Reply To: "But you SEEM so smart!"

[mez]

In 1964, when I was in grade four, the school IQ-tested all of us.

I never heard the end of it after that.

I’m SO sick of people telling me I could do it, I should apply myself, I was lazy, I could be anything if only I’d only TRY.

Being a disappointment to everyone you care about is debilitating and destabilizing.

One of the kids in my class was a classic ADHD kid (in retrospect); most of us thought he was really stupid because he was always doing dumb things and being a nuisance. The school must have known – he was tested too – but somehow wrote him off as just a problem kid.

Imagine our surprise, eight years later, when he came first in the state in maths.

I have attended all four of our ten-year school reunions, and am always amazed at the number of people who still think he’s an idiot. He is a genuine genius, not just “gifted” as I was labelled.

Poor man. I wish I knew last year (last time I spoke to him) what I know now.

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