AngelUndercover wrote:
In elementary school teachers weren't quite sure what to do with me. They didn't have any resources for gifted kids (no money for it) and didn't believe in separating kids by ability (it might injure someone's self-esteem), so while they were happy to have a smart kid in their classes, I was a bit of a problem for them because I was so far ahead in some areas. Most of the time, their solution to the problem was to ignore it - which is why, for example, I ended up doing pre-reading work for two years, when I could read at high school level by the time I started school

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After elementary school, I was homeschooled, which was infinitely better.
Bingo, I was about to post my laundry-list of problems with school, but you basically summed it up for me.
The problem with me was that while I was "developmentally delayed" in some respects, when I started school I probably could read better than most high schoolers as well, so when I had trouble they didn't know what to do with me.
No gifted program, because the school claimed that well, every parent thinks their kid is gifted, so if there were a gifted program, everyone would have to be in it
No grade promotion either, because it wasn't "school policy." Not even when they held me back a grade (even with said reading capability & other skills), even after it became clear it was a HUGE mistake, they still wouldn't acknowledge their error.
(they also used the "it would hurt the other student's self esteem" argument for both gifted classes and grade-promotion, too)
Result: I was in-and-out of different schools for a long time, partially homeschooled, etc. Eventually I got to high school and managed to scrape out half a normal existence for a year or two, then dropped out and started taking college classes. Fast-forward a couple years, I've transferred into a top-ranked university, have a decent GPA and am planning on graduate school and phd.
Conclusion: Massive failure by the school system (no, I'm not bitter

) It wasn't until college that I ever felt comfortable in a classroom, gee, wonder why?

Never learned anything from school until college, either.