Never heard of any GATE program or anything else like that, but I recall my mother telling me that when I was very young, I was tested for my intelligence, and how even as a preschooler, I scored off the chart in visual intelligence, higher than the averages high school senior. Ever since than I had been the target of constant harassment by the school system, pairing me with adults with clipboards who sat with me in every classroom, and being placed in special education classrooms with the actual disabled kids. Basically red rubber stamped a “Retard” on my forehead, whether my parents or I liked it or not. K through 10th grade it went on like this and it was humiliating to say the least and crippled my social skills and was basically taught to hate myself and doubt everything about whatever made me special.
tl;dr: I scored as gifted in visual intelligence as a toddler, and was bullied by the school system to the point it was traumatic up until I graduated from high school.
Never heard of any GATE program or anything else like that, but I recall my mother telling me that when I was very young, I was tested for my intelligence, and how even as a preschooler, I scored off the chart in visual intelligence, higher than the averages high school senior. Ever since than I had been the target of constant harassment by the school system, pairing me with adults with clipboards who sat with me in every classroom, and being placed in special education classrooms with the actual disabled kids. Basically red rubber stamped a “Retard” on my forehead, whether my parents or I liked it or not. K through 10th grade it went on like this and it was humiliating to say the least and crippled my social skills and was basically taught to hate myself and doubt everything about whatever made me special.
tl;dr: I scored as gifted in visual intelligence as a toddler, and was bullied by the school system to the point it was traumatic up until I graduated from high school.