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Yes. I don't remember thinking much about the selection process, but the program did end up dictating a lot of my close friends -- they were all in the program with me. Not sure if we would have self-selected like that anyway or it was the extra togetherness of one day a week separated from everyone else.

Yep, I got in in first grade. It was great because I was SO BORED in class.

I wasn't. My brother didn't get in even though he's super smart (was always a straight a student and never studied throughout school) so by the time it was my turn my mom didn't want me tested, she thought it was dumb.

Dh was in it though.

@mrbee: Definitely not in Ohio, unless things have changed!

FWIW, I put pretty limited stock in them these days, especially after reading about the testing problems in NurtureShock ... DH didn't test in, but he has two Ivy League degrees.

This didn't really exist in my school district. I did have a special reading group in first grade, where a few of us went off with an aide and read more challenging books than the rest of the class. I was also in Math Olympics which was a one day a week program. There was another group called New Horizons which I was not in, so I'm not really sure what they did. All of this was just in elementary school, though.

I was in G & T. I don't remember testing for it, but I guess I did. I was honestly bored in school and completed all the work before everyone in my class and had the highest grades. My school wanted to skip me but my mother skipped grades as a child and thought that was part of the reason she "grew up too fast" so we opted for G & T. I had to switch schools and get bussed out, which I didn't like at first but my new school was amazing and challenging and fun.

Our program was called E.S.P. and the other kids in the school would call us "especially stupid people." Oh, kids.

I loved the program. It provided me with educational opportunities that I wouldn't have received at my original school. I think if all schools had the money and resources to provide some of the things we received in the program, many students would be better off.

@mrbee: I guess so! I didn't care where I went to school but my mom kept having me test to get into better private schools. I spent a lot of my childhood doing that!

Ours was just a small group of kids (5 or 6?) pulled out of regular class for a few hours about once a week, if I remember right. We did mostly puzzles and computer activities, and some special projects back and forth with our sister school in Japan. It was interesting enough.

The funny thing was that my mom didn't really want me in the TAG program, mostly because of the other parents. They wanted to start a TAG playgroup and she just found it off putting and wanted me to pick my own friends

But the teacher I had in 4th and 5th grade just kind of made me a teacher's aide when I finished my work early, and I liked that just as much as the TAG activities.

Throughout school I was in programs like that to the extent that my school had the ability to do it. Like where I went to 3rd grade, there wasn't a program for it, but another kid and I went to a 5th grade classroom for the language arts unit each day. At the next school we were pulled out of our classes once a week, and different teachers just taught what seemed like a fun thing for them to teach... so sometimes it was great, sometimes a total waste (waste= 1 teacher who droned on about his experience in the film industry and had us read 1 play-- we didn't even discuss it, just read it, and then he talked about how he wrote Rocky first but then someone got to a producer before him...).... In middle school they clustered us in some classes, so not everyone in my history class was a GATE student, but most were. In high school, there were some AP classes, college prep, and honors classes we could take.

Overall, I thought it was enriching and fun. But like Yo-yo, Nurtureshock changed how I look at it a bit.

Yep I was tested in 3rd grade and got in. To my knowledge very few parents opted to pay for retesting, but hey, what does an 8 year old know!

The program I was in was full time through high school. We went to the same school as "normal" programs, we were just in a separate classroom per grade.

I remember testing in 2nd grade and I started in 3rd grade. My district's program ran through 8th and I was in it the whole time. 3rd-5th, we got pulled out of normal classes for a couple hours a few times a week and we did special projects and stuff. I loved it. I was one of those kids who acted out in class because I was always bored and I think GT (They called it "Project Challenge" at our school) helped that.

6th-8th grade we were taken out of regular Science, English and Reading classes and put into our own classes that were all gifted kids.

In high school, it just went to AP/College/Advanced classes and you had the choice to take them if you wanted. I was lazy and didn't. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA with honors and hardly ever did any homework the entire 4 years.

I think it was good for me, personally. I needed the extra challenge. I would allow C to be tested for it and I would put her in it.

I was from elementary school through middle school. Our high school didn't have one. I loved it! We got to go on special field trips and got to take "special" classes.

I was, but in retrospect, some of the aspects of putting kids in special G&T classes makes me uneasy. I was essentially in all G&T classes (though they weren't specifically called that) for all subjects until in 8th grade when I was randomly put in the second highest math class instead of the only algebra class, which was the highest. My mom called the school and asked them to put me in the algebra class, which they did, and I got all As. Looking back, I'm sure there are a lot of other kids whose parents didn't want to or didn't know they could request their kid be moved to another class who would have done just as well. It just makes me wonder if dividing kids into G&T or tracking them, especially at a young age, just sets up expectations for teachers and for students themselves that may end up shaping their entire academic careers, when things could have turned out differently. For example, if kids start getting put into G&T in first or second grade, what if they're later diagnosed with ADHD or a learning disability that was affecting their grades? By the time they get diagnosed they already have the non-G&T label on them, and they might just kind of be shuffled through the rest of school without being challenged to their full potential. Makes me nervous!

I was in it and it was awesome. During elementary school, we had 1 day during the week that we went to a different school (with other kids from the district). It was a great break from regular classes and the kids I met there did end up being a lot of my close friends throughout my school years. In junior high, it was just a period out of the day and then we didn't have anything in high school.

I don't really understand the whole thing about parents hiring their own psychologists and forcing their kids into the program. That sounds crazy. As far as I know, our program was all based on an IQ test so I'm not sure how you could manipulate that.

Our elementary school had a gifted and talented program, but I don't ever recall being tested it for it. Maybe it was a result of our standardized testing and the top scorers were selected for the program?

I was in it for a few years in grade school. I want to say it was 1-3 grade for me. After that, I was more interested in music than academics.