In like 8th grade (our middle schools were 7-9) they offered our “gifted” class in history, English, and science variants

You’d think I took history but while I’d had an amhist interest already I still identified STEM

But they combined the classes with some of our “LifeSkills” classes (basically Downs kids etc. who couldn’t hack even the most non-college stream but had it together enough not to get sent off and rubber-room minded at the Intermediate Unit

from a logistical standpoint (an 8- and a 4-person class in the same room!) this made sense but from a pedagogical standpoint what

from a legal standpoint might’ve checked a box for mainstreaming, “least restrictive environment” etc.

I think maybe once they tried having us lead them through a worksheet and what

Respected the aides attending them mostly for consistently being able to tell what they said on the first try. I inevitably had to ask for repetitions, if I couldn’t get it in 4 I’d assume they were talking about WrestleMania; quite often I was right and if not they’d usually be perfectly willing to talk about WrestleMania instead anyway