(I am so glad that things have changed. In 1963, when I was labeled a "gifted student" things were not great. I took part in one of the first studies on this. Half the chosen went to live in dorms at university at 15, the rest stayed in local schools with added support. Guess which cohort succeeded? Yep not mine. University at 15 fucked me up.)
Meeting the Needs and Potentials of High-Ability, High-Performing, and Gifted Students via Differentiation.
Yeah, being labelled "gifted" and a genius in middle school during the 80s just put me in the "higher" track classes, and then I went to college at 16.
There was no sense that gifted kids need extra support. Just expectations that we'd do more.
A video I recently watched on the subject used the metaphor of building a house. The gifted kid is capable of building a bigger, fancier house--but to do so they need more time and materials.
I will say that, for me, going to college early was wonderful. I didn't relate to people my age at all, and had no close friends my own age.
I did enter a special program at USC that was interdisciplinary, and included a lot of other young people a year or two older than myself.
That part did work for me.
But not getting any support in middle and high school, while being expected to outperform my peers, was lousy.
Actually, I was kind of like that. I really enjoyed university while I was studying or in class. What, I could not deal with with all the social crap.
The difference socially between the average 16 year old and the average 22 year old was a chasm I could not cross.
@corlin @tyghebright Yeah, I don't think anyone could have bridged that social gap. Especially unusually bright kids like yourselves really need specialized support for their combination of maturity and intelligence IMO.