Were You Part Of The "Mentally Gifted Minds" Program In California Scools back in the 70's?

Can a mod please PIN this so that others who were part of it will find this thread? Thanks!

I and the OP are not the same person. We have yet to hear his/her reasons for opening this thread.

Pay attention to little details such as this and be careful not to reveal your current location.

Southern California late 60's. I vaguely remember the testing. I was taken out of the program when we moved. We were seen as different by the other kids.It seems to me (if memory serves) there were times they have about 25 of us kids and they had us lay down in a dark room and make us do visualization or something. Any one else remember any thing like this?

OMGosh! I haven't seen one of those in YEARS! I used to LOVE that game!!

Seriously look at some of those tests, especially the one on page 2 of this thread. That one freaked me out. It was literally like I was back in that classroom again for about 2 seconds when I saw that test. It was literally when people describe as a "sensory overload", I could smell the classroom, see the desk/classmates and feel my school uniform.

I can remember bits and pieces of my childhood but not with the same clarity that my husband can remember his childhood.

Right now, I have to admit this thread has officially spooked me.

I am able to remember every minute detail of my child hood for a reason. I have memories since the age of 3 that have been confirmed by my family.

I hope that posting the images of the games and my descriptions of different activities will help some of you to remember.

omg, yeah! we did this too a couple of times, lol.
i forgot about that. weird.

I was part of the "gifted and talented" program here in Maine in the 90's.

Same idea.

Yup

I'm sorry for making you afraid but I believe knowing is better than not. It is time for me to tell all I know because I care about humanity.

We had to put our heads on the desks with the lights out and do that.

There was also another thing a health and growth study. We had to wear a device that tracked our movement and write down everything we ate for a week. They also took blood and had us fill out huge questionnaires this was only done to the girls and was done for two years 4th and 5th grade.

Anybody else?

I didn't keep in touch with any of the kids from those classes (two years worth). I sometimes wonder how they turned out. How many of us may have a spiritual nature that seems to put us in direct contact with the source, as opposed to being simply religious? How many of us have true empathy for our fellow man (those that are human). How many of us have or are experiencing the "Dark night of the Soul"?
By the way, my memory of that time is very vague.

Well whatever is the case, we are aware that we are all equal and that the world should live as one, in love and harmony with the nature.
Maybe we are a part of the Illuminati NWO plan, it's just more complex than we previously thought. Can you imagine world united, with people who aren't mentally retarded as our leaders? The so called "golden age" could begin.

Wait a second, all of this could have occured years ago, if it weren't for the TPTB.. it's just wierd, one theory cancels another and we still have no clue what's going on.

Maybe the Illuminati agenda is about not giving uberawesome technology to people who aren't worth it? (not worth it = being self-destructive). Wait no, that makes no sense, we could have gone totaly to green energy decades ago, we could have banned mass killings of animals, pollution of the mother Earth etc..

i'm really confused, but also inspired at the same time lol

Yes, NJ in mid 1980's...

Classes were already segregated by aptitude... ie 6th grade had 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, and 6-5. 6-1 being the most talented/hard working and 6-5 being the dregs and slackers. Think I was in 6-1 for most classes but 6-2 for 1 or 2. This system was in place at my junior high (grades 6-8).

Outside of the general splitting us up, we also have had a gifted and talented group of maybe 6-8 children. For awhile we met an hour before normal school each Thursday. That teacher also organized a week of marine biology at the nearby Sandy Hook aquatic museum... we had classes, took scuba diving lessons, and strolled the beach looking for animals. (There was rumor of that teacher getting canned for bringing some girls to the mall to try on bathing suits, LOL).

And we often did get pulled out of class.... once 3-4 of use were tasked with getting a helium balloon to balance out... neither hitting the ceiling or allowing its weight objects to hit the floor... this was literarily outside of class... just some tables set up in a connecting few hallways. We practiced creative problem solving and once or twice even danced (???) before normal school. It was fun... a mix of boys girls and races... and the girl I had a crush on was in there too.... a weird but fun experience growing up.

- serinx

This is becoming very interesting. Everybody is bursting with information.

No worries, I'm not afraid/scared, just spooked by all the similarities. I too believe that knowledge is power.

So AC 863003 are you still typing your reply in all you know that you wish to share with us? Thanks.

Continuing from my previous post on this thread, and bringing us up to the point before the Norway Spiral event:

When the sphere collapsed around the beginning of the sustained collapse reaction, it must have created an enormous amount of energy, perhaps enough to create another world. Now I notice the wars, pandemics, and global chaos that were supposed to happen so far have not. My intent keeps the patch intact, and every day I awake and everything is still here. I remember that there is some time left, but not much, where we can work on our problems, while replenishing this world of what we have stolen from God. Our history is rife with accounts of the many devastating and wasteful practices that have been happening here from time immemorial.

I have a theory that the many different forms of life here are similar to us in that we all share a spark of life, that to get a better perspective to what living here is all about, from time to time, we live the life of a tree, animal, bird, human, or what have you, which is separate from the sterile mineral soil.

Two issues have surfaced that need to be remedied:
1. Rampant theft from God
2. Unauthorized taking of life

It is time for us to be the people we were meant to be, and quit being the people we were told we had to be.

Maybe it wasn't about intelligence, as much as it was about consciousness or the potential for consciousness. After being around a group of smart kids like that, being removed and going to "normal" classes, seemed rather mundane. How many have had paranormal/ufo experiences. To tell the truth I have never met anyone that I know of, that has had similar experience in their education. Maybe we're meeting now.

I was tested in the early 90s and was declared "gifted" but I didn't get to go to the "special school" and have "special curriculum" because - get this - my grades weren't "good enough". Guess I would have blown their nice charts showing good grades = smart students.

Do you remember making dolls to represent your ancestors? They were cloth dolls hand sewn and they kind of looked like voodoo dolls when they were finished. Ludens children never made one of these to represent their ancestors for that very reason. We would think of any culture but our own and make the dolls look like that.

Children in normal classes were mainly given construction paper for artistic tasks. Those of us that had been separated were given many more materials, virtually unlimited resources.

Whoever mentioned the visualization stuff just reminded me that our group did that as well. One curious thing to note is that when I first entered the GATE Class I was in third grade and I remember at the time thinking it was weird to be in a class with kids of various ages. It's like the subject matter had no relation to the age of the kids. We all did the same thing regardless of our age.

One other tidbit........I remember being in GATE and loving it because we got to watch all the space shuttle launches. The teacher would actually come get us out of class to watch the launches live. I remember this vividly because we all were watching when the Challenger disaster occured.

We should start some sort of list that documents all the various types of activities we did. This may help others remember details. I know other posts have brought memories to me that I wouldn't have remembered otherwise.

Don't be so coy.

Speak plainly and just say whatever you mean please.

i agree. when i read back over the thread more carefully
and saw the grid test image, i instantly remembered more.
i loved to do those grid ones especially and the sight of
it is even comforting to me, lol.

Found this

PART 2
STUDENT IDENTIFICATION AND PLACEMENT

2.1 What are the LEA responsibilities for identification of GATE students?
Each school district has the responsibility for developing a method for the identification of pupils as gifted and talented. The method of identification is included in the district’s application and conforms to these general principles:

(a) The standards ensure the identification of pupils who possess a capacity for excellence far beyond that of their chronological peers.

(b) Methods are designed to seek out and identify those pupils whose extraordinary capacities require special services and programs.

(c) Provisions are made for examining a pupil’s range of capacities.

(d) Methods and techniques of identification generate information as to a pupil’s capacities and needs.

(e) There is equal opportunity to be identified in the categories served.

(f) Methods are designed to seek out and identify gifted and talented pupils from diverse linguistic, economic, and cultural backgrounds. (CCR, Title 5 Section 3820)
2.2 What evidence is used to identify students for GATE services?
Prior to identification, pertinent evidence as to a pupil’s capacity for excellence far beyond that of chronological peers is compiled. The range of data should be broad enough to reveal gifts and talents across cultural, economic, and linguistic groups.

(a) Appropriate data to be collected by the school district may include:

• School, class, and individual pupil records

• Individual tests (including summary and evaluation by a school psychologist)

• Group tests

• Interviews and questionnaires (teacher, parent, and others)

(b) Evidence of a pupil’s capacity may also be derived from pupil products, comments from peers, and opinions of professional persons.

(c) Studies of factors contributing to a pupil’s underachievement resulting from handicapping or disadvantaged conditions shall be considered.

(d) The pertinent evidence shall reflect consideration of the economic, linguistic characteristics, and cultural background. (CCR, Title 5 Section 3823)
2.3 What are the categories for identification of GATE students?
The following categories are used for identification of the pupil’s extraordinary capability in relation to the pupil’s chronological peers:
(a) Intellectual Ability: A pupil demonstrates extraordinary or potential for extraordinary intellectual development.

(b) Creative Ability: A pupil characteristically:

1. Perceives unusual relationships among aspects of the pupil’s environment and among ideas

2. Overcomes obstacles to thinking and doing

3. Produces unique solutions to problems

(c) Specific Academic Ability: A pupil functions at highly advanced academic levels in particular subject areas.

(d) Leadership Ability: A pupil displays the characteristic behaviors necessary for extraordinary leadership.

(e) High Achievement: A pupil consistently produces advanced ideas and products and/or attains exceptionally high scores on achievement tests.

(f) Visual and Performing Arts Talent: A pupil originates, performs, produces, or responds at extraordinarily high levels in the arts.

(g) Any other category which meets the standards set forth in these regulations. (CCR, Title 5 Section 3822)
2.4 Who makes the final determination about GATE pupil eligibility?
The final determination of eligibility of a pupil rests with the administrative head of the school district or a designated employee of the districts in accordance with procedures adopted by the local governing board.

(a) The school employee shall base a decision upon the evaluation of the pertinent evidence by the school principal or a designee of the school principal, a classroom teacher familiar with the school work of the pupil, and, when appropriate, a credentialed school psychologist.

(b) To determine the full range of a pupil’s capability, a person recognized as an expert in the gifted and talented category under consideration, and/or an individual who has in-depth understanding of the pupil’s linguistic or cultural group shall participate in the evaluation of the evidence unless there is no doubt as to the pupil’s eligibility.

(c) These individuals may review screening, identification, and placement data in serial order, provided that these individuals meet to resolve differences in assessment and recommendation.

(d) This shall not preclude the use of an identification and placement committee.

[link to www.cde.ca.gov]

I think you may have hit on something. After I took the CAT (California Achievement Test) I too was pulled out and accepted into the "Gifted Child Program" (As it was called in my area of PA at the time. I too read many "classics" that I thought was standard for all kids my age...a few years ago (while talking to co-workers) I realized that my list was "classics" differed from everyone else. And technically many of these were assigned reading in the honors classes (before the Gifted Program) - so I began to see the educational discrepancies that existed within the school system....after I met my husband (who went to the same school) I realized that there were educational discrepancies WITHIN the same school.

The Gifted Program was touted as a new way of learning for gifted children. We were allowed to choose what we wanted to study and how we wanted to study it. There were no tests like in the other classes...instead there were elaborate presentations, student made movies (mostly stop frame captures at the time), insightful short stories and complex pieces of artwork....all designed to show your knowledge of what you studied. I thought it was so cool to write a short fictional story, or create an elaborate drawing, to showcase my learned knowledge. Unfortunately we moved out of state in the middle to a small town in Jersey that did not have the program. Turned out that by the time I entered 11th grade there I had already completed the twelfth grade work back in my old school. I was exempt from all finals and drove my teachers nuts (they'd send me to library during finals).

BUT AS TO WHAT YOU SAID.....I have ALWAYS had a hard time figuring out what age I was when I did certain things. Up until the time I moved out of state that is. I also have always been troubled by what I described as entire "AGE Blocks" huge blocks of time (sometimes seemingly an entire year) in my childhood that I simply cannot recall any substantive details....just a hint of them...usually only involving one sense....I will hear something and then remember a smell from my past....I'll see something and remember a sound or a tune. Wrapped in these smells and sounds are deep feelings but I simply cannot unravel the feelings enough to try to figure what caused them. I too had a childhood "incident" that I later blamed for these blocks, but I doubt that was the cause as usually when you identify the cause of the block you can then remove it.

Another odd thing (outside of the program) was that I had a subscription to "Psychology Today" when I was in Sixth Grade and I simply devoted each issue when it arrived. I can't remember what led me to get into the magazine at all and I thought for years that all kids enjoyed reading it. And I once spent a summer teaching myself Serbo-Croatian, from a book. Although, as an adult I can understand the desire to learn a foreign language, or the need to "Teach myself" something new, but Serbo-Croatian? What in the world was my motivation for choosing that language? For the life of me I can't remember.

Here are some things that also played a part just prior to being identified for these programs. Before standardized tests, these requirements were more heavily relied upon:

Art

1. Self portrait. You were required to complete a self portrait of yourself by looking in a small mirror and drawing what you saw. This was often the ONLY test that was needed to determine whether a child would further testing in a private art museum.

2. Color interpretation. Knowing which colors to mix in order to achieve another color. This would not be considered an outstanding thing except for the fact that some children exhibited this skill at a very young age.

3. Your view of the world as expressed through art. Children would be monitored as to whether they painted the sky down to the horizon line properly.

Me too!
:coffe4:

I remember this. I can still see the protrait I drew in my mind.