A lonely student

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 14

A lonely student

In a. gifted children association newsletter from England, a boy described what it had been like in primary school to be recognised as advanced by other children: “It was almost as though their animal instinct sensed an intruder, and they acted accordingly,” he wrote. “If the children were harsh, some teachers were even worse, at times almost goading other children into hate by singling me out for special attention. “My work was described as flowery, and because my choice of subject matter was non-conformist, much of my work was relegated to the waste bin ... I tried to become part of the crowd by altering my speech, dress and general behaviour, but I couldn’t continue the charade for long. ...” In secondary school, the boy said in his anonymous report, he sometimes held back questions that probably had no pat answer: “I question because I must know, not because I wish to disprove, but rather than create a hostile atmosphere. 1 — like the chameleon — try to blend into the anonymous surroundings of the classroom.”