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The boy who knew too much: a child prodigy

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family. I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become. Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The Gifted Education Programme is a failure.

The Gifted Education Programme, of Singapore, is a failure. I shall explain and detail why, in this post, although I have addressed the issues piecemeal in other posts over the years.

The Gifted Education Programme, or GEP, as it is known, for short, in Singapore, is a government programme supposedly intended to support the education of gifted students. I say, "supposedly" because our experience of them, and that of others we know, is that they don't seem to know what support actually means.

We became involved with the Gifted Education Programme (GEP), shortly after Ainan passed his O level Chemistry at an unprecedented seven years and one month old. This world record was enough to get their attention. Interestingly, when we had tried to approach his school about his special educational needs, prior to his O level exam, they essentially snubbed us, not taking our word for it. Their attitude soon changed once we had a piece of paper to prove it: how Singaporean.

Anyway, the Gifted Education Programme/GEP spoke a lot about what they could do for Ainan. Their first interest was to assess him. This turned out to be a long and rather involved process, putting him through a series of interviews with scientists, a psychologist and various tests. It took months to satisfy them - despite his O level - that there was a need to intervene.

When, finally, they were satisfied that a need was revealed, their offerings were remarkably slight. The only thing we asked for was laboratory access so that he could gain practical experience of Chemistry. However, this was the one thing that they seemed reluctant to provide in any meaningful way. They arranged for five sessions at Raffles Junior College and Raffles Institution. That was a help and a good start, however, at the end of it, they told us that this was "Resource intensive" and that they were not prepared to support ongoing laboratory work for him, because there were "No funds available."

Privately, we arranged access to some Chemistry workshops with RJC. When the GEP heard about it, they seemed to put a stop to it, for after the Gifted Education Programme had contacted them, Raffles Junior College told us that they were no longer able to help. They declined to give a reason, despite the fact that they had made the offer of help, themselves.

This was our first concrete indication that, far from actually helping Ainan, that the GEP may actually be interfering with his opportunities.

Interestingly, when we discussed our experience with the mother of another gifted child, she said she had had very similar experiences. Every time she let them know what she was doing to nurture her child's gift, the Gifted Education Programme tried to discourage her, or interfere in some way. So, our experience was not unique. Incidentally, she eventually left Singapore, in frustration, at the Gifted Education Programme, and is now living in another country, with her gifted son. No doubt that is beneficial to Singapore's long term potential.

The Gifted Education Programme, after much prodding, arranged for Ainan to attend NUS (National University of Singapore) High School for Maths and Science, at the age of 7. Again, the process of admission was a long one, which seemed to take forever. Eventually, however, they offered him ONE HOUR a week, at NUS High. We were rather shocked at this, since it seemed too little to actually feed his interest. However, we kept an open mind and brought him along for the first couple of weeks.

It was a great disappointment. They had assigned him to a class and a level that he had already studied. In his first two weeks there he told me that there was ONLY ONE fact that he didn't already know. That is one single piece of information encapsulated in a few words. We quickly came to the conclusion that this was a waste of time and money. It wasn't worth the taxi fare there and back again.

We explained our observations to the Gifted Education Programme. They were not very understanding. The GEP Officer said: "Oh, it is not about what he can learn, it is all about the other things." It turned out that she was referring to the social side. It seems that the GEP considers that the greatest need for a gifted child is a social club. He wasn't supposed to be there to learn anything. He was supposed to be there to make friends and get used to being around older people.

Now, that is all very well...but hang on a minute, isn't it supposed to be a Gifted EDUCATION Programme? Ainan had a need to learn, and this wasn't being met.

We asked for various things, all of which were denied us. We asked for him to go on a broad spectrum O level programme (at 7) covering all the other subjects that he hadn't yet studied, in combination with an A level in Chemistry. They denied this, saying: "He hasn't proven himself in the other subjects."

I thought this was very silly. Basically, they were saying: "We don't believe he can get an O level in the other subjects, until he has already got an O level in them. At that moment, we will believe it, then he can have an O level course, which he will no longer need."

Ainan was already the youngest O level holder in the world. If he could do that, he could do the other subjects too. It seemed a "no-brainer" - but not to the GEP no-brains, it seems.

We then asked if he could attend a broad range of courses at NUS High, to get a feel for them and see which he would like.

They wouldn't allow it.

I suggested he could just sit on the courses and audit them.

They wouldn't allow it.

I asked if he could have a Chemistry practical class at NUS High, for that was his real need.

They wouldn't allow it. Not only that but the GEP Officer, Yogini Yogarajah, said: "Why don't you find a private school and pay for it yourself."

We had already researched that, and had quotes of 600 dollars per session. Clearly, the private option was out of the question.

In our final meeting with the GEP/Gifted Education Programme, we tried to explain to the Gifted Branch Officers present that Ainan had a very practical learning style and that he needed to actually DO Chemistry, to learn it properly.

Yogini Yogarajah said: "Oh, we at the Gifted Branch think learning style is very important."

"Well, can we have practical classes, for Ainan, then, because I have just told you he has a very practical learning style."

"Oh, that's not good enough for us.", she said, with the utmost dismissiveness.

That was too much for me. She was dismissing the input from the parents - who, of course, know Ainan about a hundred thousand times better than the Gifted Education Programme ever could. Apparently, such inside knowledge, from people who really know a child, is "Not good enough for us."

I rose, said: "We will never speak again." and left.

I kept my word. We have never spoken to the GEP since, nor do we intend to. They are not what they purport to be. They are extremely slow in responding. They refuse to make funds available to support a gifted child's special needs. They attempt to block initiatives that would help the child. They refuse to take on board the views of the parents. They offer provision which is so abstemious that it makes no difference at all to the growth of the child. That which is most essential to the child is that which they precisely deny the child.

The account above is a very brief one. It leaves out detail on occasions on which the GEP made difficulties for us, in our attempts to provide the right education for Ainan. However, it does give some idea of the ways in which the Gifted Education Programme is not truly functioning as an education programme.

There is one way in which it is functioning, however. At our final meeting with the GEP, Yogini Yogarajah had a very thick folder in her hands, which she would not let us see. Apparently, it contained reports on Ainan written by everyone in the education system who had had contact with him. It transpires that all who had contact with him were under instructions to write a report on their observations of him. I found this really spooky. The Gifted Education Programme does not provide a suitable education for the gifted. However, it does keep gifted children under close observation and writes reams of reports about them. You can come to your own conclusions about what this means. Personally, I found their emphasis on observation over educational provision to be really quite perturbing. It seemed that their true intentions were rather different from their expressed ones.

One of my questions to Yogini Yogarajah and her Gifted Branch colleagues that last day, was: "What is the Gifted Education Programme for?" Yogini tried to twist the meaning of my question and rephrase it to make it seem less critical of her and her people, but I reiterated my question unchanged. Our year or so with the Gifted Education Programme had left me genuinely puzzled about what it was actually for. I could no longer see it as an educational support initiative for the gifted, because it wasn't really performing as one. I was left with a big question mark in my mind about what was the actual, real purpose of the Gifted Education Programme. I was left to conclude that either it had another (unstated) purpose, which it may well be succeeding in, or that the Gifted Education Programme was failing in its (stated) purpose of supporting the educational needs of gifted children.

Ainan is just one scientifically gifted child. Singapore, through the Gifted Education Programme, had shown itself unable to cope with the needs of just one child. One of the repeated phrases we heard on Yogini's lips was: "If we do it for your child, they will all want it." The justification, for doing basically nothing, was that if Ainan was provided with the laboratory access he needed to continue to learn science, that it would create a stampede of parents also wanting the same for their children.

I can just see it now: Singapore is clearly overwhelmed with scientific prodigies. Clearly, in Yogini's mind, there are millions of them out there, just waiting to "all want it". I found her remarks absurd. Singapore has only one child like Ainan, gifted in this particular way. There would have been no stampede of other parents demanding the same for their child. All that was happening here, was that the Gifted Education Programme were finding reasons for doing nothing to help.

To my mind, that means that the Gifted Education Programme is NOT an education programme. It is something else. What else, I don't know, but they certainly don't do even the obvious things to help a child like Ainan.

If they really have no funds available, I could make a suggestion for making funds available. They should fire the Branch Officers assigned to us...because they were completely unable to listen to us. They shouldn't work for an education programme at all. The money saved through not paying their salaries would liberate resources for many gifted children.

Better still: why not sack the entire department, then there would be plenty of resources for Singapore's gifted. All that would be needed is one person to co-ordinate the activities.

So, my advice regarding the Gifted Education Programme is not to expect much from them. In fact, you might be a lot happier not to become involved with them at all in the first place. We could have done without the experience we went through with them. I expect you can too, if you have a gifted child.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 7:45 PM 

23 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i totally agree. I have totally no idea what GEP is for. I was from a school that offered GEP(not RI though), and through my interaction with my GEP friends, i have found nothing gifted about them- other than a few truly brilliant students. They seem to be in there becoz of a primary school GEP entrance exam- which they must have done well in, no doubt.

I suggest you look elsewhere for such "gifted" programs. GEP is certainly not one of them. In fact, i would rather have it abolished and have specialized/advanced classes for certain subjects- much like the previous JC system of 'S' papers.

Perhaps an independent school will be better? Since they can have their own funds, and are less controlled by MOE. Of course, just do not let MOE know.

Or better still, write to the forum page. Sometimes, when exposed, you will have opportunities knocking on your door instead of you having to knock on others' doors.

On a separate note, wouldn't US be better? Since i believe the education institutes there have much more funds to draw upon than MOE- whose main aim is to serve the general local and PRs education needs before foreigners, esp since it is funded by tax payers $$$. And if i were MOE, i would rather spend the $$$ on 100 local kids to ensure a brighter future for them in Singapore. So in that aspect, i agree with them.

10:07 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Ainan was born in Singapore so one would have thought that they would be interested in nurturing him to their best...but not so. We encountered little but difficulties with them.

Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, maybe somewhere else would be better.

Kind regards

10:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Mr Valentine

I guess you still refuse to read up on the Imperial Exams of Ancient China :-p

*Tsk Tsk*

GEP selection process itself is *top secret* presumably related to *national security* :-)

Anon #1 is wrong cos MOE would gladly spend on foreigners over locals. And they do.

Just that education in Singapore does not aim to educate but rather to serve the needs of the political and economical system.

Its really your fault. U should have been consistently pro-PAP and pro-MOE. Tell them you have seen the light and promise Ainan will be their poster boy :-)

10:50 AM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

My views of the MOE have been formed through actual interaction with them. They make everything very, very difficult and are often quite troublesome. I did not begin with a stance of anti-MOE. I don't really have such a stance: I just see them as inadequate to the task of promoting the best from gifted children. They don't really know what they are doing.

I don't think they will ever make Ainan their poster boy. We have seen discrimination against Ainan in certain places that appears to be because he is not Chinese, but half-Malay and half-Irish. I won't go into details here, but the tendency is very, very clear. Were Ainan pure Chinese, I am very sure they would make him a poster boy.

As it is, they are very much at risk of alienating one of their most promising Singaporean citizens. I don't think that will benefit them in the least.

Singapore wants gifted people...but it just doesn't know how to look after them.

The GEP seemed to be more interested in hampering Ainan than in developing him. Perhaps they think it serves the national interests to frustrate his progress. I wonder why they think that?

10:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How to put this across tactfully?
Well, Do you noticed how regimental the process of selection and education in the GEP is.
They are there for a reason.
Although they claim they are concern about the talent of the children under their care.Their ultimate objective is the same to produce fodder for the objective of a Great??? Leeder? who is extremely paranoid.
A lot of these savants goes into this system to learn only to end up in permanent service of the Military.ie They do not know how to communicate with their peers effectively.
A lot of the children are not taught subject according to their interest and their strongest trait too.
A math prodigy is forced to learn multiple language.
And a linguist is forced to understand advanced logic and.

And due to the nature that they are smart,They are sometimes shunned by members of their own family.Which also caused unwanted tension.

Well how do I know this,I know one of them who went into the GEP and end up as a officer.Even now he have problem with relationship issues.

The unnecessary amount of competition among the children are also counterproductive to their development too.
Because in other countries gifted children are given one on one guidance by teachers to better understand the subject (of interest) being taught,after the normal school where they interact with other children and study at the same pace, until they literally out grow the teaching capacity of that teacher.

Summary for a clearer picture,Only Childrens and spawns of the top echelons will be nurtured with the best education available here.The rest of the population is as the man put it "a little stupid" when compared to other nation.

11:47 AM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

A country which only looks after the children of the elite is a country destined to fail. There is a 100% chance of Singapore failing, long-term, if that is what they are really doing.

I am curious as to how this will all play out in the decades ahead.

Thanks for your comment.

1:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

all countries rise and eventually fall. And history has shown that small countries always fall faster/earlier than larger ones which oft last for centuries.

it's a good thing that i will not be around by then. Enjoy the good times while it lasts.

Anyway, GEP is crap. Not that i have anything against those inside. But the prog itself is only for the elite and those who can pass the entrance exam.
And furthermore, i came from a school that offered GEP- Many of them were not that brilliant, although there were exceptions. In fact, i scored better than many of them in Os. So GEP is no prove of one's genius. I have another friend, who has top the physics Olympiad, and received gold in chem olympiad (within the same year) and yet he wasnt from GEP or special stream.

3:29 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Your example of an Olympiad who wasn't GEP just goes to show that their selection procedure doesn't work too well. I am not surprised.

We really thought that the GEP was a waste of our child's time. No doubt it wastes the time and efforts of a lot of other children too.

Thanks for your example.

3:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr Valentine

*sigh*

Singapore wants gifted FOREIGNERS.
Gifted locals are a potential threat to the ruling family.
Therefore they are tamed and molded at an early age.

Independent gifted locals are dangerous.

Let Ainan be a FOREIGN TALENT.

PS:
Imperial Exams of Ancient China were based on Confucian so that all brilliant brains are taught to be obedient and serve the Emperor. Eventually things fall apart of course because it is inefficient. The mighty Tang had to rely on foreign mercanaries who promptly rebelled. But on paper the idea is very seductive if you are the Emperor.

10:39 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Your thoughts are rather disturbing. If they see children like Ainan not as valuable to the state, but a threat to it, then they will do precisely what they did in Ainan's case: nothing concrete to help, blocked opportunities, frustrated our plans...etc. etc. Indeed, the predicted behaviour of people who see him as a problem would, in fact, match the observed behaviour. In short, you have a point.

The Imperial Chinese Exam system sounds really disturbing. What is even more disturbing is that your comparison to the GEP sounds true to life.

Thanks for your insightful comments. You have given me much to think about...and my readers, too.

11:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I to clarify something first.The reason why I said savant is because after the GEP programme, Many have acquired a social disability where they can't interact with their peers in a confident manner.
Those with really good raw talent had ended up hating their talent/potential to learn.

As for a viable Alternative Have you tried Singapore American School?
http://www.sas.edu.sg/

Actually I was wondering if you have heard of this famous quote b4.

"Mine is a very matter-of-fact approach to the problem. If you can select a population and they're educated and they're properly brought up, then you don't have to use too much of the stick because they would already have been trained. It's like with dogs. You train it in a >>>proper way from small<<<. It will know that it's got to leave, go outside to pee and to defecate. No, we are not that kind of society. We had to train >>>adult dogs<<< who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts." - on Singapore society, The Man & His Ideas, 1997.

7:52 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Hi Onlooker,

A programme which creates socially disabled people is not something to become involved with, is it? I would think that gifted children would do best to avoid it.

Your clarification re. savant is understood. Thanks.

As for the famous quote: wow. What an attitude to one's own people. Then again, if it is true about peeing in the lifts that is pretty appalling.

I have never heard a leader in the Western world speak of his own people like that. What do people think of such words here?

8:03 PM  
Blogger Areopagitica said...

I think gifted education is in its infancy in Asian countries and the Asian mindset is very regimented towards academic performance, tests, measurements of the traditional kind. It is probably this that will not let them be comfortable with a 7 year old genius. Secondly, a gifted programme exists not only to give intellectual inputs, but also to support the emotional and social well being of gifted children. After all, EQ is as important as IQ. The intellect needs to be fed, but so does the whole child, so that he grows up to be a well adjusted, happy human being. I am speaking as a gifted educator of many years. Usha Pandit, India.

11:12 PM  
Blogger Mrs Boysis said...

If I had read this post at the time you wrote it, I would not have agreed much to it. Now, I completely understand what you are talking about after almost exactly the same experiences with the branch. They have no idea what to do with my GEP son. In the end, I chose to homeschool my son and then send him off to university, after he has passed every course (22 subjects) at high school level with a GPA of 3.8, when he was 11.

First, they made it hard for you to be exceptional, even if the IQ tests say so (at 99.9 percentile). They say they have to worry about socio-emotional, behavioural areas. Then, they made sure you cannot access anything special in case many others want the same treatment. Thirdly, they profess knowing your kid better than you, then, they send in their troupes to prove to you your kid is not as special as you think he/she is. They then try and block any special access you made for yourself, in case they look too bad not being able to provide as well as you, the layman. After that, when you realize they are no help, you drop them, but they make sure they drop you, too.

Foreign talents are a must, how else can we plug the gap left when our own talent leave? Plus, there is not a need to raise foreign talents. They are ready-made, and off-the-shelf.

At 12, my son is enjoying his year in uni much more than his peers doing their PSLE. Thanks to the GEB, we would not have bothered to look for this alternate path if not for their incompetencies.

9:48 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Mrs Boysis,

You are the third person who has informed me that they have had exactly the same experience as us, with the gifted education programme of Singapore. I now think that the GEP is NOT a gifted education initiative. I think its real purpose is most likely political in nature. From the fact that observation of the gifted student is emphasized - including really spooky private sessions with a "child psychologist" on a weekly basis, to which the parents don't have access - I think that the underlying purpose is OBSERVATION, EVALUATION and CONTROL. By this I mean, that they intend to ensure that no-one of any talent, outside of the select leading families, is allowed to develop. Everyone else that we know of, who has an exceptionally gifted child or above, has experienced blocking or denial of opportunity by the GEP. That really says something. They are trying to SNUFF OUT LOCALLY GROWN TALENT. That is their real purpose. If your kid was a descendant of Lee Kuan Yew or his cronies, you would receive a very different response from the GEP. Only in such a case, would they actually be helpful. In ALL the cases that we are aware of, personally, of exceptionally gifted children, they have LEFT SINGAPORE IN FRUSTRATION. All of them have emigrated.

If you are truly gifted, there is no future for you in Singapore.

Now, Mrs. Boysis, you have not said if your son is of Chinese descent. In our experience, it seems that Chinese children might have a better time of it, than non-Chinese. It would help to know if your child is of Chinese blood, or not, so as to better understand what is going on. It may however be that only Chinese descendants of the leading families would receive any help.

Do let me know more if you can, privately. I won't publish anything you ask me not to.

Thanks for letting me know of your uncannily similar experience.

10:48 PM  
Blogger Mrs Boysis said...

By the way, do you know that your website is banned by MOE? LOL!!! What is wrong with your website???

9:55 AM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Thank you for telling me, Mrs Boysis. How is the website banned? How is this indicated? Is it just inaccessible from schools...or are there problems with it nationwide? Do let me know how they have implemented this ban.

As for your other two comments: which of them am I allowed to post? I presume the shorter one is fine to post, but what about the long one? Do let me know. Thank you.

11:51 AM  
Blogger Mrs Boysis said...

Ok for you to post anything, I wouldn't write it if it is not meant to be posted.

I am trying to find that blog which I read about 2 years ago. I no longer can find that article. It is about an MOE teacher who was researching about child prodigies and she was in an MOE school. Your site was specifically banned and she could not find any information. She then wrote about how she could find information about this Malaysian Maths prodigy girl who went to Oxford, but was blocked from your site. She thought it did not make sense. Now, I cannot find her blog as well, so I cannot point you to that site.

I had assumed it is still blocked or banned in schools, but maybe I am wrong. I am no longer in Singapore so I am not sure. I cannot confirm that. They might have lifted it, though.

1:46 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Mrs. Boysis, I am not at all surprised you can no longer find the blog that wrote of her experience at an MOE school. As soon as MOE found out about it, they would have asked her to remove it on pain of losing her job! Maybe she did lose her job.

I am not surprised that my blog should be banned from MOE schools, because it is very open about our experience with the MOE and details our journey from hopeful relief at being accepted by GEP for Ainan at 7, to utter disenchantment with them about a year later. That journey makes the MOE look very bad indeed...which is, of course, the truth of how that organization works. I am sure they don't want that truth known. That probably explains your MOE teacher's experience.

Thanks for letting me know.

1:54 PM  
Blogger Beverley XD said...

I graduated from a GEP class in a GEP school 2 years ago. I found that the kids in my class were detrimental to my learning. They were very disruptive and there was even one who was told to sit at the back of the class by himself every lesson. However, even though he was apparently deprived of lessons, he aced every single test and exam he took without listening to a single word the teacher said. The Head of Department (GEP) in the school then told the teacher that he was 'a bit mentally retarded' despite his exam results and test scores.
However, most of my other peers talked loudly in class all the time, refused to listen to the teacher and did not do a single piece of homework. The teachers did not do anything to control these delinquents, but instead continued teaching as if nothing had transpired. Some of my mainstream friends were constantly bullied by these GEP kids and yet no action was taken by the school. Once, my GEP friend even cried in class in full view of the teacher after she was spat at by another GEP kid, and when her classmate told the teacher, all the teacher said was "let her be".
In short, I hated my time in the GEP and would not recommend it to anyone in general because it is a horrible experience.

11:17 PM  
Blogger Beverley XD said...

I am able to access this blog from my MOE school in the city. Don't know why it doesn't work for other people.
I graduated from a GEP school 2 years ago and had a bad impression of the GEP kids in my class.
My class contained both GEPers and non-GEP 'high ability' kids because of something the MOE/my school (not sure which) calls the "twinning programme". In this programme, GEP kids are put in the same class with non-GEP kids for every subject but English, Math and Science.
The GEP kids were very disruptive in class. They played trading card games in class and disregarded the teacher completely. Another of my friends from the twinning programme was even spat at, but no action was taken by the teacher.
The GEP kids were also always bragging about various things in class (e.g. their 'superb' results on paid IQ tests, the type of housing they stay in - most stay in condos or landed properties, and even how much allowance they get per day.) I, coming from a middle-class family, often felt inferior and stressed when I heard what the GEP kids were saying. They also had their own cliques and left out those who were not in the GEP.
GEP is a horrible experience even coming from me, with only half a GEP experience. I'd hate to have to experience the whole thing though.

11:27 PM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Thank you Beverley for sharing your experience. I find it most telling that the Head of GEP could call a boy "retarded" who did so well in all his exams. He might be socially different...but was definitely not "retarded". However, judging by the remark I would say that the Head was retarded!

The fact that the kids in GEP were so restless in class suggests that either they had attention issues, or the teacher was BORING. I wonder which? Either way, they showed a definite lack of respect by their behaviour. Perhaps they felt "entitled" to do what they pleased because they were "special". Awful.

I am sorry that you had such a hard time, but glad you shared. Thank you. Best of luck with your future. Hopefully you find better people to share it with.

12:05 AM  
Blogger Valentine Cawley said...

Hi Beverley. Re. the GEPer's high IQs...that, in itself, is not particularly interesting. It is analogous to have a fast car with lots of horsepower. What would be interesting is driving it somewhere new or in a better way than anyone else. So, it is not the potential that is key, but what they do with their high power minds. From the way they behave and boast of trivial (monetary) things, I think your GEP classmates are not going to become very interesting people. They don't sound like it now.

12:09 AM  

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