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So we're going through this right now with our kids and it's a little of column A, a little of column B. Yes, kids should learn to be okay with being bored and/or seek out their own projects *and* it's beneficial to be around other kids who are ahead and want to learn more.

Plus, I'm pretty sure being put in the position of "helping" or teaching my classmates would've just made the relentless bullying worse. They already resented my intelligence and made sure to punish me for it. My advanced classes were my only refuge.

And I'm genuinely not sure I would've survived if I'd had to attend regular high school. There is so much that needs fixing about our education system in general and there are certainly problems with gifted programs, but I don't think throwing kids like me to the wolves is the answer.

The lots of things in education right now could be improved and the need for that kind of program is inherently tied to the weaknesses and failures of the system. Teachers don't have the time to teach those kids to seek out other projects; but hey, that's what the weekly pull-out was supposed to do.

Yeah, speaking as someone who was "gifted" in a school not really equipped to do anything with it, I was pretty miserable! "Helping the other students" sounds like a good plan until you actually meet a teenager. If I tried that people would have laughed in my face.

The problem is that often "gifted" encompasses not just the kids who have some innate talent, but those who are eager and willing to do the work. It requires a different approach than teaching people who really don't want to be there!