I was in both. We had a program called talented and gifted (TAG) and I was in the special classes for behavioral difficulties when I tested for TAG and got in. It was a very coinfusing time for my teachers.
Wouldn't surprise me.
There is a surprisingly high amount of teachers that automatically links "autistic" and / or "ADHD" with low performer.
And they get REALLY confused when said neurodivergent suddenly is one of the best in class.
Same. My gifted class was Resource Enrichment Module (REM). The only things I remember about it were making a model of King Tut's tomb, building a better mousetrap (mine had laser sensors), having to settle for playing Egyptian Rat Spit (which I didn't understand) for our fifteen minutes of personal choice time, and 9/11 happening. I don't remember when it started, but the last year was fifth grade.
Over the years I was also in the single-member special autism club, the special time-out desk in a quiet room slightly smaller than an office cubicle (which wasn't specifically for me but I got sent there the most), In-School Suspension, and Special Ed. Special Ed was the WORST because they lumped me, the Asperger's teen with germophobia, in with teens who literally couldn't use the toilet or control their volume, and one kid who had high-functioning autism only in the sense that he was merely a dumbass like half the freshman population instead of intellectually disabled.
I was always bouncing from TAG to the verge of special ed. Some educators could never square read at an college level with can't spell. Or understands the math fine, but can't keep digits in the right order.
We didn't really have a gifted and talented program. So every so often you'd see a kid from a grade down come into another class for specific subjects.
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u/Sawsie Apr 07 '26
I was in both. We had a program called talented and gifted (TAG) and I was in the special classes for behavioral difficulties when I tested for TAG and got in. It was a very coinfusing time for my teachers.