The Curse Of Being A "Gifted" Student

hello my dudes my name is Tiffany welcome back to my series internet analysis where I research and discuss various topics you never know what you're gonna get today I want to discuss the curse of being labeled as a gifted student recently I have been thinking a lot about education and I've made a few videos recently a loosely relevant to education including a video about tech in schools and whether or not students should have a low-tech or high tech environment the impossible standards of college admissions and kind of on a related note I made a video about workaholism and like talks a castle culture which I think definitely is relevant to student life especially if you're a gifted student you know all about toxic productivity so if you haven't seen this make sure to watch them and subscribe if you enjoy this video I want to see more like it also apparently I'm supposed to tell you to hit a bell hit the bell if you would like notifications by the way obviously I'm in a different setting today the Lighting's a little different you make your children yelling outside don't be concerned anyway let's jump right in there are a lot of memes dark jokes these days about gifted students now being depressed or feeling like we haven't lived up to our full potential so in today's video I want to explore the curse of being gifted the lights just gonna change like that huh huh I'm going to explain a little bit what gifted programs are all about as well as some potential effects of labeling some students as gifted and others as not so as always this mainly comes from my perspective as an American but based on the comments and dm's that I've received from my viewers there seem to be similar gifted programs all around the world so what does gifted mean I would say in the most general sense a student is labeled as gifted if they perform at a higher level than their classmates especially at a young age it implies that you have a natural gift for academics a child can be labeled as gifted in arts or other areas but typically in public schools gifted programs are focused just on academics identifying gifted students most gifted programs start early in elementary schools so for example students that read at a much higher level than their peers or otherwise learn faster than their mates are identified but usually you have to take some kind of a formal test to qualify as gifted the program I was in in California was called gate which stands for gifted and talented education it says here some ways to identify gate students achievement IQ ability other test scores motivation recommendations classroom observations and more but in my experience that generally translates to hey this kid seems somewhat advanced let's have them take this test so in my previous videos I have talked a little bit about my personal experience as a gifted student all the way through to being an AP student in high school and doing honors courses in college so here's a quick summary of the beginning of my gifted experience I grew up in California and I took the gate test when I was in second grade the gate test is basically an IQ test for kids which measures basic math reasoning and verbal skills and is typically given in the third through fifth grades personally I have always liked tests but especially when I was young I remember finding standardized tests actually fun so I enjoyed taking this test dude I'd be down to take it right now everybody loves some like fun logic questions right so basically the purpose of identifying gifted students is to be able to give them more challenging work and keep them engaged in the classroom sometimes they just learn curriculum at a faster pace or they're given extra work to do or maybe they dive a little bit deeper than the rest of the class just as students who are separated because they need special attention to get extra help advanced students are usually separated into separate groups from the rest of the classroom of course every program is different so there's no way that this video is probably going to describe everyone's experience and if you guys have an experience with a gifted program you can let me know in the comments but in my experience depending on the grade level we would sometimes just have the gifted students you know sit in a corner and do work separately sometimes you would be in a completely separate classroom and then some people go to schools which are specifically made for gifted and talented students so I got this DM from a girl who went to a school called Pegasus which stands for program to enhance gifts aptitude and skills of unique students I'm sorry but that acronym went so hard Pegasus she said they didn't get grades they had an insane amount of projects and learned Latin so sometimes you know advanced students want a little bit more of a non-traditional education that in whatever ways is better to help them learn by the way though I want to point out that I think there's a pretty wide spectrum in terms of students that are labeled as gifted I would say the majority of students that are labeled as gifted are advanced whatever that is considered to be at a certain age and especially when they are elementary school-age you know they're learning and grasping new concepts pretty quickly but then I'd say at the far end of the gifted spectrum you know you've got literal child geniuses who could go to university at age 12 like yeah I was gifted but I'm 23 and I'm still doing my bachelor's but that's another story but yeah again generally I just think most gifted students are just slightly more advanced than their peers at the time or maybe just happen to be really good test takers or thrive in academics why do gifted programs exist I guess the idea is that if we find these gifted children and nurture their brains from a young age and they'll reach their full potential you know they'll be top students all their lives they'll go on to go to Ivy League schools and become lawyers and doctors and scientists basically as I mentioned in terms of curriculum the idea is just that advanced students need more challenging work when students are bored because they're learning material faster or they already know the material the resulting boredom and frustration can lead to low achievement despondency or unhealthy work habits and we'll talk more about the effects later but here's where my beef with the gifted program begins I think that there is some kind of a disconnect I get what the programs are trying to do again in nurturing the brains of these gifted children the aim is to help kids who are already a bit ahead continue to learn but kind of the Assumption once a student is in the gifted program is that they will always remain gifted and advanced and that's not always the case many students are considered to be advanced in elementary school for example let's say they're reading at a much higher than their peers but then slowly their peers start to catch up maybe their advancement slows a little bit but again still there there's still at grade level but at that point they may be taken out of the gifted program because they're not considered gifted enough or advanced enough anymore or they would stay in it but appear to fall behind just in comparison to other advanced students but anyway the act of being labeled as gifted plants this seed in the mind of the student parents and teachers that idea of reaching our potential is planted and we're told you're special you're the smartest in your class you're going to Harvard one day I bet you'll be the first woman president I was told that and hey it could still happen I don't know if that's a good thing or a sad thing but especially when you're told these things from the time that you're 6 or 7 years old you're going to start to believe it and being smart becomes a central part of your identity because you're constantly being praised for it so then you begin to hold yourself to the highest academic standards alright let's get into some of the effects so using myself as an example I was a great test taker from a young age I was a great student I always got good grades and being a gifted student was absolutely part of my identity but also I didn't have to try very hard and I definitely think I developed some kind of an ego a little bit of smugness especially when I was younger cuz I would think like I don't study it's so easy why does anybody else have to try it's like don't be a dick I know you're like eight years old but come on anyway in general I think it was helpful to be in accelerated groups and it definitely did not my little brain but I'm still wondering are there long term lasting impacts of this label gifted so I've compiled a list of some of the most common effects that gifted students or X gifted students experience bad study habits if you've gone through most of your schooling without ever needing to study and still getting top grades you never learn how to study so for most gifted students you will reach a point some time when you do need to study and you just won't have those skills I can kind of relate to that one even to this day I'm like do I study become a perfectionist to the point where it is toxic gifted students are often very self-critical we hold ourselves to the top standards you know we want straight A's sometimes it's like I want literally a hundred percent or even more if there's extra credit so there's very little room for error if any and if you don't do well enough according to your standards or your parents standards or you have teacher standards your whole identity as a smart perfect student starts to fall apart for me I never had pressure really from my parents at all it was just me I realized I was good at getting A's and I was like alright let's keep this up forever I'm pretty sure I've only gotten like two bees in a class ever and if those bees were in my life no but it kind of felt like it you become too competitive gifted students are often told that they're the smartest or the best but we literally want to be the best I want the highest test scores and I want everyone to know and resisting the urge to tell you guys that in my geometry class I got the highest test grades because they were posted on the wall and everybody could see them so I knew that I was the best but I'm not gonna tell you guys because that would not be humble and I don't still think about the grades that I got in ninth grade yeah I haven't been competitive about much in life but grades are one thing but anyway too much competition can definitely cause some serious resentment among your peers you never learn how to ask for help gifted students are often praised for working independently so they're kind of expected to never need to ask questions and sometimes gifted students are even asked by their teachers to help out other students so they become like a mini teacher's aide which can be fun but just because you're gifted doesn't mean you know everything all the time enough to teach it to everybody else and honestly everyone needs to feel comfortable asking questions because even the smartest person in the room still has things to learn we kind of developed this feeling of shame like we begin to think that asking questions must mean that we're stupid if I ask a question I'd be showing everybody that I don't know something so I'm just not gonna ask and then I'll never know you expect to be immediately good at anything and if you are not you quit right away I am so guilty of this one it's horrible you to see me in my media class that I just took we had to do a bunch of Photoshop and I hate Photoshop and I had zero patience like if I'm not good or at least showing potential the first time that I try something I just never want to pick it up again I find it really hard to drop my ego and risk you know looking a little silly or just being bad at something cuz you're new and not everybody's good at everything right away on a similar note here's a message I got on Instagram I felt myself disintegrate mentally in a wildly different fashion it made me defensive my own intelligence was the most important thing in my life if I failed didn't understand I became angry and bitter I pushed away anyone that threatened me being gifted and special feel both entitled and empty by constantly being awarded for no effort I felt myself becoming titled falling off would have been much more healthy you develop a pressure to stay in academics forever just because you're good at it so as I mentioned the gifted program mainly focuses on academics of course in school and extracurriculars students do all kinds of things they do sports or arts theater but I think there's a stigma against gifted students pursuing an art degree in university because somehow it's perceived to be a waste of their brain yikes I obviously do not believe in that and also I think there's a stigma against the arts in general I cannot tell you how many damn Facebook comments I've seen talking about college loan debt or whatever and people are like oh you got Judas thousand dollars in debt getting an art degree what did you think it's like first of all [ __ ] off secondly there's a need for artists in this world and third people should be able to go to college for whatever they want don't get me started respect to all my artists out there I love you wasn't gifted wasn't talented in anything academic which I find somewhat of a blessing I had to first discipline on myself because nothing came easy except dance but growing up in an academic home where my parents are very accomplished in academics I had to find a different path I think on that note not only is there obviously a pressure to go to college if you're a gifted student but specifically I think there's a pressure to study stem or go to grad school you know you've got to be a doctor or a lawyer something that's considered to be impressive which again yikes obviously it is in oppressive but it is horrible to feel pressured to study work in a particular field and dedicate your life to something just because it's considered impressive also the whole idea of what's considered impressive and what's not is closets [ __ ] and sorry for the music in the background there's a literal affair going on you know there are plenty of people out there who may be really really talented at math and science but their passion is in art or just something else or vice versa I was always academically gifted totally built my identity around it went to UCLA straight into law school now I'm in law school and totally I'm not interested in being a lawyer and I really wish I had not just rushed through school and tried to do all these things that sounded good and fit my brand of being smart now I want to move on to talking about X gifted students and again we're gonna touch on those good good means when you were academically successful but your mental health got in the way of your education and now you'll never be able to achieve what you could have me realizing that being gifted during my childhood and putting in absolutely no worth but still excelling in my little fourth-grade classes is the reason I have little to no work ethic now and I get discouraged from things if I'm not good at them immediately if you were a gifted kid in elementary school there's 100% chance you're gay and depressed now gifted kid burnout bingo fill this out in the comments below I don't know how to fill out bingo in comments but figure it out all the formerly gifted kids who got A's without trying now that our perfectionism has been revealed to be a symptom of a much deeper mental health issue it always feels weird to read memes out loud but I did it for you by the way I have a podcast called previously gifted which is based on this concept I made it at a time in my life where I was like what the [ __ ] is happening and yeah I'm still at that point often but it's a very relatable podcast and I talk about everything from work and life and adulting and Netflix recommendations so check it out but anyway this concept whether or not you actually stay in a gifted program or advanced program forever I feel like gifted programs are kind of more for young kids and then when you get a little bit older they're like we don't wanna call you gifted anymore because it's like I don't know a little bit pretentious we're gonna call you advanced or honors because that's not pretentious either whatever why do you stay in an advanced program all through your schooling or you get out of it early it's a weird shift when you finally realize that you're not really as special or insanely intelligent as you were told or as you once thought there are plenty of reasons why a student who is once considered advanced would not be anymore let's say your progress is not at an exponential or even steady rate so again maybe you were advanced once but then your peers caught up and now you're at grade level health issues mental or physical I have heard about this a lot you know where people were a great student and then something happened and they just aren't able to keep up with it which is totally fine and normal because when you've got other [ __ ] going on you gotta prioritize your health there could also be problems at home or honestly anything stressful traumatic tragic [ __ ] gets in the way and it can be impossible to keep up with schoolwork and expectations so after being gifted has become part of your identity once you're not considered to be gifted anymore obviously you feel like a piece of you is missing you feel like you aren't advanced anymore you feel like [ __ ] you feel like you're nothing and that's because sometimes in being labeled as gifted and having that repeated to you so often you end up seeing being normal as a bad thing like being average would be the worst thing that could ever happen to you which is [ __ ] up because in the way that things work bell curves most people are average that's the point but anyway it is just really toxic I was in the gifted and talented program for math all through elementary school and by middle school I was in such a crisis finding out I was pretty much average in high school this turned to immense pressure to succeed my mental health deteriorated to be honest I'm still above average at math I'm going into physics however I really really tried to live up to that gifted label that I was given back then talk about peaking young I peaked in elementary I feel that but even if you stay I was a top student you know you stay advanced let's say best-case scenario you do really well all through school you got accepted into a an Ivy League school an elite school at high school you were probably considered to be a big smart fish in a small pond which is great for your self-esteem and your ego and then suddenly you're thrown into a situation where you are a small fish in a large ocean going from the literal top of your class to average or below average at a very competitive university in such a shock again it makes you doubt your abilities your identities your purpose because you got so used to that label that Association that it became everything to you even though clearly a student in this position is undoubtedly smart and talented you're one smart kid app for example Harvard where almost everyone is a genius I've read a lot of articles about the particularly high rates of mental illness especially at elite colleges and it's really really [ __ ] sad of course there are tons of factors that impact mental health but I'm sure that massive stress and pressure definitely play roles and also I think this identity crisis could be a factor and then you've got you know the fact that most schools including universities have super inadequate resources in terms of mental health so a lot of students are struggling and they don't have the assistance or the support that they need but that topic could be a whole other video all I can say in regard to this issue is if you happen to be I don't know applying to colleges soon and you're aiming for those elite colleges I just want to say that there's a chance that you may be happier at a less competitive school not just because of this big fish small fish situation but sometimes being in a super competitive environment just isn't enjoyable and it would kind of suck if your college experience ended up being something that you couldn't enjoy just because of the campus culture or whatever quickly me for example I used to dream of going to all the top schools and throughout my transfer journey I did apply to top schools and whatever it's fun to be accepted into a top school because you're like oh my god this proves that I'm good we all need so much reinforcement things that remind us oh I am gifted I am special but now I'm going to a CUNY school which is not competitive not difficult not you know selective to get into it all but I'm so happy because now I can just chill and get my degree without putting this crazy extra amount of pressure that I would have if I were at a way more competitive school anyway that's my two cents now I want to transition into focusing on these social effects because the whole label of gifted definitely has a lot of impacts on socializing friendships classroom environments apparently for the majority of gifted students acceleration is beneficial both academically and socially according to this Pro gifted education website gifted students tend to get along better with or have more in common with other advanced students or older students sometimes it's recommended that gifted students start kindergarten early or skip grades so yeah I mean it's it's one central part of a gifted program that the kids will be grouped and separated and that it will be good for them it helps them make friends in addition to the academic benefits over my life I definitely made most of my friends within gifted programs we were competitive back in like third grade about our math times table tests we played together you know handball iconic take me back naturally you're likely to befriend the people that you are around the most and especially when you are separated from the rest of your peers it's even more likely my best friend's to this day are the people that I happen to be in accelerated classes with when we were all 12 get kids forever anybody remember history day I need to stop with the this I was gifted in elementary school through high school I had mostly positive experiences I could tell the major difference between being in regular stream and contained gifted classes part of it was definitely the way the material was delivered but there's also so much benefit to being around kids that are like you it's a way more comfortable experience and one that helped me tremendously feel a sense of belonging and engagement in the classroom also I can agree that advanced students do get used to advanced classes naturally in my junior year I decided not to take AP US history so I was in a regular US history class and at that point almost all of my academic classes were AP advanced honors so it was pretty eye-opening to be in a regular class for the record I hated it it was incredibly boring not stimulating at all I think we spent literal months learning about the 13 colonies I was like okay we get it please move on that might have just been you know a bad teacher or a bad class though anyway there is a lid obvious social divide between gifted and other students again it's like I hate even categorizing people like that but this is also true for students who are in special education courses or remedial courses it just makes sense that when you're literally divided up by your academic level that division runs deep from the perspective of a gifted student you can definitely develop a superiority complex but on the other hand you might be considered a nerd or weird for being in the advanced program I always thought that they were just stuck up or rode twice but it's not until now that I realized how badly they must have felt to not only be seen as the normal kids but to have to be compared to us gifted students when I was in fourth grade I had a friend stop talking to me because she thought I thought I was better than her because I was placed into the gifted program at school there is without a doubt a level of privilege racism classism that goes into getting into gifted classes I was talking with a friend who I was in gifted with and we were discussing the gap for young black kids especially in their ability to make it into gifted programs whether it be due to teacher bias or the luxury of time for parents to nurture slash advocate for their gifted kids overall I would say gifted classes were a godsend for me and a lot of my peers but the structural inequality in education makes it a little slash a lot front by the way thank you so much for all the messages every time I'm doing a video I send out questions and surveys on my Instagram because I want to hear your perspectives they really helped me develop these videos in a well-rounded way now I want to take the time to acknowledge the impact of not being labeled as gifted we're being normal or average has a somewhat bad connotation obviously when you're in a class and other students are being labeled as gifted and being praised for being the smartest it's gonna make you feel like [ __ ] because not only are you left out but if you're not gifted then it's assumed that you aren't smart because you're not part of this program and that really really makes me upset it takes a massive hit on your confidence to be told in simple terms that you're not as smart as your peers I moved a lot during my childhood and it put me behind and not able to be in any gifted talented programs and it made me feel like I was stupid or below average it then became a self-fulfilling prophecy I was afraid to challenge myself until I ended up in AP classes my senior year because of circumstances when I was able to do well in those tough classes I realized that I had sold myself short for my whole academic career thus far we are reaching the end of the video eventually but I just want to say I think the entire testing system is flawed and the definition of what gifted means is actually pretty narrow some gifted students also have learning or other disabilities these twice exceptional students often go undetected in regular classrooms because their disability and gifts mask each other making them appear average other twice exceptional students are identified as having a learning disability and as a result are not considered for gifted services by the way I wish I had more time in this video to really dive into anything more about learning disabilities or special education but believe me those are on my endless list of topics to explore in the future so let me know if you would like me to check those out but really though what does gifted mean what does average mean somebody give me a dictionary but really like what about students who are gifted and talented in other ways but not necessarily in taking standardized tests or maybe they don't learn best in a typical classroom environment this brings me back to my eternal beef with standardized tests in general that is actually also on my list of topics to explore it's never gonna end I'm gonna keep talking about school forever but if you guys are into it we'll keep going lastly I want to read this long DM that I got which is just chefs kiss hi Tiffany I have a degree in education and I'm currently a grad student continuing to study education gifted / talented programs within the education system is what is referred to as tracking AP classes and remedial classes are also a form of tracking as are these so called gifted programs or programs that work to help less gifted individuals personally I'm against tracking for several reasons first though I think it's important to mention that students who are placed into AP classes or gifted programs are often deemed and labeled as the kids who will succeed in life well the rest of the students in remedial courses are perceived as unmotivated unintelligent and lazy individuals who do not have as much potential whereas AP students are often treated with more respect and give material in class that really does give them an advantage especially when it comes time to apply to colleges this division in students can result in bullying and often does what I find most problematic is the fact that by tracking students it really gives students a disadvantage because they're immediately labeled and that can really affect self-esteem just because one student may be well on a test or something and another student does not doesn't mean that the student who failed is incapable of learning the material in fact perhaps that individual just isn't as good at test taking or perhaps there are problems at home that could be affecting their performance also just thought I'd mention that my experience with being tracked all throughout k12 literally scarred me in the sense that I never felt worthy enough or smart enough to be successful later in life it wasn't until I got to college and started having discussions in class and veering away from tests where I finally realized my worth and realized that I am smart and I am capable of being successful as is everyone else unfortunately because of the system among other things many students never get to this point wow what a message I literally had to screenshot every part of it because it was so good so thank you for sending that and those were amazing points I totally agree I think that the labels are bad overall again putting people in the right courses for their academic level is necessary but these labels can be somewhat detrimental is it possible to put people in different courses without labeling it I mean people are gonna be able to tell that they're still divided I don't know is there any solution to this but yes being labeled as gifted is definitely not a guarantee that a person will be successful but also not being labeled as gifted doesn't make that person any less likely to be successful so though this video was about the curse of being a gifted student which might sound like a very first world privilege problem I want to acknowledge that everybody has problems okay I saw this tweet people who weren't in the gifted and talented program have depression - y'all are just self-important and weird and that made me laugh so I was like you know what true like yeah we don't feel like we've reached our potential but like that alone is not the end of the world on that note though I will acknowledge that you know mental health issues or lasting impacts from this that like ruin your self-esteem and your self-worth and make you think that you can't accomplish things I want to acknowledge that those are totally valid but also that of us if not the majority of us experience anxiety and depression especially once you get to college age I feel like that's where a lot of it you know starts for people most of us feel like we haven't met whatever expectations or dreams that we had for ourselves or that our families had for us but also we aren't taught how to cope we are not encouraged to discuss mental health we're not allowed to express our difficulties most of the time generally I think a lot of these memes and posts that we see are just people trying to express that we feel generally unprepared for adulthood we feel almost lied to it's like all of these years of schooling and I don't know how to do taxes or I don't know how to take care of myself you know you enter adulthood you reflect back on your childhood and how it's affected you and it's just a lot anyway I don't have much other closure in this video except that I just want to give my love to you guys any of you going through some [ __ ] feeling like you're not as good as you were meant to be or whatever worried about these labels please don't focus on south care on making yourself the best you you can be your grades and your academic history don't really matter to most adults anyway thank you guys for watching so so much if you would like to follow me on instagram for some mediocre pictures they're there and they are bangin again make sure you subscribe if you enjoyed this hit that notification bell and stay tuned for my future internet analysis videos okay thanks bye [Music]

Channel: tiffanyferg

Views: 961,969

Rating: 4.9395728 out of 5

Keywords: Tiffany Ferguson, tiffanyferg, internet analysis, commentary, video essay, GATE program, Gifted and Talented, gifted, gifted kid, gifted student, advanced, honors, AP, student, school, college, university

Id: YcaD980oYJQ

Length: 30min 22sec (1822 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 11 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/lisanielle]

I really like her videos, i think she seems very intelligent and has a cool laid back personality unlike so many other youtube creators. I'll definitely give this video a watch, thank you for sharing this.

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u/zjbesso