This isn’t about home run hitters or some other sports statistic. This is about intelligence quotient or IQ for short. This is about those of us who are two standard deviations above the average of 100. We are gifted.
I entered the gifted program during kindergarten. I vaguely remember the testing process. At the time, I didn’t understand why and I really wasn’t a fan of being pulled out of music class for it. I thought it was unfair that I was subjected to extra testing when my peers weren’t! Once the results came back, it all made more sense.
I remember setting foot into the classroom for the first time. I had to leave my regular classes for the day, as the gifted folk met once a week. I was nervous, but I was glad to find another kindergartner had joined, too! We’re still good friends today. I remember gifted being a lot of fun in elementary school. Whether we were doing logic puzzles in our workbooks or writing stories, there was never a dull moment.
Gifted in middle school was a little less exciting. We took the social sciences as our gifted classes. I went through Geography, American History, and Civics with gifted peers by my side. The classes had about 15 of us. It was in middle school I started noticing a bit of remorse toward the gifted label. Those not included were a little judgmental. They thought it was the easy way out, that we didn’t really have to do anything and just got As because we were proven smart. That was not true, nor will it ever be.
Gifted in high school became fun again. We took classes relating to humanities and the arts. Yet, the discontent toward us grew even more. Those on the outside accused our classes as being easy “GPA boosters.” Even some of the teachers were not accepting. We liked to try to take an annual gifted field trip for fun, but oftentimes it was difficult to get approval. For whatever reason, it felt like people were out to get us!
I’ll never forget my senior year AP Psychology class. We were studying factors that contribute to intelligence and looked at the normal distribution for IQ. My teacher then asked us to raise our hands if we were considered gifted. I glanced back at one of my friends and we both begrudgingly raised our hands. We knew our teacher was one of those who didn’t like the label. He expressed his opinion and we just shrugged it off. I made a joke to my friend, saying that we should make and wear “130+ Club” t-shirts so everyone knew how smart we were.
Full disclosure, I’m not a fan of the label. I didn’t mind it as much when I was younger but the older I got, the worse it became. There were expectations, both from teachers and peers. “Oh, you’re gifted, so you must know how to do it! Please explain it to me.” Or, “I’m surprised you did so poorly on this test…aren't you gifted?”
Why are we called gifted? It’s a pretty broad term. What exactly is the “gift?” Intelligence? I’ve heard it as a compliment in other ways, such as a “gifted musician.” Why does it turn so many heads when it comes to intelligence? I guess I’ll never be “gifted” enough to figure that one out.
