How many of you have been in GATE? - I heard that a bunch of creepy shit happened in it and would like to hear your opinions.

[The Pink Panther]

I was in a GATE program.

All it amounted to was that once a month or so we'd be taken out of school for the day to go to Krelboyne class. If we did actual work I don't remember it. It was mostly bullshit games and crafts projects, the kind of stuff that's supposed to make you smarter.

Honestly, it was more like getting rewarded with a full day of recess once a month (with other smart kids) as a reward for being born smart. I wonder if they didn't also intend for the Krelboynes/their parents to network there. Although I don't remember any coherent benefit, all the adults involved seemed to think it was a good use of time/effective.

We also once took a field trip to the Tennessee Holocaust museum, which is a real thing.

just because you end up in GATE doesn't mean you're smart, it's just that you're better at tests than most of the other retards

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

just because you end up in GATE doesn't mean you're smart, it's just that you're better at tests than most of the other exceptional individuals

Said every 99-IQ loser.

Really though, acceptance into GATE programs, at least in my county, isn't based on grades specifically. They had a number of personality traits they looked for and you had to basically be nominated for it. The system would sometimes exclude kids who arguably should have been in it because they were overly strict with their criteria. I remember having taken an IQ test once as part of the criteria as well.

The point is, they weren't all that interested in just grades or just IQ tests. They had a wide range of criteria and were more concerned with the comprehensive picture. Oftentimes they'd get kids who were actually making bad grades because the teacher recognized that the kid was one of those so-advanced-they-were-bored-in-class-and-just-dicked-around types (which are fairly common).

Edit: I should note that "I'm actually really smart, I just don't try hard" only works as an excuse if other people agree with that. Those kids tended to be problem children who would do their work really quickly and then spend the rest of class bugging their neighbors.

 

[Xerxes IX]

My elementary school had GATE and looking back on it now it was just a front to segregate us from the Mexican kids who barely spoke English.

 

[neverendingmidi]

I remember in elementary school the kids in the Gifted programs were whoever had the parents that threw the biggest fits if their darling wasn't promoted. I was in it in middle school, it was okay, I mostly remember reading Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and being bored to tears by it, reading Robert Cormier books that were different levels of fucked up (seriously, 'The Bumblebee Flies Anyway' was just bizarre), and some deconstruction of fairy tales that ended with us watching the VHS of the stage production of "Into the Woods" that made me wonder for years if I had hallucinated the anatomically correct wolf costume (I hadn't).

 

[DK 699]

This is a nice thread.

I haven't really put much thought into this for a long time, but there was some sort of program like this where I was growing up. I can't remember the program's name or anything about it though. All I remember is that there was a multi-step admission process. The first step was a test administered to all of the children. I remember passing this and being told that I was allowed to advance to the next step of the process. I was taken out of class to take another test, which I didn't pass. After that I was told that I wasn't accepted and that was the end of that. I was a little bummed out at the time, but looking back it was probably for the better. Even if you don't want to factor glow-niggers and MK-ULTRA into the equation, I don't think that having some people telling me that I was some sort of genius would have been good for me.

I have to say, this conspiracy shit has really made me re-contextualize my adolescence. Growing up I saw myself as too ugly to get a girlfriend and too stupid to be a straight-A student. Now I see the boy I once was as someone who was too ugly to get Epsteined and too stupid to get MK-ULTRAed.

Edit: Forgot to mention this before and I don't want to powerlevel or give the impression that I'm some kind of expert (I'm not), but I do have some knowledge in Psychology. I have no idea why some sort of GATE program would go around giving kids Rorschach tests. I'm not saying that anyone here is a liar, I just don't understand what purpose it serves when looking for intelligent kids.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Edit: Forgot to mention this before and I don't want to powerlevel or give the impression that I'm some kind of expert (I'm not), but I do have some knowledge in Psychology. I have no idea why some sort of GATE program would go around giving kids Rorschach tests. I'm not saying that anyone here is a liar, I just don't understand what purpose it serves when looking for intelligent kids.

I'm not sure why they would either (though I have a vague memory of taking one), but since the gifted program was concerned with more than just raw intelligence, maybe they associated certain responses with certain desirable personality traits.

Alternatively, it could have just been some research that was convenient to slip into some tests they had to do anyways.

I remember in elementary school the kids in the Gifted programs were whoever had the parents that threw the biggest fits if their darling wasn't promoted. I was in it in middle school, it was okay, I mostly remember reading Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and being bored to tears by it, reading Robert Cormier books that were different levels of fucked up (seriously, 'The Bumblebee Flies Anyway' was just bizarre), and some deconstruction of fairy tales that ended with us watching the VHS of the stage production of "Into the Woods" that made me wonder for years if I had hallucinated the anatomically correct wolf costume (I hadn't).

My mom is an elementary teacher. They have problems with two kinds of obstructionists.

One is parents who think that because Little Susie makes As on all her grades, she's gifted. Usually Little Susie isn't anything special and is just obedient.

The other is other teachers who don't consider a student to be gifted just because they're lazy, disorganized, make low grades, etc. People who actually dealt with gifted kids recognized those as often being associated with giftedness (if the other traits were there). If anything, gifted kids seem to be more polarized than normal children in that they're either orderly, obedient little spergs or they're messy terrors.

 

[kissbummer]

This reminds me of a thread elsewhere that said that GATE was a gateway for pedophiles to have access to children. Seems really convoluted to me lol. The guy also was a loser who had done nothing with his giftedness.

I did GATE from elementary to high school. It wasn't anything too special. In elementary to middle school, we had some extra classes a couple of times per month. I remember we did a creative writing project in elementary school, and in middle school we had to create a new candy and share it. I also remember doing a wax museum where we had to pretend to be a historical figure.

In high school, we met maybe three or four times per semester. I think it was mostly based on college prep, but I can't remember too well. I was pretty busy with homework with then, so I was glad that I didn't have any extra assignments.

I think it's really annoying people who complained that being gifted in school ruined them. Well, it's not the primary school's fault you never learned a work ethic. Turns out there's a lot more to being successful than just being gifted.

 

[RandallB]

when i did gate they closed the gate behind us and didnt let us out of the pen until the end of the day