At school were you on the "gifted and pleasure to teach" end or "would do well if applied self and stopped getting distracted"?

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.

Yep

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.

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).

First one, then depression kicked in and I was neither

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.

In elementary school, the former. I was the darling of the teachers and hated by the students.

Applied self and stop day dreaming. It also didn't help I had two older brothers who were known trouble makers. So by the time I got to school the teachers' perception of me was already skewed. For the most part I just fell through the cracks and was pushed on to get rid of me. I graduated eighth grade with straight Fs.

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

I was definitely the latter, I was a disgrace to the school, would never amount to anything etc. Always underachieving and was blamed for it

Yes, second. Thats default polite way to tell that you not very smart when it comes to learning.

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".

I was the "does not work well with others"

Mostly because they excluded me

the second for sure. once a year there'd be that teacher who'd try to connect and it always went the same way. they'd assume i was feeling insecure about my ability and statements like "i hate touching this paper" or "grades are meaningless nonsense" were part of that. they needle me until i said fine and did a weeks worth of class material in one sitting. then they go "oh see this is amazing you'd be a straight A student if you applied yourself". meanwhile my stress level is at an 11 from all the tactile sensery hell. and from that point on i'd just ditch their class.

Quiet and polite in class. Bored because she can do the work. Once I was unable to coast, they got mean.

The first one ☺️ and I still like being called a good boy to this day 😇

Depends on which class lol. My art teachers thought I was a dream, math and english not so much.

I was the "gifted but needs to apply himself more" stereotype up until mid-to-late teens when depression and anxiety got the better of me for real. I also always struggled with holding presentations in front of class, and that only got worse over time which did impact some of my grades.

I think my whole report card the entire time i was in elementary was NEEDS TO APPLY HIMSELF MORE.

The second half. I’d get failing grades in final projects (e.g. math) because I failed to read the instructions, would complete only one side of a test because I forgot to the check the other side, would tell long stories to my teacher in class, would just not take science seriously, but studied my butt off for history (which was so much reading). I don’t think my teachers generally liked me (some didn’t at all), but that sort of changed when I moved states from red to blue and got better instruction.

In middle school, I was in learning disability class and the gifted program at the same time. In retrospect, the LD was probably just due to organizational ADHD stuff. I was first diagnosed ADHD in the early '80s, but my parents didn't tell me until 20-something years later.

I got sent to saturday school at the high school when I was in 4th grade (which meant my mom having to cancel anything and drive me there to a place I've never been leaving me in complete horror) because I would finish my work and couldn't just sit still and do nothing. My mom asked them to give me more work to do and the teacher refused.

Hey, nice seeing you here.
Teachers usually said I was gifted but a pain to teach and I'd get in trouble frequently for disrupting class, this went on even in university. My psychiatrist says it's likely I'm actually gifted, but I don't want to know if I am or not because I'm already too arrogant

I was such an insane trouble magnet that I've gone to about 10 different schools over the course of my life. Something about me is just incredibly provocative.

If the general public is anything to go by. Pissing me off is the most fun you'll ever have.

https://tenor.com/de/view/the-road-to-el-dorado-both-both-is-good-gif-8304204

#2 but I wasn’t distracted. I just didn’t care and didn’t like school. Passed anyway, but was a C student.

Well, can I be both? At least I was until this year (second half of high school). Now I'm just lazy and half-ass everything.

"Not working up to his potential." From the teachers in the gifted program I got bussed across town to attend.