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What "Gifted" Means in the Long Run
If you've ever paid attention to anything in Elementary and Middle/Junior High school, the phrase "Gifted Program" may be familiar. For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm going on about (or smoking-- but that's a different matter entirely), it's basically special classes for "gifted" students; which means anyone with half a brain and a relatively high score on an IQ test.
The conventional belief is that a gifted student is more likely to succeed. That's a crock and a half of shit. Don't believe me? Then let me tell you a story:
Today (yesterday if you're a detail-Nazi), a rather plump girl around my age and a slightly-older man were in the check-out line at the only register open at the time: mine. While going through the usual small-talk routine ("Hi. Your total is X. Here's your change.Have a nice day. Next.") the man decides to ask me, "Hey, didn't you go to school at Diplomat Middle?"
I replied, "Yes; but I don't keep in touch with anyone." and he moved on to ask me if I was in the gifted program. I begin to realize the woman has a striking resemblance to a rather disdainful girl from my 8th Grade class at this point, and the conversation ends a minute later with her picking up a baby carrier and them leaving with their groceries.
You're probably thinking, "Okay; where is this going?" Consider the following:
The woman was in MY class during Middle School.
I'm going INTO my senior year at High School.
She has a baby.
I don't mean to sound presumptuous, but let's face it: It's damn hard to convince anyone that you're a success if you get knocked up while still in high school.
So what does all this mean? Exactly what I told them what I felt about the gifted students that called themselves my peers: Being gifted doesn't make you smarter-- it makes you more arrogant. Many times, I have seen so-called "geniuses" do the stupidest fucking things (including this lady and her broken condom pity-prize) that could have been averted with the slightest thought or a single drop of common sense.
If you flip a coin a hundred times and guess it correctly each time, most people think one of two things:
"I'm always right." or
"I'm overdue for a miss."
The fact is that neither one is correct. The first one is the arrogant attitude; the mindset of a gifted student. Because they think they're always right, they let arrogance blind their judgment. The latter is the belief that probability always works out to be 50/50 eventually. In case you're wondering what the correct answer is, it's "My chances are, have always been, and always will be 50/50 for each coin toss." But that's besides the point:
The moral of the story is, "Being 'gifted' doesn't amount to DICK in the real world; like it or not."
