So I guess I'm Smart...

by Bob
(Boston MA)

When I was younger i had a lot of problems in School. I was kept back in 6th grade (1979), but not because I could not do the work. Turned out to be the opposite. My teachers were pissed at me for doing the homework and other assignments in class, completing them minutes after they were assigned. They would confiscate the assignment and give me a zero. I aced every test, but still "failed" by the two teachers. at the end of the year I was tested. as the school administration and my parents thought that I may have a learning disability..

I scored an IQ of 185 in 6th grade, with a grade equivalent of 9th grade.

In 8th grade I was tested again and scored 186 with a grade equivalent of freshmen in College.

I was not diagnosed with ADD until College in 1994 (8 years after High School), where one of the professors told me that it was evident that I was bored in his class, and pulled me aside. He started giving me much more advanced work, and kept feeding me more and more till I started not grasping it. He then told me that he would be talking to the administration about me skipping his class. After having a meeting with the administration they told me that not only did he assign me an A for his class, but the two classes beyond that level, which he claimed that I easily tested out of.

If not for those two teachers, my life could have been radically different. Currently I'm a Sr. Network security engineer (think Anti-Hacker/Hacker). Imagine where I could have been if more teachers like the college professor actually paid attention to students that were "special" as I was described...