When children attend schools where there are gifted programs, the highly intelligent students are provided with instructional materials commensurate with their abilities. This groups them with students of similar intellect and interests. They become aware that they have higher than average intelligence and tend to be more motivated to develop this gift.
When an egalitarian philosophy denies individual differences and tries to force everyone into the same “cookie-cutter” program, many of the intellectually strong students are either bored by the unchallenging content, or bullied by others for their perceived difference in interests and behaviours. Consequently, many such students never discover their intellectual gifts and drop out of school early or interpret their social difficulties as personal inadequacy. In the post below, “343”, aka 7^3, shares personal experiences with which many our highly intelligent readers will be able to identify.
343’s answer to Do people with high IQs know they’re different from other people at a young age?
