"Don't worry, it will get harder next year." Those are the same words that I've been told almost every year since the beginning of elementary school. Don't worry, it'll get harder. Don't worry, it'll be something more interesting. Don't worry, you'll be more "on level" with your peers next year. Growing up with teachers, councilors, and even my own parents telling me that but it never coming true... what sort of view do you THINK I'd have on the education system by now?
When in class we were just beginning to read low level chapter books I was reading books from the young adults section in the library. When my classmates were learning basic Algebra I could do trigonometric functions. And through it all we were constantly told to do our homework because it would help us learn better. So obviously I thought, "I already know this. I don't need homework!" and so I didn't do it.
As homework became a bigger and bigger part of the grade in school, my grades kept dropping and dropping, though I was able to keep my grades from going completely under by acing the tests. My school district had a gifted program, but rather than leveling up the classes we were actually in all it was was a spare hour in Junior High and now High School to sit there and sometimes do EXTRA projects or work which were almost on level with the grade I was in. So rather than alleviating the stress and annoyance of having to do the same classwork as my peers I got stuck with even more of it.
And yet, even now, every time I try to talk to one of my teachers or a councilor about this I get the same old answer.
Not only that, the learning style for the classes is set for a completely opposite learning style as my own. While I am a person who learns from reading and listening to things, the classes are set up for kinesthetic learners, or people who learn by doing. We're often brought to get up and do something with our hands when I would rather just sit there reading the text book (or, rather, a book to pass the time since I already know the material).
Then, last year, for my sophomore year in high school I was able to go on a foreign exchange overseas to Japan. In my spare time ever since 6th grade I had been learning and teaching myself Japanese instead of doing my homework or listening to class, so by the time of my sophomore year I was pretty near fluent, or at least to the level I could participate in all the classes in Japan.
Getting over there, with the slight language barrier still there it made the classes more difficult. I actually felt engaged in class for once, not to mention the learning style fit mine better, as the classes were mainly lecture-style. It was like a heaven compared to the American education system. I had to actually work for the grades, and I did. I studied for the first time in my life, I actually did ALL of my homework.
And now, back in the United States, I'm faced with summer homework for two subjects that, admittedly, if I put my mind to it I could probably finish in a day, two days tops. But being faced with this I've begun to dread going back to school. Before going to Japan I hated summer, I wanted to get back to school so I could at least do something, but now it is an ever looming cloud over my head. I don't want to go back. I want to be in Japan again. I want to go ANYWHERE THAT ISN'T SCHOOL.
How can I look forward to school when all I have to look forward to is sitting in days of seemingly endless classes, being forced to take notes in a style that I really can't grasp (Cornell Notes), and hours of homework every night that I don't even really need? How could anyone?
Although I'm sure many people wouldn't understand the stuff that gifted children have to go through, this is my raw first person experience of it in a school district that brags about its gifted education. With how horrible it's been, I can't imagine what it's been for students like myself in school districts with even a bit less support than there is here. Most people who talk about this subject are parents of a gifted child, or someone who's gone through college learning about it, though I feel that it can't really be understood unless it's heard (or more preferably felt) in first person.