<p>My school’s gifted program consisted of one hour per week in which I was pulled out of class for a different teacher to give me logic puzzles and have me play Set with my best friend (the only other kid at the same level as me) (who I did this type of thing with after school all the time anyway). I tested out of all the math they had to offer me and didn’t belong in any reading groups, so their approach was to let me spend 3/4 of the school day doing whatever I wanted. By myself. I got along well with my classmates, but I felt really isolated, frustrated, and bored. I begged them to let me skip a grade. The last two years of elementary school were a miserable waste of time without any sort of useful GT program.
In middle school (after moving), I was allowed to skip a grade (but not two because my parents didn’t want to push me too much) and a few years of math. Even then, without any sort of gifted program, I wasn’t challenged in my classes until I got to IB. Once I got to college it all paid off and worked out, but I had a lot of frustrating years.</p>
<p>So I am definitely a fan of GT programs.</p>