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30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Biology teacher here.. had a new student come in at age 15. He didn't talk much but he did all his work as asked and did it well. One day we were having a class discussion about something and he joined in. It ended up being a back and forth between just the two of us and at some point I realised I was discussing pretty high level stuff with a 15 year old. He's a neurosurgeon now.

fitzwillowy , Enoch Leung Report

Final score:

499points

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Blabadabadoo 1 year ago

Wow

56points

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I'm not a school teacher, but I used be a hockey instructor way back. During the summers, I was a hockey camp leader. Each week of the 8 weeks of summer, I would teach 20-30 kids how to play hockey. We were on the ice for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, but we had the kids from like 8am-5pm so there was a lot of time to fill.

There was only one kid I remember, his name was Charles. He would be registered for 5-6 of the 8 weeks of camps we ran. Very quiet, sweetest kid you'll ever meet, was 9-10 years old. He was pretty shy and for whatever reason had really taken to me, so I was his go-to buddy or whatever.

One day when we were trying to kill time, we went to a rec room where there were a bunch of board games and c**p. Charles asked if him and I could play a game and I said sure. Most of the games were already taken, and one of the only ones left was chess, so I asked him if he knew how to play, and he didn't. So I said I would teach him.

I showed him the basics, what each piece does, the point of the game, etc. I had been playing chess for years, so was pretty decent. We did a practice game where I didn't really try, and he understood the game shockingly quickly. To the point I could see him laying traps and that for me in the practice game. So we decided to play "for real", and I tried my best. I got absolutely whooped. He started explaining how he planned certain strategies like 5 moves in advance, thinking on a completely different level. We played 4 times and he dusted me every time. His mind was incredible.

I always remembered his name and looked him up on LinkedIn a while back. He's in med school and won a bunch of awards, pretty sure he skipped a few years. He's accomplished pretty much everything I wanted to accomplish but in 8 fewer years. The kid is absolutely incredible.

He was a s**t hockey player though. Kid took like 15 camps over 3 years and I think he somehow got worse. Absolutely hopeless on skates.

VeryAttractive , Kenneth Freeman Report

Final score:

430points

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Kirsten Kerkhof 1 year ago

That last line is hilarious!

179points

Home-school-detector , San José Public Library Report

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I teach editing to grad students in creative writing programs, but I once witnessed a kid who was so amazing that I know i was witnessing pure, raw genius at work. Her big sister was in my daughter’s 3rd grade class. A bunch of us mommies were just chatting and laughing with our kids’ teacher, in their classroom, while our kids and their siblings milled around the classroom. Out of the corner of my eye I was noticing one tiny little kid about three years old. She was staring at the alphabet border near the ceiling and asked another kid to tell her how both the “big and little letters *say*, not their names. I know my ABCs.” I guess she thought upper and lower case might be different. The big kid did, even the complications of “c” and “y.” The toddler looked at the border, saying each of the sounds. She had our attention then. Then toddled over to a book, “The Celery Stalks at Midnight,” sat on the floor with it and sounded out the words. Slowly, and awkwardly at first, then faster, until they sounded right, maybe not knowing all their definitions, but that didn’t stop her. By then we were all watching— mesmerized. She finished her awkward first pass, then read a few pages out loud to us, prefacing it with, “This is a funny book, Mommy, listen!” She was only three years old— and with minimal help, she had taught herself to read in about 20 minutes. That remains the single most amazing few minutes of my life. I knew I was in the presence of a magnificent human mind and I was deeply moved.

Final score:

409points

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Nichole Harris 1 year ago

I adore this.... I can feel the awe and appreciation of the poster

130points

teachingqueen77 , Personal Creations Report

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I was teaching distance over time graphs. The student stated that if the line just went straight up that it would indicate teleportation because distance has been gained but no time has passed. This was 5th grade science.

Edit: This kid ended up skipping 6th and 7th grade. 5th to 8th. He was a super humble kid, I miss having him in my class.

Final score:

372points

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Got Banned But Now I'm Back 1 year ago

Socially, that kid was screwed, skipping those grades. Yikes!! I hope his intelligence saved him and he prevailed in the end!

157points

mountaingoat05 , woodleywonderworks Report

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted My kid had a fourth grade teacher who let him work at his own pace in math. She managed to acquire books with more advanced material for him. He had taught himself calculus by the end of the school year.

She was such an amazing teacher to give him the space to fly.

Final score:

364points

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Nichole Harris 1 year ago

So....stop down voting y'all....that ain't for any reason other than abuse and spam

60points

Brian W. TH 1 year ago

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OffKeySinger 1 year ago

I was lucky to have a teacher like this. In 4th grade, she let me sit in the corner by myself and go through higher level text books. By the time the year ended, I had finished the 8th grade math book. I am no genius, just had an aptitude for the lower math levels and had a teacher that indulged me going at my own pace

15points

RandomFrog(He/They️‍️) 1 year ago

God I need something like this for my ADHD. I’m certainly not that advanced, but I fricking hate math class. We take one day to get the basics of something. Then the next day we do an assignment on it. Then we go over the rest of the topic and do another assignment. By now I ussually have the topic down and could get 85+% on a test about it. But no. We do another assignment the next day. And guess what we do the next day an assignment and a lesson about it again. Then we take the test by wich time I am thouroghly done and hate the topic becuase of the tediousness of repeating it for far longer than I needed to. And I get 70+% on it. But I can’t get into accelerated math becuase my grade isint high enough, but I can’t get a higher grade becuase of ADHD and dwellinf on topics for too long.

11points

Shereen Collington 1 year ago

I completely relate. It annoys me when people tell me to slow down and take baby steps. Why? I'm 10 steps ahead.

3points

The Mom 1 year ago

I wish more teachers were like this. When in 2nd grade my son would finish his worksheets correctly while the teacher was explaining it to the class and then he would get in trouble for having done so.

11points

Shereen Collington 1 year ago

What a shortsighted teacher. He or she lacked discernment. I hope your son is ok.

3points

Debby Keir 1 year ago

UK used to have a national organisation for gifted and talented children, which later morphed into NAGTY (National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth) Schools could nominate gifted children and they were invited to summer schools (some paid, some were sponsored) to do a pre university course of their choice. Age 11 up. It was brilliant, and hopefully still is.

6points

Monosyllabic girl 1 year ago

In the US we had GATE (gifted and talented education). Im sure it has a new name by now lol. I was in it from first grade on and they helped with finding your aptitude in math, English etc and putting you in appropriate class. In first grade i was in 3rd grade math and Science and went to the 5th grade classroom for English/reading. Much better than skipping grades. Then junior high we had high school teachers come in and high school we took bus to the college in afternoons. Also had help applying to colleges and did science fairs, learned languages early on. Smart kids are bored kids, bored kids create trouble. It was great to have aim.

7points

Shouting Alice 1 year ago

I was like this, but with linguistics and history. My 4th grade teacher started passing me all kinds of extra books to read, I usually had them finished by the end of the day. I read a TON of novels that year, he was lovely. I hope he had a great life, he was in his 60s when I had him and he'd be mid to late 80s now. If he's still put there, Mr. Glahn, you were the best <3

4points

Emily Elizabeth 1 year ago

*quakes in dyscalculia*

4points

Joanna Mondragon 1 year ago

My 3rd grade teacher scolded me for practicing cursive letters she hasn't taught us yet. My mom had already taught me cursive so I knew all the letters and was bored in class.

2points

Brian Hansen 1 year ago

Not calling anyone a liar but this one is slightly hard to believe, maybe slightly exaggerated? Even with a head start and massive levels or reading and compression skills, that's 10 total years of math in what? 7-8 months? Kids are geniuses and there might be someone out there who could but time wise, unless he already knew most of it, that's pushing it.

1point

SW Dad 1 year ago

Yeah, I didn't buy this for a second. Then I went and looked at mountaingoat05's posts on Reddit. He's a big fish storyteller. My favorite was the one where he wakes up missing scars and tattoos because he body swapped or something.

1point

Eb Mull 1 year ago

Amazing!

0points

melissa McKenzie 1 year ago

That's awesome

0points

Erik Griswold 1 year ago

Lol this is b******t. Most of these are just people making up stories for upvotes.

-1point

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Ain't a teacher and its my little brother but I thought ill share it.
When I was around 14 and he was around 6 years old I would watch lots of YouTube videos in English (aint our native language) and he would just sit on the bed behind me and watch for hours, I thought he was just bored and didn't understand anything from what was being said.
Ffw a year we were on a long car ride and he picked up a history book in English, after a couple hours he tells us he is done reading it, dad laughs and says oh sure, I ask him to read a sentence and translate it he proceeds to absolutely nail it and shock us.

meashen , abbamouse Report

Final score:

301points

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Lyone Fein 1 year ago

I had a young friend like that who could pick up other languages and become fluent inside a year. Mind blowing.

118points

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I knew when he surprised me by reassembling an engine out of a car all by himself in a single 90 minute class period. It was right before school let out for Covid. I had to hurry up and get some projects thrown back together quickly since school was closing. He asked to do it so I let him try and went off to do other things. By the end of the class it was completely assembled! Never asked me for help and it was “working” Definitely gifted!

choochoocharli , Ivan Radic Report

Final score:

275points

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Lakota Wolf 1 year ago

Ahh, I wish I'd been able to convince my parents to let me take shop/auto mechanics courses in college. They threw me into college at 14 and I loved working on cars, but my mom didn't want me to take automotive courses, I'd taint my "perfect genius-ness". I think I'd be a lot happier now if I'd at least gotten a chance to try them! XD

110points

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Not a teacher, but a student with a gifted kid in his class. In third grade we had a new student come in who had just moved to the country with his family. Our teacher saw he was smart, she she challenged him with some math we were meant to learn in a couple weeks. He solved the problems no problem.

Next she tried some 4th grade level math, again he solved it with no problems. After that she called in one of the 5th grade teacher and she gave him some problems meant for 5th graders. As expected he solved those without any problems. They kept going until he got a question *partially* right. I believe but that point they were giving him stuff intended for early/mid-year 6th grade students.

Last I heard this kid got a degree in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University.

beep41 , Anthony Albright Report

Final score:

264points

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Daniel Engel 1 year ago (edited)

My son, (now 31 and a computer programming engineer) during his sophomore year of high school was taking calculus B/C , during lectures he would finish up homework from his earlier classes... Giving his teacher much concern. My wife and i learned this from his teacher during a parent teacher conference. Eventually his teacher gave up his concern that my son wasn't paying attention to his lectures after he'd aced every post lecture quiz thrown at him.

89points

#10

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I’m a preschool teacher and I knew a 3 year old girl that had very extensive vocabulary and could already read really well. Once during lunchtime, a little boy scarfed down his food and her response was, “wow, he must have been famished”. I was blown away!

She also taught me about the digestive system once during lunchtime, and it was accurate information. But her favorite subject was the solar system! She was full of facts about the solar system, and she would teach me new things all the time. I always told her mom that she wasn’t ready for kindergarten, she’s ready for college.

les_beau , Nenad Stojkovic Report

Final score:

253points

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mulk 2 years ago

Thinking about all these parents who have "very intelligent child", "my kid is a genius", "she's not like the others", "he will be a doctor"... blablabla... and this girl come. *mic drop*

76points

#11

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted We took standardized tests like the second week of school. Hadn’t really done much academics yet as it was Elementary school (grade 5) and most of what we’d done was routines and introductions/games.

Kid scored at a 10th grade level in math and 9th grade in reading. Ok. Whatever, impressive but not unheard of. Except this kid was at the WORST school in the state. Literally. Ranked dead last. His whole schooling career. Nobody else in my class scored above a 6th grade level in anything and most were 3/4 grade level.

I basically had to do entirely separate lesson plans for this kid. While the rest of my class did multiplication facts, I had a coding curriculum and was teaching him basic languages. He had his own reading group in addition to the high reading group. It was even more incredible, because he’d always been in trouble and in the principals office the years before. I sent him to ISS once. All year. (Really low for that school, kids on other classes went literally daily, I had a few go once a week).

I begged his mom to switch him out of that school track, said I’d fill out any paperwork, write any letters. It was my only year as a teacher, not sure what happened to him. Mom never contacted me. He finished the year by shattering all of his records on testing exams. Literally the .01% on his tests. He’s legitimately one of the smartest kids I’d ever met, from the poorest school with the worst conditions I’ve ever seen.

phisch13 , UNSOM Report

Final score:

236points

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mulk 2 years ago (edited)

You can find diamond even in the worst places! And in that case by "worst places", don't get me wrong, I mean: place with no financial support because the system is f***ed up. And that's a reason to change the system by investing more in public education.

89points

couldhaveprevented , makelessnoise Report

#12

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted My MIL had my husband when she was 15. Sometimes during college she had to take him with her to class because she couldn't find a babysitter. My husband would raise his hand during class and ask relevant, thoughtful questions. By the time he was in third grade, around 7ish years old, he was able to do statistics. His mom just got her second master's degree :) and my husband is still annoyingly intelligent lol!

Final score:

201points

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Silre 1 year ago

Sounds like my ex

16points

#13

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I came into the room, he was playing a few strings on the guitar. I asked what it was and he soft pedaled it. I pushed a bit further and he started playing what he'd written. I was blown away. Of course it needed a bit of fine tuning, a guitar solo in the middle, and a few ooo-la-la's here and there but he'd written a legitimate rock song. Blew his parents away when we played it in concert.

senor_roboto , Tim Pierce Report

Final score:

198points

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Giulia Lake 2 years ago

Mr Schneebly. Is that you?

65points

Provojohn , Marco Verch Professional Photographer Report

#14

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Im not a teacher but a past fellow 15 yo student of mine...

In metalwork / craft shop, for a project he produced a 'thing" made of two car hub caps.. looked like a UFO :)

Nothing was visible but he'd rigged whatever was inside so the two hubcaps spun in opposite directions (while staying together).. it looked like a spinning top, with a small shaft top and bottom.

When it came to the presentation, he set it on a table and "spun" it using a drill, when the drill was removed it spun, and spun and we all waited and waited.....

When it was still spinning some 40 minutes later (with only the slightest of a wobble) we had also moved onto the next presentation! The teacher asked what his project was demonstrating..??

he replied. pretty quietly that he was working on a perpetual motion machine.. but had "not quite got it yet..."!!

The teacher called a meeting shortly after and he was gone from the school within a year, allegedly signed up by some huge corporation who paid his full college years on a great salary on the condition he worked for them.

Still going strong in research etc from what I hear :)

EDIT, as I said he was 15 yo, maybe dreaming of becoming the next Einstein, who knows? maybe he already knew it was impossible, but who knows? He tried! I thought of him later in life when I entered my first ever NYC Marathon and my Father said to me"Why? You'll never win...!" wtf!

Sometimes you just gotta do what your heart tells you....

Final score:

191points

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Pamela Blue 1 year ago (edited)

Your father is silly. A "marathon" isn't really done on winning. It's done on "finishing." It's a great thing to finish a marathon, because you have to be fit and have a load of stamina to get to the finish line. It doesn't even matter if you are the last runner in. You FINISHED!!!! Many people don't.

9points

#15

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I’m a special ed teacher and I teach kids who have emotional and behavior disabilities like oppositional defiance disorder or autism which manifests as anger, that kind of stuff.

But anyway last year I had a kid who we think had a photographic memory and was a possible savant. He could see a map once and be able to draw it nearly perfectly hours or even days and months later. He had almost every detail too and all the towns and cities spelled correctly and major land features and even the major highways correctly labeled and named. He also was like a human calculator. You could ask him nearly any math equation and he could answer it in a few seconds in his head. Granted they couldn’t be extreme equations but pretty much anything like PEMDAS wise he could do in his head quickly. His trouble was that he was very aggressive and we could never put him back in a gen ed classroom because he was such a danger to other kids and teachers if he became annoyed or upset. But he was a good kid and very intelligent he just had a lot of trouble with his emotions and behaviors.

pill55 , David Woo Report

Final score:

185points

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Jill Bussey 2 years ago

That's sad. I hope he found his way in life.

85points

Back2Bach , Camera Eye Photography Report

#16

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted After less than one year of music lessons, it was clear the student would likely become a concert pianist when he learned 15 of Bach's Two-Part Inventions from memory - and played them brilliantly!

Final score:

181points

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Anaïs Grobin 1 year ago

My daughter is like this kid. At 4 years old, she taught herself to play some simple beethoven & Bach pieces that she saw in a book at her grandmother's house. So her grandmother bought her a little 44 key keyboard. My daughter kept buying books, and by 7 she'd taught herself to read music. For her 7th birthday, I got her a weighted key electric piano. She can play by ear and read sheet music. She's 9 now, and also plays the sax, and is teaching herself guitar. However, in pretty sure she has ADHD, so I'm not sure she'll stick with the last instrument. She also learned to read at 2 years old, and her school does star & bass testing and she's consistently in the 98-100 percentile for reading and comprehension, but she's pretty average in everything else. And she's that one kid that fails gym every freaking year. She's a lot younger than her classmates, and it shows in the way she handles her emotions and her interests. So there's a downside with gifted kids too.

2points

dkades , Marco Verch Professional Photographer Report

#17

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted There was a kid in my HS Chemistry class who would sit in the back, never really talk to anybody, and finish all tests an assignments in less than half the time. Chill guy, just kept to himself.

One day we had a test on Stoichiometry, which if I remember correctly, involves a lot of conversions across different units with multiplication and division of factors out to the hundredths place. You get a lot of long numbers, really need a calculator to keep it all straight.

Anyways, the test goes on and it reaches the time he normally finishes but this time he doesn't. I'm thinking, oh s**t, this test must be killer if this kid hasn't finished yet, everyone else must be f****d. Time gets to about 15 minutes left, we're all panicking, then finally the kid gets up and turns it in, still the first in the class mind you, but by a much smaller margin than normal.

A week goes by and we get the tests back. Big shockwave in the class bc this kid gets a zero. Teacher thinks he has been cheating because all of his answers were basically close but off by a enough that its not a rounding error. They think, he must have an answer key that he copied, need to investigate further.

After talking to him though that's not what happened at all. Turns out his calculator had run out of batteries right before the test and so, instead of asking the teacher to borrow one, or get more batteries, etc, kid just decides to do all the math in the margins of the test. We're talking 5+ calculations of long multiplication and division OUT TO THE HUNDRETH'S PLACE for each and every question. That's how he got every question right except off by a little bit. And when he was done, he went back and erased all the extra work because it wasn't supposed to be part of the test. Did all of this and STILL FINISHED BEFORE ANYBODY ELSE. I was amazed. The teacher was amazed. Think he got 100% plus extra credit, and they told him next time to just ask for a calculator. It was mindblowing.

Final score:

168points

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Debby Keir 1 year ago

"in the olden days" we didn't have calculators but log tables and a slide rule.

58points

#18

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Not a traditional teacher, but I taught guitar at a mom and pop guitar store in my hometown.

A few years ago, a lady brought her 7 year old daughter in for formal training. Now... 99/100 times, a kid that young wants to play the guitar until they get one. After that, it sits in a corner and collects dust until it makes its way to Goodwill or something.

This girl had legitimate talent though. She managed to teach herself very basic chords on her own, and had even began writing music. Everything I taught her, she learned within seconds.

I also discovered through comparison with my own ear training, that she had perfect pitch.

Musicians are d***s. Many of us rarely recognize or appreciate true talent in someone else, but this girl was truly something special. If she isn't a famous/successful musician someday, it will be a travesty.

anon , Luna Nguyen Report

Final score:

162points

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ZOEY KLESH 1 year ago

I'm one of those kids whose parents got a guitar and I never used it lol. Still feel bad

41points

#19

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I'm not a teacher, but I was for a while a medicine student and met an extremely gifted mate there. He was just 16 instead of 18 (we found out later). He came from a middle eastern country and didn't speak a single word in our language. In less than a month he learnt enough of the language to maintain a conversation, to follow classes... and to get around 95/100 questions right in our first anatomy test. From that moment on, he just aced every single exam, and today he's working as a surgeon in the most important hospital of his country.

anon , PACAF Report

Final score:

157points

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Debby Keir 1 year ago

I do not doubt you, but the entry requirements for medicine are that you are fluent in the language in which it is taught, BEFORE you start the course.

35points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

#20

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted 11 year old girl (year7) in my Maths class. She started asking questions that would have stumped the brightest in my top set year 11. It was a delight to have her in my class and I’m so jealous of the teacher who gets to teach her this year.

LittleBigDuck , J P Davidson Report

Final score:

148points

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Jordan 1 year ago

more like get taught from her

31points

#21

Not really a “kid,” per se, but when I was teaching in uni, one of my first year students wrote a paper that was too good to be true. Now, I’d had several plagiarists over the years, so I did my diligence and asked him if he could come to my office hour to discuss his paper. This is a good test, because a plagiarist will not likely be able to actually discuss what they “wrote” in any detail.

Well, this kid proceeded to just blow it out of the f*****g water. Not only did he write the paper, but he was also able to describe all of the theory behind it in great detail. Kid got an A+ in the class, needless to say. He could easily have jumped straight into a PhD. Legit superstar.

anon Report

Final score:

147points

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Klopec 1 year ago

WOW

2points

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#22

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted When I did student teaching in band (did not become a teacher) we had this one 7th grader who was I think dyslexic. I don’t remember. This was 2004. He was a percussionist. Well it’s not just drums, you put them wherever so they learn all the instruments.

Now, I have damn good relative pitch. Go to conduct the band at a rehearsal and the timpani are as if I tuned them myself (for the uninitiated, timpani, or kettle drums, are like the bass guitar of the orchestral percussion world, if you tuned the strings instead of using frets, using foot pedals as you play). A few great rehearsals later, and my practicum teacher and I realized this kid has perfect pitch. We gave him all the harder parts.

I really hope this kid kept playing. Developing relative pitch isn’t easy, and having perfect pitch is nuts.

stefiscool , John Report

Final score:

141points

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crowspectre (he/they) 1 year ago

Why isn't this higher?? Non musicians have no f*****g clue how awesome perfect pitch is

39points

#23

Started a kid on clarinet at age 10. By age 11, he's blowing through Mozart's clarinet concerto like nothing. That's a solo for professional musicians, in case you are not aware.

trailthrasher Report

Final score:

141points

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thatonelesbiangorwl 1 year ago

woah thats kids pro im so jealous

9points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

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#24

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Science teacher here (UK). The most gifted kids I've ever taught are those that in year 7 (11/12 years old). Never gave up. Always pushed on even when wrong and just kept trying. These are the kids that started average but walked away with, once or twice, getting 100% on a GCSE test. Part might be an inbuilt natural ability. But to me a truly gifted kid is the one that takes failure and turns it in to a learning chance. As they will always get further in life

heartlessglin , Alexandratx Report

Final score:

138points

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S Mi 1 year ago

Growth mindset

29points

#25

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Took a summer job helping at a daycare. One of the toddlers (about 18 months old) was way ahead of the rest. Could talk full sentences, knew his abc’s, could count beyond 20. Already had shapes and colors down. I’ve seen kindergarten aged kids that haven’t mastered some of these things.

He’s in his early 20s now with a masters in engineering and a six figure salary.

anon , Kingswood Academy Report

Final score:

136points

POST

S Mi 1 year ago

These kids aren't always gifted, but sometimes pushed. Seems like it was either fine in this case or did indicate pretty advanced thinking, but generally speaking, kids learning to play and explore serves them better than knowing abcs and shapes.

17points

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#26

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted One child - he was more ahead of his peers in every aspect - it seemed like he was babysitting the rest of his classmates. After a week of teaching the class simple coding, he built a fully functional multiplayer game with material he taught himself. This was at age 8.

Another child - consistently produced excellent work, finished early and could discuss his viewpoints in depth and actually made me change my viewpoint. He was brilliant in maths - once I was explaining a new concept to the class and worked out one example together. I told them that I would guide them in the second example so that I can help whoever needs and I hear a really genuine and cute "oops ... I just finished them all now".

aenr0001 , Said.fm Report

Final score:

123points

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thatonelesbiangorwl 1 year ago

woah

7points

#27

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I used to put a math joke/puzzle in the corner of the white board. Essentially 3 Golden Triangle numbers arranged in a triangle, and a puzzle which gave the letter “I” as a result in the middle. In short, it was an Illuminati joke.

I had this up for quite a few classes, with nobody being able to guess what on earth it was. Until the last class of the day, a student who suffered from particularly invasive Autism just came in, took maybe 3 seconds at most, and then laughed saying “Why have you drawn the illuminati symbol on the board?”

It wasn’t so much that it was impossible, I was just blown away by how quickly he managed to do it.

CountPeter , Mira Mechtley Report

Final score:

112points

POST

Laura Ketteridge 1 year ago

"Invasive autism"?!

35points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

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#28

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I teach foreign language at a university, and one semester I get a notification that there will be a minor (under 18) in the class. I have to take some online test about that, so it’s a bit annoying, but fine.

Anyway, flash forward to a couple weeks into the semester. I’m talking with one of my students during the break. He’s an advanced undergrad in his junior year, taking grad courses in theoretical topology. Thinning hair, glasses. Also very interested in philosophy, which was my major in college, so we got along on that front. I figured he was a little older than everyone else, and had come to college late or something. Then it comes out. He’s 17. He was so brilliant that he gave his high school principle an ultimatum after his first year: either they give him the degree early and he goes straight to college, or he drops out and goes to college anyway. Ivy leagues were already looking to recruit him.

I’d never encountered a *genius* before that. And he was just this very humble, unassuming guy. Always did his homework and showed up on time.

Schopenschluter , kellywritershouse Report

Final score:

104points

POST

Lakota Wolf 1 year ago

It may just be OP's wording, but I'm having a hard time matching "he gave his high school principal an ultimatum" with "very humble guy".

51points

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#29

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I'm not a classroom teacher (mostly music) but I had a small group of 1st and 2nd graders for a math flex block. Basically we group the kids by level instead of grade or class, and I had the "extension" group. They had all the core concepts, and we were building on them. This one second grade kid was something else.

We were working on double digit adding and subtracting with regrouping (borrowing), and somewhere along the line, this kid figured out multiplication. Then he figured out he can use those rules to multiply large numbers that end in zeroes (eg. 700 x 4). He expanded this rule to include more zeroes. Then he figured out he could start putting numbers in the tens and ones slots.

And then school was shut down.

BeepBeep_ImAsleep , david Atkinson Report

Final score:

99points

POST

Debby Keir 1 year ago

and the audience clapped???

4points

#30

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Had a four-year-old kid who insisted that I read a children’s Solar System book to him over and over again. After the seventh or eighth time, he was mouthing the words along with me. He couldn’t read - he had memorized the entire thing.

TrMrFr , Alan Levine Report

Final score:

96points

POST

Nichole Harris 1 year ago

This was me at 2 "reading" green eggs and ham to my mom

36points

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

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#31

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted I knew a kindergarten student (5-6 y/o) was gifted by her art. At that age, "art" is a very loose term. But this girl was drawing detailed drawings, her people had hair and eyelashes and fingers and finger nails. The amount of detail she puts into her art is very advanced to someone of her age.

PartTimeKhajiit , Ryan Adams Report

Final score:

21points

POST

#32

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Foreign exchange student from China in the 8th grade. His writing abilities far exceeded the majority of even the accelerated class.

I moved him from regular English to accelerated and not only was his writing strong, his insights were so deep and thoughtful. At the end of the year, I learned not only was he a top student in my class, he won student of the year in Spanish as well.

chis_and_whine , watchsmart Report

Final score:

18points

POST

#33

One of my 3rd grade kiddos broke a PS3 controller apart and canabalized the parts to make a handshake zapper device.

acousticbruises Report

Final score:

18points

POST

ί𝔫ＣίŦᵃт𝐔𝐬 1 year ago

So he broke a $50 item apart to make a 50¢ novelty item! 😂😂 Pretty impressive though!

0points

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#34

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Taught a girl in grade 1 in an advanced after school program. She would fool around and laugh and giggle all class and then come test time... perfect score on her English writing. All the other kids would have some minor mistakes.

And this was in KOREA! English was her second language! She got moved out of my class to the REALLY advanced class and I got a flower from her mom.

Drinkingdoc , Roman Harak Report

Final score:

18points

POST

Nichole Harris 1 year ago

Awww

4points

#35

30 Teachers And Other Folks Break Down The Moment They Realized The Student They Were Talking To Was Extremely Gifted Straight A's in school from the start, and the ability to hold a pretty adult conversation with me when he was like 7 or 8. I don't really make a thing of it and neither does he. He doesn't have very much homework to bring home, he does it at school while still in class.

He is a freshman this year and grades are only slipping a bit....all A's except for 1 B. We have never had him tested but all of his Honors teachers assumed he was gifted by his grades and conversational skills.

I am a lucky parent, I wouldn't really say he is gifted in any particular area, he just seems damn smart. Before you ask......no, I am not a gifted parent. I got B's and C's in school, same with his mother. I realize I'm blessed and I am thankful for that every day. He knows he is smart but does not exactly brag about it.

ArnulfoCurry , GPA Photo Archive Report

Final score:

17points

POST

ί𝔫ＣίŦᵃт𝐔𝐬 1 year ago

This is my son, but I wouldn't put him in this story, it's not extraordinary. We've been having adult conversations all his life. Social issues, philosophy, art and literature, etc. I don't really have anyone else to talk to.

8points

MrFantasticallyNerdy Report

#36

I'm Brownie leader for Girl Guiding (UK girl scouts aged 7-10 basically) and we were doing a simple task with money. They had a series of questions to answer for points; one of which was "if you add up all the coins we use, how much does it make?". All the girls looked puzzled, and most began furiously counting on their fingers. However, one of them, after around three seconds of thinking, just said the answer without any hesitation. She worked it out faster than I did, I was very impressed (context, I'm doing a Biochemistry degree, so I do maths and stats all the time).
Needless to say, she got double points.

Edit: the sum would be 1p + 2p + 5p + 10p + 20p + 50p + £1 + £2 (=£3.88)

ThinkBoutBees Report

Final score:

17points

POST

#37

Not a teacher, but when I was in (a top-tier US west coast) college, taking a 3rd year Biochemistry class (meaning there were a few semesters of prereqs), we had a classmate who came with her dad. She was so young that her feet couldn't touch the floor when she was seated in the chairs of the lecture room.

That bastard probably messed up the grading curve…

Final score:

16points

POST

Tess 1 year ago

This is why grading curves are stupid, amongst the myriad of other reasons.

4points

Konstancija is a Content Creator at Bored Panda. She has a bachelor’s degree in Translation and Interpreting and a master’s degree in Future Media and Journalism. She is very interested in sustainable fashion and is a perfect companion to go to second-hand shops and antiques for nearly anything: clothes, books or furniture. Her interests also include photography, literature and hiking.

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I am a visual editor here. In my free time I enjoy the vibrant worlds of art galleries, exhibitions, and soulful concerts. Yet, amidst life's hustle and bustle, I find solace in nature's embrace, cherishing tranquil moments with beloved friends. Deep within, I hold a dream close - to embark on a global journey in an RV, accompanied by my faithful canine companion. Together, we'll wander through diverse cultures, weaving precious memories under the starry night sky, fulfilling the wanderlust that stirs my soul.

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What do you think ?

POST

Becky Samuel 1 year ago

Our current educational and social system is almost a complete failure at helping gifted children to become high-functioning adults. We need to work out how to do better. Imagine how great our society could be if we didn't neglect, break, or lose such a high percentage of the natural talent out there.

24points

Joshua Russell 1 year ago

Agreed one thousand percent.

1point

Lakota Wolf 1 year ago

I'm just putting it out there that it's not always a "good thing" to put so-called "genius" kids on pedestals, either socially or academically (or via parental pressure). Sometimes being put into "gifted" educational programs or skipping grades or being pushed into "advanced" curriculums can really hurt the child socially, emotionally, or mentally (or all three). Yep, I am speaking from personal experience, and from observing my classmates who were pushed into "being geniuses" by their parents because their parents WANTED to have little "geniuses" for children.

16points

Lara M 1 year ago

It's not good the other way, either. I tutored a "genius" kid in math when I was a teenager. She was in 4th grade at the time and knew all the stuff they were doing. The school wouldn't advance her, so I offered to give her some enrichment so that she wouldn't be bored silly. We got all the way to trigonometry, and she did great. She wrote a cute little computer game with a bouncing billiard ball using trigonometry. She loved math and ended up getting into a fancy college on a scholarship. But due to her cultural and religious background, she ended up not graduating from college at all. In her culture, women were supposed to marry and quit either studying or working, and that's what she did. Always made me sad that this was how she ended up.

15points

Mel The Axolotl 1 year ago

As someone who was also pushed to be gifted, I completely agree. It was all fun until I hit high school, then I had no study skills, no attention span at all, and was still learning to socialize because in elementary and middle school I never did.

5points

BookDragon 1 year ago

THIS. I never went into the gifted program even though I should have, I've always gotten good grades. For me, 90% and up was average. But now, my anxiety is so bad I overthink everything, and I procrastinate so much I'm months behind in school. However, I love my teachers and my school and I always participate in discussions. But when you are always above average, average feels like a failing grade. So you re-do assignments, falling farther and farther behind. I'm so burnt out, I put all my effort into helping others that any decision is almost impossible, it feels like life or death. And I'm in grade 9. I start highschool soon. If I can't fix my stupid brain I'm screwed.

4points

Monica Michelle 2 years ago

Working on a curriculum for after school program teaching kids how to make history podcasts. They are brilliant. 10 year old wanting to talk water inequality and immigration.

12points

Patti Vance 1 year ago

i was a poor high school student & my teachers treated me like an idiot. so, i put off going to college for almost 10 yrs. when i finally took the entrance exams i was sure i wouldn't pass. after the scoring the dean called me into his office to question me on my answers as well as inform me i was considered a 'academically disabled student". why? because my score was off the charts but at the same time my math skills were at 2nd/3rd grade level. ended up graduating w/honors but only after taking the math mandatory math twice. still struggle w/balancing my checkbook but i can write a dissertation in my sleep!

8points

AK to LV 1 year ago

I don't know the word for it but do you think you might have math dyslexia? I don't know a lot about it and I know that sometimes people are just bad at math.

2points

Will Cable 1 year ago

It is brilliant when a teacher sees potential and feeds it. Sadly, I've had a few teachers that just killed that side of things to the point that I just gave up. To this day I can not pick up a pen or pencil without the remarks going through my mind and I just die a little bit each time inside.

7points

Alexa Saltz 1 year ago

Gifted children often have huge problems in adulthood. Many do not end up success stories. If you are a parent of an exceptional child, please do whatever it takes to insure they get past that bump in the road.

7points

Gareth Baus 1 year ago

The main on probably being to actually find something challenging for the kid, getting to the point where you actually have to study for the first time in your life in college is way to late to learn how to study.

5points

wifeofweasley 1 year ago

I wouldn't say I'm gifted. I'm pretty average with a normal high school degree. But I have this thing where I hyperfixate on things and learn everything about it. And I won't stop until I find something else. So far it's been John von Neumann, Alexander Hamilton, Harry Potter and atm it's the human skeleton... It's rather annoying for people around me but I can't help it.

6points

steampunk dandelion 1 year ago

you may want to look into ASD and see if you can be assessed for it! I was like you at a point of time, though my hyperfixations lead to my school insisting I was a gifted child. a diagnosis of ASD really helped me learn more about myself and the reason why I was absolutely drowning while in school ^^

1point

B.Nelson 1 year ago

I've been trying to get some students to do their work while I'm subbing. One kid is ADD and dyslexic but smart and he sits next to this girl who is listed as special Ed. He starts typing up his answers and gets to a word he can't spell and asks me. I also have issues with spelling and had no idea how to spell it. Girl in special Ed rattles off the spelling. And the next. And the next. Apparently she is in both gate seminar and special Ed and can spell anything. Now I'm glad they are sitting next to each other so she can help him with spelling and he can help her with communication. Kids are so weirdly awesome some times.

5points

memyselfandI 1 year ago

My mom still lives to tell the story of how my 3 year old brother got mad at 18 month old me for not putting the toys away in the labeled boxes. He’d started reading at 2 and didn’t understand that I couldn’t read yet. We joke that I started reading at 2 1/2 so he would stop arguing with me about reading labels. Realistically, I was probably just jealous that he could do something I couldn’t.

4points

Leo Domitrix 1 year ago

I know I threw people for some loops (I still do) but do not cut the genius from the herd. Bullying always ensued, in my experience. And if I didn't make that cut, abuse at home.

4points

AK to LV 1 year ago

So sorry that this happened to you. You deserved better.

1point

The Mom 1 year ago

I had a college maths course with a 13 year old who was kind of shy but everyone was great with him.

3points

Carol Emory 1 year ago

When I was seven, my mother and aunt thought it would be fun to teach me to play Cribbage. Within an hour, they couldn't win a game. My maths skill were such that, yes, I was a mathlete in High School and we won frequently. None of that compares to my husband that took college math up to Calculus II and aced every class without even trying. I'm the Accountant, he's the Web Developer. And our son...hates math with a passion...LOL.

2points

BonnyDK 1 year ago

I taught PreK-6th grade art. My two kids went through my class. Both gifted. One could do a standardized test in 10 minutes and it would be a perfect paper. The other would be working until 5 o'clock on it and turn in a perfect paper. We did face masks out of construction paper in 2nd grade back then. Flat with colored paper features + curled or scrunched hair. My son did a wolf. He made a dimensional muzzle that opened and shut when you walked. Several years ahead of his classmates academically. Scored top 1% in the nation on tests. I think they inherited their intelligence from my dad who skipped three grades in school, joined Navy airborne and helped correct the longitude and latitudes on our maps in the late 50's early 60's before calculators. NOAA said they still use his measurements today they were so accurate. Both kids graduated from Ivy League Cornell and one from Columbia the other George Washington. School gifted classes were on paper mostly. No individual plans.

2points

AffenpinscherMom 1 year ago

No like hard long roll

0points

Moth Rivers 1 year ago

What this entire article fails to realize is that most "gifted children" are autistic and their only gifted because they have found a special interest in that particular topic. I was always called the gifted kid when I was in elementary school but once I reached high school I had a major burnout and now I'm just merely average. Pushing the label of gifted onto a child is most likely them masking austism

0points

Aram Ansell 1 year ago

Taught at a school for gifted children, had a 5th grader in second year algebra (which is about 4 or 5 years advanced) but the crazy part was he would write in the margins of his assessments calculus concepts. He once drew a graph of a polynomial and suggested he could estimate the area under the graph by drawing smaller and smaller rectangles. Basically created calculus on his own in the 5th grade.

0points

Tony Gonzalez 1 year ago (edited)

A complete failure in helping gifted children? Try a complete failure period. Our education system has steadily gone down hill in the past 20 years. Our school boards have watered down education and lowered the standards so that "no child is left behind". In doing so, they have deprived the more capable or talented students of a good, solid, proper education. In order to fully grow, one has to be challenged in order to expand minds and creativity. Students need to be taught to think outside the box and have independent thinking and expand their imagination. Our education system appears to be discouraging that in order not to offend the less gifted or less capable. In a conversation with a school teacher, I was told that they're no longer allowed to give out extra credit work or discuss things that are not going to be in the test. So if you're teaching history for example WWII, you can't expand and include the causes leading up to WWII if it isn't in the test.

0points

David Comeau 1 year ago

I was in college and one of my classmates had very recently moved from China. He didn’t know any English, or barely. By the end of the 2 years, he was able to present a topic in front of the whole class in English(not perfect) and he had the highest marks in the class for every topic. His handouts were all littered with Chinese writing. Learn to find that he was already a doctor in his homeland China but unable to practice in Canada. Not sure what happened to him but I suspect maybe he went back to China and incorporated his education in his medical practice. We were taking a 2 year college program in Orthosis/Prosthetics technology

0points

Ruben M 1 year ago

States fund all these advanced programs for "gifted" students, while the underperforming and those with learning disabilities are vastly underfunded. There is no evidence that the "gifted" programs even further the end potential of these kids' future.

0points

AK to LV 1 year ago

I was put in the gifted and talented program for grades 1 thru 3, 6 yrs old to 8 yrs old. All of a sudden, I wasn't in it anymore at 4th grade. Alway made me feel like I got dumber or kicked out of the friend group for not being cool enough. One girl was in the G/T program in kindergarten. I don't know about junior high but, by the time High School came around, I think she was burned out. She didn't graduate and got pregnant at 17.

0points

steampunk dandelion 1 year ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

steampunk dandelion 1 year ago

don't mind me deleting this! I happened to share a story I felt was too personal and immediately regretted posting it! sorry about that!

1point

Linden 1 year ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

POST

Becky Samuel 1 year ago

24points

Joshua Russell 1 year ago

Agreed one thousand percent.

1point

Lakota Wolf 1 year ago

16points

Lara M 1 year ago

15points

Mel The Axolotl 1 year ago

5points

BookDragon 1 year ago

4points

Monica Michelle 2 years ago

Working on a curriculum for after school program teaching kids how to make history podcasts. They are brilliant. 10 year old wanting to talk water inequality and immigration.

12points

Patti Vance 1 year ago

8points

AK to LV 1 year ago

I don't know the word for it but do you think you might have math dyslexia? I don't know a lot about it and I know that sometimes people are just bad at math.

2points

Will Cable 1 year ago

7points

Alexa Saltz 1 year ago

7points

Gareth Baus 1 year ago

5points

wifeofweasley 1 year ago

6points

steampunk dandelion 1 year ago

1point

B.Nelson 1 year ago

5points

memyselfandI 1 year ago

4points

Leo Domitrix 1 year ago

I know I threw people for some loops (I still do) but do not cut the genius from the herd. Bullying always ensued, in my experience. And if I didn't make that cut, abuse at home.

4points

AK to LV 1 year ago

So sorry that this happened to you. You deserved better.

1point

The Mom 1 year ago

I had a college maths course with a 13 year old who was kind of shy but everyone was great with him.

3points

Carol Emory 1 year ago

2points

BonnyDK 1 year ago

2points

AffenpinscherMom 1 year ago

No like hard long roll

0points

Moth Rivers 1 year ago

0points

Aram Ansell 1 year ago

0points

Tony Gonzalez 1 year ago (edited)

0points

David Comeau 1 year ago

0points

Ruben M 1 year ago

0points

AK to LV 1 year ago

0points

steampunk dandelion 1 year ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

steampunk dandelion 1 year ago

don't mind me deleting this! I happened to share a story I felt was too personal and immediately regretted posting it! sorry about that!

1point