Day 13/100

One issue with the current education system (in the United States) is how we handle so called "gifted children." As someone who was often referred to in school by this or similar, I have directly suffered from these issues. While my school was somewhat good with this, and had me sorted into some of the "higher level" classes by fourth grade, it still wasn't enough. While most who fall into the middle of the school system generally have to learn how to study early in their school career, I did not, even with these "accelerated" classes. I honestly did not have to learn how to study until my freshman year of high school due to these issues, and I ended up with much lower grades than I wanted in both freshman year and sophomore year (although to be fair a lot more was happening at that time that affected this, such as COVID.)

In school

What can be done about it? Well, certainly more specialized education depending on a students level. And, I was probably better off than many others with education systems where they do not offer these programs until sixth grade or after, where by then a student should have a pretty solid base knowledge of how to study. However, I understand that this is a tricky subject to deal with, as if you push a student too much it will result in other issues. Either way, if you are currently in this situation, just know that you can recover from it, but to do that, you have to realize your current position, and get rid of the thing in your head telling you "I know I can do better than this." That mentality is only going to hold you back, and instead of believing that at the current moment you can do better than you are, realize that at this moment this is the best you can do and are doing, and try to work towards doing better in the future.

Parents

Parents are also a major issue, as they often try to push you to what they believe your potential is, without realizing all of the work you still have to put in to get to that level. They are doing what they believe is right, but most of them do not understand that while sure, having more potential is good, it does not mean that the path of education is going to be easy for you. If anything, it will be harder. So, realize that even if others seem to be in the current moment doing better than you, know that you can also improve, and not everyone is going to have the same rate of growth either.

Comparisons

The word "gifted" means that in comparison to your peers, you are well, more gifted in education then them. However, this leads to the issue that everything turns into a constant comparison between you and your peers. Instead of focusing on personal growth, you are instead put on a track of comparing yourself to how others in your classes are doing. While comparisons can be good for pushing yourself, and work well some of the time, most of the time it seems to just demoralize you as you see yourself as being lower than those above you in the system. Even as someone who used to be at the top of my classes (while being in the highest level of classes,) I still was demoralized by the few above me. And later, during my beginning of high school, this got even worse when I realized that I was slipping in ranking and doing worse on tests than my peers who I had previously done better than. These comparisons, however, are something that are difficult to get rid of, as everyone likes to want to feel better from doing better than someone else, and then will later look back in retrospect at those who did better than them and feels worse about themself. Hell, even most the current standardized tests are based off of comparisons with you and your peers, such as the SAT.