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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Classes for gifted children
Message-ID: <509@pucc-h>
Date: Thu, 2-Feb-84 04:16:02 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.509
Posted: Thu Feb  2 04:16:02 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 7-Feb-84 15:42:55 EST
References: <117@ihnet.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 23

Several people have mentioned having been bumped a grade or two ahead in
school because they were gifted.  I was a year ahead in the early years, then
2 years ahead after switching from 4th to 5th grade midyear.  One little
detail that no one thought of:  While my intellectual development was ahead of
my age, and so was my height (thus I was in the same height range as the kids
2 years older), my strength and coordination were, at best, normal for my age,
i.e. 2 years less developed than my classmates.  As a result, I always did
rotten in Phys.Ed., and have to this day an abiding dislike of exercise for
its own sake (though I usually commute to/from work via foot or bike power)
and upper-body musculature which is unspectacular at best.  In addition, I
have had major self-image problems because I was so laughably inferior,
physically, to other males--and this was back in the mid-60's, when machismo
had not yet been discredited, and when a man's worth depended greatly on his
physical abilities.

The point:  If you have gifted kids who are moved a grade or two ahead, rather
than being put in special programs in their own grade, I strongly recommend
that you try to arrange with school administrators that the kids take their
physical education classes with kids of their own age, so that they will have
a reasonable chance of doing comparably to the others in their P.E. classes.
Otherwise you might end up with offspring as lopsided as I.

-- Jeff Sargent/...pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq