Despite their claims, has elementary and middle school AIG ever challenged or developed their students? As a former AIG student, I can personally say it does not.

In my own experience, Academically or Intellectually Gifted, also known as the AIG program, gives students a false sense of superiority over their peers. Every student in AIG is told that they are brighter and better than the other students.

When I was in AIG, I was separated from a young age to another classroom for a couple days each week. In this classroom we were supposed to be challenged to help us reach our maximum potential through difficult tasks and mind-bending riddles and equations.

Instead, in my class we typically sat around and socialized.

In the classroom, students usually never were challenged with difficult problems. While we were given riddles, it was nothing that stretched out brains. The entire class we talked without any sense of urgency as there was no real need to get work done since there were no true grades that went onto our report cards. The only thing that impacted us was the possibility of being kicked off the shiny pedestal known as AIG.

If my AIG experience had been more supplemental, I may have been more prepared for high school. Instead of being top of my class, I feel like an average student. Even though math was one of my AIG subjects, I now find math to be difficult and I need to ask for help from my brother. If AIG had better prepared me, I would most likely feel more comfortable academically in my high school career.

AIG should promote growth in a more formal and demanding way. They need to implement a grade system that encourages students to do their work on time and in a professional manner. Also, they should affirm students in the other classroom that they too have amazing potential to achieve academic greatness. With these steps, AIG would be an incredible program.