"They are getting out of class, again!" I really hated to hear that.

Gifted children were taken from class three days per week and bussed to other schools for their "special education". The other children thought it was all fun and games from which they were being excluded. They made note of the math and reading tests being scheduled on days when the gifted students were gone. "It's not fair."

I would not have traded places with them for a moment. The tests that we took were on different subject matter. The lessons we learned were accelerated to hold our interest. We were exposed to real life adventures, while students on the other side of the classroom wall studied from books.

Science that would not be introduced to them for years to come replaced the mundane reading exercises they endured. Anthropology, archeology, sociology and advanced mathematics sparked animated discussions, while they were sentenced to copying facts from the blackboard.

Was it worth being labeled an "egghead" and a "geek"? Of course, it was. I wish that more of my classmates had realized it then. Over the years, my gifted friends diminished in number. One by one, they asked their parents to take them out of the program. They wanted to fit into the mainstream.

I never did. I was so bored in "regular school". Then, I got a chance to go into an advanced private school. I miss the gifted classes. I was stuck in the drab world of scholastic mediocrity. There was no testing out of classes, or being advanced a grade, or even mixing of the grades.

Looking back, I know why I was always the first to try what might get me killed, what would scare my friends and what would have caused heart failure in my parents. I was bored. All of the scholastic attention was paid to those who lagged behind. Those of us who excelled embodied the adage "idle hands are the devil's playground."

My life-long friends were the ones who held me at arm's length then. They were unsure whether I was even real. Now they look back and know that I knew then what they would not learn for years.

Knowledge is powerful. In the hands of a child, it is also isolating. Adults do not respect that you can understand. Children shun you for being different.

It is as difficult to be too far ahead of the crowd as it is to be far behind. The difference is: When you are behind, the group will wait for you. When you are ahead, the group has no interest in speeding up to join you.

Learn more about this author, Ann Marie Dwyer.
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