Seems like it wasn't that folks weren't deemed "gifted" or not, but rather that even if kids were recognized as such, there just wasn't anywhere to place them within the schools back then.  I know by the time I rolled through elementary school in the late 70's, the "gifted" programs were in place.  In the 80's, those seem to have become the "talented and gifted" programs, and now , speaking to my nieces, it has morphed into another thing call "AAP" for "Advanced Academic Programs". 

Regardless, I'd say it shouldn't be a surprise when bright kids turn into bright adults.  I worry more when bright kids turn into ignorant adults. Or worse, willfully ignorant adults.

One my sisters, had learned her son was streamed into the gifted path in high school. Sis didn't think too much as something to boast....because SHE herself was also acing 90's as a HS student at same age as her son long ago. Yet during her time, there was no "gifted" designation/route.

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25 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

A brother-in-law scraped along in 60's grades for some subjects in his sr. high school years.  He is now, a professor in engineering sciences (which according to dearie is the hardest engineering disciplines compared to civil, mechanical, chemical and electrical) and does research in quantum physics at a top university engineering faculty in Canada. Some of the conferences he presents are sponsored by NATO.

Not just me, but all my 5 siblings had excellent experiences in public high school. Some of the girls were transferring from Catholic girls' school to our high school. It was our high school trying out new teaching approaches.

The Korean-Canadian ,now American lawyer ….she went to Harvard and Princeton for her education.  Yea, the girl from unknown city (to many Americans) in Ontario.  

We are influenced by parents, other significant adults in life ...but also our closest/best friends in school help us grow also.  Here are my best friends from elementary school through to final years in high school:

*all A grade student. She also was a local beauty queen, did her Master's in Pharmacology, got job with a big Pharma global firm, then dropped out to become a...naturopath.  2 kids, divorced and remarried.  During school and university she was a server at a local restaurant.

*Greek-Canadian who learned English in grade school. Worked as au pair in Paris for a family. Returned to Canada. After university, she was a French teacher for whole career at the same high school we both went. 

*Friend 3 shared book passion and art in middle school and onward. After university, she taught courses in religion, English lit.  She also published several books on a spiritual leader where she and hubby worked for a group home for mentally disabled.  Ever since I've known her, she did cartooning on the side and did some paid jobs for people.  She brought gentle humor to her faith through her cartoons. 

And so on. …...Am I influenced by the friends who I knew for a long time? Of course.  They enriched my life ..by knowing them, I learned other perspectives.  

 

 

 

My HS was fine, I just didn’t give a shit. My dad died the summer after my freshman year. My mom checked out through my HS years and spent as much time as she could in Holland.  I didn’t have many positive influences until... Drill Sergeant Heron & Ratliff, Sgt Bishop, SFC Snyder... These guys more than anyone shaped me into who I am now.

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14 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

My HS was fine, I just didn’t give a shit. My dad died the summer after my freshman year. My mom checked out through my HS years and spent as much time as she could in Holland.  I didn’t have many positive influences until... Drill Sergeant Heron & Ratliff, Sgt Bishop, SFC Snyder... These guys more than anyone shaped me into who I am now.

You were lucky.

Dearie's stepfather didn't want him to go to university.....which pissed off dearie.

Dearie didn't respect his stepfather's opinion much and instead tended to seek mother's moral support.  So dearie went to university and nearly exhausted himself working at grocery store when he wasn't studying and doing his daily 3 hr. commute between town and big city university ...by bus.  (He/his parents couldn't afford a car for him.) He had to pay tuition somehow.  It is always good for a child /teen to have at least 1 positive influential adult. 

I realize many people question the value of education after high school.  Honest a lot of jobs nowadays, require retraining on different software, skills throughout life....and to do it with discipline and rigour as well how to think and learn from several different angles.

 

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Of all my siblings, I'm probably the lower academic graded student. Somehow I never got jealous....methinks I could 1-2 things naturally abit better than them.  (Or maybe I was too busy to pay much attention.)   And they would agree also what I was good at. They all majored in applied sciences. I didn't.

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I went to a high school where only 12 out of a class of 292 graduated from a 4-year college.  Once, four of us nerds (crosscountry team, chess club, etc.) were excited enough about learning how to do distillations in advanced chemistry lab that we bought sugar and yeast, dissolved it water and hid it in a large glass container in the back of the lab.  When old Mr. McGloughlin began to smell it, we put a rubber stopper containing a hole in the top of the container and ran a hose out the window.

After a couple weeks all the bubbling slowed down, so we decided to distill it on a lab day when Mr. Mac was out of the room. We didn't know that the lab equipment meant we'd get 95% alcohol/5% water as the distillate ( 190 proof)!  So we distilled a little and could smell the alcohol. Who, we asked each other, will drink it?  A classmate named Linda said she would.  It burned her mouth and she ran screaming for the water fountain in the hallway where another teacher, the evil Mrs. Chironka, came to her aid. She got to the bottom of it, and soon Mr. Mac had the four of us responsible for the stunt standing in trash cans while he berated us and said we'd never amount to anything.

So what happened to us?  We represent 1/3 of our classes college grads!

I went to grad school in chemistry at IIT, became chief chemist of process developement for a subsidiary of Dow Chemical then lead Gifted and Talented Chemistry and Physics teacher in Maryland's largest high school.

John became an aerospace engineer and flies around the country in his lear jet doing consulting.

Charles became a lawyer.

Mike, who sang in an all-brother group kind of like local Osmond Brothers, majored in music and spent a career as a backup musician for the Beach Boys, getting paid well for his music and for keeping them out of trouble.

So, sometimes even the nerd teacher can't see how promising it is to be a nerd student!

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