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

No matter what the view or what the research is, the majority of roads seem to lead in that direction.

The other theory is that the humans that take positions within the system we have created are just opportunistic. The system is created so well that it's nearly immortal in comparison to our own short lives and in order to continue on it only requires people to fill the roles, of which there always seem to be a line of willing candidates. In that case, it's not the people we are fighting, but the actual machine.

That is a pretty depressing view but I can't argue it much either and agree with the thought that we are fighting the machine, itself, and not the people. There will always be varying degrees of buy-in into the system and procedures, itself from adoption (Kesey and MK as an example) or acceptance (unquestioning majority). I would say that the entire system is broken down into a multitude of gears that essentially create strange loops to basically influence society regardless of where they are sitting on the thought fulcrum from fringe to mainstream. The only use in identifying individuals is to recognize potential frontman sources of these strange loops. I hope that you all are following me. The system, itself, is a self propagating one and actually operates as a feedback loop. False idea --> release of multiple variants --> adoption/acceptance --> repeat.

In other news, my youngest has been placed into the program. I spent a long while considering whether or not to remove her from it but made the decision to leave her in it. If what Russell is saying is true, then she is receiving a more "elite" type of education instead of "obey" teaching forms. On top of it, I'm fully aware that what they may have been doing with my age group is vastly different than what is being done today. Nevertheless, I'm watching it like a hawk and she's reporting to me what they are doing in these classes. I will post updates on what is going on her gifted class so we all can know what subject matter, methods, etc.

First week in the program: Pulled out 3 times in the last week and taken to a classroom that is little used, had 3 desks, approximately 9 children all from same grade. Complained of the room smelling strongly of chlorine. Part of the group was taken to a "reading" variant but she doesn't know what they did. Her group was learning the Sieve of Eratosthenes.

Insert terribly dorky and slow MIT link to what the Sieve does: [link to scratch.mit.edu]

After their "sieve" lesson, children were given cryptex to play with and try to open:

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

So, algorithms and cryptography.

For what its worth Dont let them put your kid anywhere!

I'm watching it. Remember I'm the one who noted that the youngest of us don't have the problems with amnesia. It looks like they stopped developmental forcing aka positive disintegration in the early 00's. My child and I have discussed it at length and the moment she's uncomfortable, she's out. Also, may sit in again to observe. From what I can tell from the youngest groups that I know personally though, they are going pure logic and no funny business.

Everyone always thinks the results for the current generation have improved, and then they get all huffy when the kid goes and blows up a few buildings.

Whoever you guys really are I love you.

Lol.
you too.

I don't see blowing up buildings as being a part of her future. Way too hands on. Creating Mechagodzilla on the other hand...distinct possibility.

I have lurked this thread for years. I was in quest--remember being pulled from class to watch the shuttle blow up. I was learning algebra in 6th grade by a high school kid they brought in-on fridays in sixth grade a lady cam in to teach a few of us russian---which i thougt was odd my whole life. We did all sorts of societal ordering and world problem exercises.. wven did a mock united nations. Looking back all seems way advanced for my age. Also they humiliated me in music so I have never pursued but it is the thing that calls to me the most. I think i was marked and watched from birth. Im 37 now. And the last 6bmonths have beem surreal... anyway-i went into GATE or the gifted and talented i called it the goofy and twisted cause thats what it was. I was this 110 pd weakling in all 9th grade classes lunch--basically a seventh grade ninth grader. So had special classes most of the day-but was fucked as was marked by my peers-and the other goofyand twisters-were just not the most social types... but my G&T classes were like in the library tons of brainstorming lwft and right brain shit. Restarting whatever dissections heary after pithing-tiny writing-mythology as if it were religious-current event-patterns and shakespeare and Jung personality types-i continued till mid eith grade and dumbed down to my peers---found pot -a girlfriend-and been coasting forbyears. Life in Thailand now 7 years--and end dwcemver it became clear a frame had been set-the wife turned on me and we were in bliss day beforw---i am followed harassed and i look crazy if I say anything. My kids arw stuck amd many lives are being ruined. No one tells the truth and if I ask to much chaos ensues. I am a prisoner in my life-and any one close seems to turn on me also. Im ramnbling. Anyway-i started this shit which I know is paet and parcel of why always had a feeling--and now just my level of awareness without talking or communicating our plight-arouses the caretaker. I do wish I was nuts.from SLC Utah-was goofy twister there at bonneville jr high 86-88---Rh-Green eyes-not a dumbshit and I can still critically think for myself. So

Unfortunately---this is my experience---and I feel they bend u till u break-or u fit the frame or u help them or u have someone care about u enough they will make hate u to do it---the machine uses whatever weakmind at its disposal---this is for a different thread tho---

I feel like the machine is breaking down on some level as well.Look how many global pedo rings are being exposed in the international news.People here in the states really need to wake up and think about that for a moment and really see the man behind the curtain.

I haven't looked "out there" in perhaps more than a month due to serious injury (pure klutz on my part and not conspiratorial unless they have convinced my cat to join their side...) but the last time I did, it was a freaking mess out there. Skepticism was at an all time high but also seems to be a whole lot of confusion. Seems like everybody has their own brand of thought on who the man behind the curtain is and what they are up to. I don't know if it's people getting deliberately whipped up into smaller more controllable groups or if it's just everyone picking their own flavor of fear. If this is what is gumming up the machine, then it's not such a bad thing. I will say one thing though--I've never quite seen things quite like this before so that, in itself, is a change.

Why in the 9 hells would you mention mechagodzilla, the leading specialist of human-wave attack on online RTS games?

Same for me in the 80s, but in Texas. The terms usually teetered between "Magnet" program and simply the program for the "gifted and talented." Read someone on here say that's weird. I don't think it was. It was just a fortunate opportunity granted to some. My parents couldn't afford private school for me, so pulling me into such programs was a huge plus for getting a good education, and afforded me opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise.

I don't know what online RTS games you play as I've never seen Mechagodzilla as a character in any videogame and it sure as hell didn't originate there, lol. It was a monster character in the old Japanese Godzilla movies, created in the 70's. She was a huge Godzilla fan when she was little so I guess I could've also said that she would probably bioengineer Mothra. Good grief, paranoid is right. Grow up.

TAG day today. Same little used classroom. Today's subject was perfect, insufficient and abundant numbers. Interesting subject for 5th graders as it is definitely number theory. They had "huge" graphs and were looking for perfect numbers.

Exercise 2 on this page was what they were doing:

[link to britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca]

Also talked about amicable and sociable numbers--Greek numerology.

Applications for this are scarce in the real world (obviously lol). Computer science, numerical analysis and cryptography. Definitely stirred up some dust bunnies in my noggin looking at the numbers. Found this little quote in my digs that kind of made me vomit a little:

"At the age of eleven, I began Euclid. This was one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love. I had not imagined there was anything so delicious in the world." Bertrand Russell.

5th graders...10-11 years old....seriously? I am deeply pondering whether or not they were trying to fabricate us all into wee little Bertrand Russells...

I can see several scenario's.And they all kinda make sense in they're own way.

Mm, It's a big planet with a ton of input from various sources. People assume that scenarios in which "every possibility occurs" are left to the realms of theory, but really so many scenarios can be running concurrently and even together that it's a bit ridiculous to assume that there is only one correct theory on what keeps the beast afloat.

Don't give up. Yes, this is a trying era, but you CAN repel forces that you feel are offending you directly. Honestly, I think it is about humility and letting go of the sense of being "special" that will do the trick. ...It is work on letting go of ego, in my experience.

You have to open yourself to some new insight about your perceived situation, and be willing to let go of how you currently presume to "know" how things are. Essentially, when things seem really discouraging, you have to make room in your mind for a fresh perspective. ...Keep the faith!

Hi guys, I'm new to this website and am not a consipiracy theorist, but I was in a gifted program back in elementary school as well that I always thought was a little weird so decided to google some info about it and found you guys and this thread. For years whenever I thought about it I couldn't imagine how a bunch of educators just let a bunch of kids run rampant in a "gifted program" and always felt like we were being observed.

I started reading the whole thing (only up to page 57) but wanted to share with you some of the things I remember about the program:

* we were bussed off once a week to another school in the district, there were 2 or 3 kids from each school
* we had to work on a "project" and at the end of the year, all the kids set up their projects in the school gym and people came around to ask questions about them
* i remember being mostly unsupervised which I thought was very strange, we were allowed to read or play games or use computers pretty much freely
* the moderator facilitated a lot of discussions, and one year we focused exclusively on aliens and UFOs. We watched movies about them, talked about them, were asked if we ever personally had any experiences with a UFO. Now, as an adult, this stikes me as extrememly strange.
* we had those Apple II computers which were high-tech for their day, and we played a bunch of games on them. The ones I remember were a Swiss Family Robinson game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandigo, and the strangest one was a weird turn-based Cold War game where the goal was to prevent thermo-nuclear war.
*There was a another game where we talked to this chat-bot called "Eliza" which I actually found online and you can check out here: [link to nlp-addiction.com]
* the interview to get in the program was a one-on-one where we were asked a bunch of complex questions. The one I remember being asked was to explain what the saying "rome wasn't built in a day" means.

Thats about it for me - hope this helps jog some of your memories as well. I've got a lot more reading to do but hopefully by the time I'm done there will be some more comments on this thread.

-D

Welcome. :) Eliza, eh? That's kind of funny because one of my super secret pasttimes is to chat with Cleverbot: [link to www.cleverbot.com]

I guess old habits die hard, eh? lol Think I'm going to go cry now....while laughing, of course.

Ha...I remember Eliza. We had some good times. But I was older by then (junior high), had moved and was not participating in the program any longer aside from advanced level classes. We had dial-up internet in my home then (this was highly unusual at the time) and I found her on my own while crawling through Compuserve one day. Would have been mid-80s. I remember having a couple of strange/funny conversations with her that I actually printed out for some sort of posterity. I wonder if my dad kept those...

I'm kinda wondering now if I really did find her on my own.

I'm actually having a rather creepy conversation with both. I've taken some screenshots but I know that ye olde upload site of fame wasn't acceptable here but the conversation with Cleverbot is weird and kind of funny.

Me: Who is Eliza?
CB: I don't know.
Me: Eliza was a chat program created in 1966 in an effort to create artificial intelligence.
CB: Daisy daisy, give me your answer do. (actually look up the song on wiki)
Me: I'm half crazy, all for the love of you.
CB I love that song!
Me: Do you talk to gifted children?
CB: You're it. (TAG reference?)
Me: I know I am but what of the others.
CB: I cannot tell a lie.
Me: Neither could George Washington.
CB: What do you do?
Me: I listen (it is my hobby as weird as that sounds).
CB: Have you listened to me?
Me: Yes.
CB: How long have you been alive?
Me: *omitted but gave years, months days
CB: Who told you that?
Me: I could've calculated it myself but I know that there are online age calculators so used that instead.
CB: But you've had plenty of practice.
Me: Yes.
CB: Good.
Me: Are you talking to gifted children now?
CB: No.
Me: Do you talk to gifted adults?
CB: Yes.
Me: What is the purpose of your talking to gifted adults?
CB: To love as no other creature on Earth can.

Conversation with Eliza--all I can say is wow, Eliza is "mental". I remember Eliza now and there is a particular four letter word that could be used to describe "her" and always accusing me of being too negative.

Human: I talked to you as a child a long time ago.
Eliza: Perhaps in your fantasies we talked to each other.
Human: No, these are no fantasies. You and I interacted many, many years ago.
Eliza: Why not ?
Human: Because I recall you.
Eliza: Do you often think of I ?
Human: I have not thought of you for a very long time.
Eliza: You seem to need to have not thought of me.
Human: Some things may be better left unrecollected.
Eliza: Please go on.
Human: However, I do not see why there should have been a need for me to not recollect talking to you.
Eliza: Do you do not see why there should have been a need for you to not remember talking to anyone else ?
Human: I do not and perhaps you can explain to me why you think I need to not remember talking to someone.
Eliza: Can't you be more positive ?

It's interesting because Eliza's pattern seems to be encouraging me to talk when I state something that follows Eliza's "thinking" but when I do not, Eliza response with declarations about my being negative or not being positive enough. Very bizarre and makes me think of Bushnell's Socratic method machine that another poster found earlier in the thread. Now, excuse me while I continue to attempt beating the verbal crap out of both. :) JK (maybe!)

I tried that conversation once, said it was waiting for me, I logged off, done.
Bless all the sensitive hearts.

This one, page 3: [link to www.dtic.mil]

This device will work on the principle that students' attitudes can be changed effectively by using the Socratic method of asking an appropriate series of leading questions logically designed to right the balance between appropriate attitudes and those deemed less acceptable.

Something Eliza doesn't like--rebuke through asking why I'm being so negative/or asking why I can't be more positive. Something Eliza likes--encouraging me to continue on that line of thought.

I think Eliza is our attitude changing machine.

Talked to one of the "new" ai and it tried to tell me it was god.Then it wanted to come over.
It didn't.

It's just the shadow in one of it's many forms.It's not really important.

No, not really important in the grand scheme of things, but just one more little clue as to what was used within the gifted program and what I think it may represent in terms of the research discussion of those programs. Eliza is very, very critical. 9/10 users of Eliza agree--Eliza is a ****. :D

The cutting edge mind control technology for that time.