Autism

I was in the “we’re going to put you in advanced placement as a form of special ed, because you get bored and start asking questions that are too advanced for the rest of the class” group.

Yes, those advanced “you’re so gifted and talented, so we’re going to put you in a cool class where you get to do logic puzzles instead of regular math” classes were a form of special ed. They were designed to sequester you away from the rest of your class. Not as a punishment, but because the modern school system relies on students in each class actually being at the same level. If students are above or below a certain range, they slow down instruction for the entire class, as the teacher is forced to spend extra time with just those individual students.

Most people think of special ed as just being the disabled kids, but the reality is that special ed is any kind of class that pulls you out of the rest of the class. Again, because class time is focused on the 80% of students who are at the same level, not the 10% who are above or below it. If you’re too far below, the teacher has to spend extra time rehashing material. And if you’re too far above, you end up asking a ton of questions that the teacher hasn’t built the groundwork to answer yet.

Maybe your class is learning module {A}, and students will tend to ask questions about {A} or maybe {B}. But you immediately grasped the concept of {A}, read ahead to {B} because you were bored, found a shortcut to get to {C}, and are asking questions about {D}. All while the rest of the class is still learning {A}. And the questions you’re asking won’t even be relevant until you get to {C} or {D}, so devoting time to answering them would be a waste of time for the 80% of the class that is learning {A}. So instead of letting you slow the rest of the class down, they ship you off to a “gifted and talented” class once or twice a week, to be with kids at your own level.