TLDR; Im thinking constantly scrambling up my co-program classmates was on purpose.

To start this post is inspired by another posted today about the paperwork they found. It made me think of papers I ran across long ago that I tease my parents about to this day.

Also this occurred in schools built in a cancer cluster that has its own superfund river. The city is home to about 20 refineries all big names like Exxon. Polution pumped out 24/7.

Primary School was for grades K-2. My core group (started as 11 of us) were in the same classes consistently. Parents all friends and most lived in our subdivision. Starting in K my teachers would leave the classroom for something and put me in charge and had me read to the class.

Elementary School was for grades 3-5. My core group and I were in the same rotation in 3rd grade class. 4th grade we were in a class of advanced 5th graders and did 5th grade work. 5th we were back together, more bored, flew through class work because we did it the year before. This is when spending all our time alone in the computer lab, library or as an admin aide of some type. Our first WTF field trip was to meet the professional basketball team in Houston.

Testing during 5th grade happened. The parents that could prvide transportation to and from school sent their kids off to another campus for a full accredited program. The rest of us were placed in “Honors” everything and stayed in the regular feed.

Middle School - “Honors” kept the remaining 6 of us together a lot. 6th grade nothing special. But we experienced fatigue because there were new classmates in our classes that slowed things down. 7th grade the COMPLETELY ENDED the Honors program. Said it was inclusion time. As 7th and 8th grade we basically just hung out. But more wild unsupervised field trips and privileges.

High School was stressful. Not having advanced curriculum for two years then thrown back into the Honors program comes at you hard. That had to be an experiment.

Suspected Experiment 1. Thrown into 5th grade Honors class as 4th graders. Then test how much we could retain by having us complete it a year early, and testing us for recall the next year.

Suspected Experiment 2. Compare how we perform when separated into attending a fully immersive program off campus versus attending a mock program on campus. Use the state standardized EOY scores see what group did best.

Suspected Experiment 3. End the Honors program (7th grade) and mix them with the others for a while and see what happens. Then keep them behind for 8th grade but te-enroll them into the program in 9th grade. See how remixing the program students goes and if we are still competitive.

Lastly, we had a group of boys kill another boy in high school. The ringleader(orphan) and 2 others(single parent and both parents) were program students. Their trials all lasted very few days with harsh sentences. I believe they’re just casualties. We had more program students that murdered during highschool. One kid murdered his girlfriend in a car, the other both of his parents.

Anyways, just considerations. Happy 4th

I know people here track trends and sales quite a bit. Is there any rhyme or reason for the constant push of the hand sanitizers? After you stock up on 24. how soon do you get more? Environmentally they are a menace. Why are these always a big sale? I can wash and sanitize almost everywhere.

Former gifted kid turned parent of 3. I’ve just started seriously considering the programs impact on me, recently. I’ve tried to read up and watch videos to educate myself. Anyways just a Mom that has been “special” my entire life. There are 6 things I haven’t yet read about that stand out to me. Wondering if anyone else has similar recall.

1. From my first day in K (PK too) the classroom felt overly bright, clean smelling and sterile? When I had a cesarean section for the first time, going into that room felt just like Kindergarten to me. Instantly I was back.

2 Multiple times since K, I was learned upon like an assistant teacher. Even them leaving the class to me while they left to visit the office or whatever. I’d be asked to read out loud and take names. I was 5. I remember all these things like it was my first day at work.

3. About 6 of my classmates and I were always in the same classes and groups. There was no secret we were seen as the “smart” kids. K-12, I seemed to always be around them.

4. Us 6 had privileges that were so odd. Until 8th grade we could go to the auditorium, library, or computer lab - no questions asked - if we finished our work. No hall pass, no escort, just us in a lab. Field trips were heavily unwatched too, like they had no problem letting us roam Galveston for hours alone - at 11 - for hours. Not a cellphone between us.

5. Twice we were placed into a co-taught class for the full year with the smart kids a year older than us. But we never had people added to our classes.

6. I did everything to graduate early, take “regular” classes, take the fewest credits needed to graduate. My counselor refused this. He refused to help me with HBCU schools. A handler it felt like. He was running whatever program it was like a boss.

I have always had teachers that protect me, listen to me and were easy to persuade or get help from. My group all turned out to be high earning, alcohol loving, balls of nerves.