intelligence

At primary school I was effectively told I was stupid, again and again, to the point that I actually believed it. I passed my eleven plus, but ended up going to a Secondary as it was made clear that I "wouldn't cope". In secondary school I was tested for dyslexia but I wasn't and they never even thought to look for ASD, I came away with 9 GCSE A*-C (1 D) and three of those were A*, but socially not comfortable and utterly hating education which is why I never did A-Levels or University.

As an adult I've done the MENSA IQ test and I'l eligible for admittance if I wanted to join (my Cattell was 156). I spend my early twenties struggling with work until I found my way through a bit of luck, then in my early thirties I set up my own company and now in my mid thirties I'm set and comfortable.

Part of my problem was always been told I wasn't bright enough, I wasn't intelligent etc. I ended up believing this, I thought I was stupid, wasn't good enough etc. What changed that with GCSEs was one good teacher who sparked it and showed me I was and that really helped, it then carried over into other subjects, however some teachers still seemed to resent that I wasn't thick as they had spent so long believing that I was.

You need to find your area, the subject or skill that suits you, the one that lets you be who you are and shows off the best of your abilities. It helps if it's something you enjoy, but that's not essential.

Something I have been thinking about is whether changes to the primary school organisation and curriculum have resulted in children being looked at in a different way. I attended primary school in the 1990s complete with the National Curriculum and SATS. Conversations I have had with people who attended primary schools in the 1970s and 80s have revealed that they were very different places both in terms of the curriculum and the style of teaching and assessment. Impressions I get is that there was more emphasis on working hard rather than learning or muddling along rather than high intelligence. The curriculum was generally narrower as not every school taught science, computers, non-Christian religions, or even music with instruments. Some schools adopted a project based curriculum for subjects other than English, maths, and PE which often involved lots of writing and an invariable amount of learning.

I would probably have been less happy to attend primary school before the 1990s.

Something I have been thinking about is whether changes to the primary school organisation and curriculum have resulted in children being looked at in a different way. I attended primary school in the 1990s complete with the National Curriculum and SATS. Conversations I have had with people who attended primary schools in the 1970s and 80s have revealed that they were very different places both in terms of the curriculum and the style of teaching and assessment. Impressions I get is that there was more emphasis on working hard rather than learning or muddling along rather than high intelligence. The curriculum was generally narrower as not every school taught science, computers, non-Christian religions, or even music with instruments. Some schools adopted a project based curriculum for subjects other than English, maths, and PE which often involved lots of writing and an invariable amount of learning.

I would probably have been less happy to attend primary school before the 1990s.

Arran said:

Impressions I get is that there was more emphasis on working hard rather than learning or muddling along rather than high intelligence.

I was at primary school in the 1970s, and my impression here is the reverse, that nowadays everyone is rewarded for effort and there is less concern with simple progress in reading and arithmetic. Everyone has a place in a comprehensive too. I hope the one-dimensional view of IQ has largely receded.

Arran said:

The curriculum was generally narrower as not every school taught science, computers, non-Christian religions, or even music with instruments.

That probably is fair. There were a sample of activities based on teachers' interests, and this was before a national curriculum or mainstream microcomputers. I don't think it was a bad education, but labelling someone identified different as 'high IQ' or 'low IQ' or sometimes alternating between both didn't help.