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palimpsest · 08-03-2007, 04:04 AM

I see a lot here about awakening one's genius brain -- but would it be harder to get back a personal genius that's been rejected?

I'll try to explain concisely. I used to be a genius: 140 I.Q., learned to read at the age of 2, by the age of 8 I could read a book as thick as The Princess and the Goblins twice over and have it memorized, taught myself to play the piano ... but as it's been pointed out my so many before, it wasn't a formula for success: my classmates would get jealous that everything came so easily to me, the teachers thought I was showing off by reciting anything I'd learned outside their textbook, and my mother ignored all this social angst to show off her clever daughter. Unguided, I figured I'd be better off dumbing myself down and began self-injury and purposely flunking, which did make everybody ease up a bit.

Now, after some more kerfuffle, I'm 19 years old and repeating sophomore high school for the fourth time but homeschooled and suffering from the brilliant hindsight that dumbing myself down may not have been entirely advantageous in the long run. I'm my own supervisor, so if I can't get through it I can't really blame the school environment, I know it's my responsibility but -- I'm still having a disproportionate amount of trouble. I don't know if it's just that their sophomore high school standard includes topics I've learned in 4th grade and forgotten so I can be both insulted at the ease and frustrated at the difficulty, or that I've actually started forgetting things (what happened yesterday, or the start of a long sentence if somebody's talking,) and can't bring myself to concentrate on anything so easily anymore. Please, how do I pick up the pieces from this?

08-03-2007, 04:04 AM	#1 (permalink)
palimpsest Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 43	Advice for a prodigal prodigy? I see a lot here about awakening one's genius brain -- but would it be harder to get back a personal genius that's been rejected? I'll try to explain concisely. I used to be a genius: 140 I.Q., learned to read at the age of 2, by the age of 8 I could read a book as thick as The Princess and the Goblins twice over and have it memorized, taught myself to play the piano ... but as it's been pointed out my so many before, it wasn't a formula for success: my classmates would get jealous that everything came so easily to me, the teachers thought I was showing off by reciting anything I'd learned outside their textbook, and my mother ignored all this social angst to show off her clever daughter. Unguided, I figured I'd be better off dumbing myself down and began self-injury and purposely flunking, which did make everybody ease up a bit. Now, after some more kerfuffle, I'm 19 years old and repeating sophomore high school for the fourth time but homeschooled and suffering from the brilliant hindsight that dumbing myself down may not have been entirely advantageous in the long run. I'm my own supervisor, so if I can't get through it I can't really blame the school environment, I know it's my responsibility but -- I'm still having a disproportionate amount of trouble. I don't know if it's just that their sophomore high school standard includes topics I've learned in 4th grade and forgotten so I can be both insulted at the ease and frustrated at the difficulty, or that I've actually started forgetting things (what happened yesterday, or the start of a long sentence if somebody's talking,) and can't bring myself to concentrate on anything so easily anymore. Please, how do I pick up the pieces from this?