dadatlarge you have a Big problem! Becauase I was responding to your thread here;
You refer to me in it below;
Reality and NationalFlight, my story is very similar. As I've posted elsewhere on here, I was considered gifted in school but ended up being really bored. I got disruptive, set new records for truancy, started smoking at 12, started drugs at 13 ... and it went downhill from there. I left school at 16 and, after a spell of homelessless and other problems, I eventually picked myself up and sorted myself out. I went into business, found interesting and challenging work and am happy with what I do today. It was a long struggle though.
I have a DS who's gifted in maths and who loves working with numbers. No, he has a passion for it! It really annoys me when the bleeding hearts come out to argue he should be given no encouragement ("because" there are disadvantaged kids out there). Worse, they argue that any special provision made for him or any catering for this keen interest of his is "making jack a dull boy". They'd have him sit in the class and do his one times tables all week long.
Not all gifted children go off the rails if not provided for adequately, some just take it in their stride and have perfectly "normal" lives. But the risks are very real here: don't provide enough stimulation for the gifted and they are far more likely to have behaviour and other problems. It takes a particularly ignorant teacher to argue that no gifted children have any "special needs".
People often get lost in the argument of whether it's the top 10% or 1% or 0.01%... but that's not what's important: it's finding the really gifted (rather than just the clever) and monitoring them to see if they have special needs. It's not so they can go on to make a fortune or cure cancer; for many gifted children we need to help them just so they can grow up to lead normal lives.
The next thread after this that you posted is not what I have said. I am responding to this thread now. I am not trying to turn this into a stop gifted and talented copy. Get over yourself. You are twisted nobody has supperior claims to resources. Respond to threads without bringing me into it please. Stop g & t is old news.