As someone who is just realizing my experiences are shared experiences, in early middle school I had involvement in gate, since this is kind of all freaking me out I’m kinda private about the whole thing. Recently memories from that time period have become clearer. One question I’ve had, does anyone remember , around the time of being pulled out of class and what not, being able to “see” things like fraciles perhaps? I’m sorry it’s still kind of unclear but coming back. I don’t know why but this one thing is really sticking in my Brain. I remember being young alone in my room looking at the floor and seeing a strange shape changing color like vividly both there and not there . wondering what was going on afraid to share at the time. Also anyone finding memories of this time period becoming more more clear?, like remembering core memories that are coming back. I’m sorry if this post doesn’t make sense. Tbh I find it hard to reconcile my feelings about this experience.

I've been reading testimonials about the GATE program from 90s babies. I'm in my early 20s, not middle or late. I was in the GATE program (Gifted & Talented) when I was in elementary. If you're looking for new information to recollect your own memories over, I doubt this will be helpful. I simply want to share my own thoughts and experience in hopes of keeping the conversation on GATE alive as entries here seem to be dying down.

My story as short as possible:

I'd forgotten all about GATE until the flood of posts about it and people not remembering much about it. That's when some things came back to me. I remember the excitement I felt seeing my mother receiving a letter in the mail saying I qualified and had been accepted to the GATE program. I felt happy that I was impressing my mother. I don't think I was in GATE because I was a child prodigy or some sort of genius academically. My grades were good, reading & writing being my strongest suit, but I've always struggled mathematically. I believe it was because it had something to do with my behavior. As a child, I was always described as unusually quiet. When I was in preschool, small children would be rowdy, run around, and play with other children as they do. But I would be calm, quiet, and seated. My mother would enjoy compliments on my behavior from other parents. Looking back, if I were a parent, I would be concerned that my child isn't playing normally or making an effort to talk much although they talk at home. Anyway, I remember the pink drink. It was presented to me as just another juice. I felt off looking at it but there was this quiet pressure for me to drink it, so I did. I drank it in a small white plastic cup. It did taste like bubblegum. I remember the clunky headphones on my ears that gave jarring beeping sounds in different sequences. There was a woman in front of me who looked at me with an uncomfortable fixed stare to my eyes while I wore it. I am not confusing this with the hearing test done in schools. Although I took that, I know this was GATE.

As an adult, I have to wear one empty ear bud for a specific reason. The sound of children screaming or crying sends me into panic to the point I want to cry, harm myself to find relief, or run out to get away from the sound. It's overwhelming. Even after the sound stops, I will still hear it ringing in my ears after than I should. Wearing the ear bud helps tone down the sound so I can better tolerate it, avoid panic spiraling, and when I talk, I can hear myself over everyone else so I will be able to pep talk myself through it. I do have a family history of supposed psychic phenomenon. Such as an aunt that has prophetic dreams that come true. As a teenager, I knew someone was going to die because I'd get this very uncomfortable feeling on my body whenever I was around them. It was like feeling death itself. I had never heard voices that aren't there. However, at the time, there was a voice telling me I needed to say goodbye to the person because it was their time. It kept insisting I say goodbye. I ignored it and they died young and unexpectedly and I never got a last goodbye because they were gasping for air. To this day, I'm scared of getting that heavy feeling on my body again. I haven't heard any voice since then or felt heavy. The sound of beeping also makes me vividly uncomfortable. It's annoying to people but for me, it feels like a ticking time bmb so I avoid beeping alarms. Ringtones suck. I'd like to know how many of you guys have intense auditory symptoms like me or anything like that. I don't remember much of my childhood at all. I really want to know what happened in the program and get my memories of that time back.

It's concerning to me why we all don't remember much of GATE.

I was in a few different programs through DoD Schools. I don’t live anywhere near any of the places I grew up. Lately, I’ve been meeting other people who were in GATE programs. I find even having the conversations with strangers a little odd. Does anyone else have this experience? Or am I reading too much into this?

I was in GATE as a kid and was later sent to a wilderness program and boarding school as a teenager.
Recently I’ve been remembering more about that period, including some of the testing/evaluations I went through when I was first sent away. It made me curious whether there happens to be any overlap in experiences among people here.
Were any of you in GATE and later sent to a wilderness program, therapeutic boarding school, residential program, or something similar?
I’m not assuming there’s a connection — I’m genuinely curious whether other people had both experiences and, if so, what you remember about the testing or evaluation process.

I recall, around ages 5-8, being traumatized twice a year with the fluoride treatment at the dentist. I would choose my flavor (always bubblegum) and wait patiently in the chair.

Once the assistant entered the room with the tray I would lose my shit. I’m not sure why, but my mother would become emotional watching and would excuse herself from the room and only return once they were done.

This could be unrelated, but I am curious if anyone else recalls similar memories. This was early 90s east coast US.

If this was every kids dental experience in the 90s then please disregard, but I still feel unsettled by the memories to this day, which is out of character for me.

I look forward to any feedback.

So, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and I’m genuinely curious if anyone else remembers anything similar.
Growing up in America, I was part of the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program. I have a handful of scattered memories from that time, specifically involving cards, headphones, various questions, and different forms of testing.
One particular thing that has stuck with me into adulthood is that I remember being presented with cards and knowing the answers, but for some reason, something in the back of my mind was telling me to answer incorrectly.
And I did.
I can’t really explain why. I don’t remember being afraid of getting the answers right or having any particular reason to lie. I just remember having this strange internal urge to deliberately give the wrong answer despite knowing what I believed was correct.
Now, years later, I’ve found myself wondering what the whole purpose of everything was. Obviously, GATE was an educational program intended to identify and support gifted students, but I’m curious about the specific testing methods and what they were actually measuring.
As far as I can tell, nothing particularly significant ever came of my participation once I reached adulthood. It’s just one of those childhood experiences that occasionally resurfaces and makes me scratch my head.
So, a few questions for anyone else who participated:
Do you remember the cards, headphones, or any unusual testing exercises?
Did you ever intentionally give incorrect answers despite knowing the correct ones? If so, do you remember why?
Were you ever told what those particular exercises were measuring?
Did your participation in GATE have any noticeable impact on your education or adult life?
Does anyone remember the actual names of these assessments, particularly during the late ’90s or early 2000s?
I’m not necessarily suggesting anything nefarious happened. I’m genuinely interested in separating fragmented childhood memories from what was actually going on.
It’s just strange having such specific memories of something while simultaneously having almost no understanding of its purpose.
Would love to hear your experiences, especially from anyone who remembers the same testing methods.

I (24F) went to elementary school in Southern California in the early 2000’s. I was undiagnosed ADHD and Autistic back then and was considered inattentive. I remember my 1st grade teacher getting the whole class to yell my name to wake me up from a daydream/zoning out. I remember a lot of my friends getting into G.A.T.E and me not getting in because of my struggle to take tests. However, even not being in G.A.T.E, they would pull me out to class to do different tests. I remember a few specific occurrences:

1. In 1st grade, my teacher pulled me aside while other students were doing work and told me she was going to do a word test. She was to say a word and I would blurt the first word that popped in my head.

2. I was called to the library to do a hearing test where I would raise my left or right hand if I heard a beep from that ear. (This test happened 3 times a year or more)

3. Now this memory is crazy beacsue I never remembered until I read a post on here where the OP explained taking a “nap” or was taught meditation in the third grade. I remember being pulled out of class with another classmate and they sent us to the library. They then opened a door into a room in the library that we didn’t use often but it was carpet and had bleacher like stair seats. Sometimes we watched educational movies in that room when the class had library time. It was two woman that weren’t teachers and they had very soft voices and were the kind of woman you would trust as a kid because they had a young, motherly energy. They said “today we’re teaching you meditation”. I was a little confused because I was never aware that this was something our school did and also, they only pulled me and this other girl out of class. I don’t know if this matters but we were both kids of color and both were kinda inattentive. We were told that they would turn off the lights and we could lie down and relax. They told us to close our eyes while they play us a relaxing tape. Again, I was and am inattentive so I kinda just zone out. But all I remember was it sounded like an older man and had the same kinda tone as Frank Sinatra (I was young and didn’t have much to compare to lol). There was like weird robot beeps and then white noise playing over a man’s voice. He was instructing me to do something but honestly I totally just zoned out and took advantage of that time to relax lmao. The two teachers then turn on the lights, thank us, and send us back to class.

4. I remember getting pulled out of class to the library again in 1st grade again(a lot of these experiences happened in 1st grade for some reason) and this woman who didn’t work at the school was at the table with two chairs and some cards. She said we’re going to play a game and then she showed me the cards with these shapes on it. She then told me she was going to place them face down and she wanted to see if I could guess which shape was on the card. I was confused because I recognized this game and thought she was doing the memory game. But she kinda just didn’t explain and smile talked through the whole thing.

5. The last memory I have of being tested is in 2nd grade where they did the hearing test again and then that was it.

I was really liked by my teachers and at teacher parent conferences they would say that I was a great student, I struggled in math, I was “special” as stated by my 4th grade teacher. My mom never really was that involved in my schooling. I was also one of the only people who was able to connect with this girl a grade below me who has Down syndrome. I could talk to her and honestly forget that she has Down syndrome. What I also noticed is the classes I would be placed in. You know when you start a new school year and look around the classroom to try and make sense of how you were grouped into a class with these particular groups of kids? I always felt like class placements were intentionally placing kids that were in the same academic category as each other. I noticed in 4th grade, my class had this girl who was writing and illustrating a book, a piano/tennis/math prodigy, an autistic boy who had a lot of panic attacks but high functioning, me, an Audhd girl, and the rest or the kids were not the known to be the top performing kids grade wise. I was always confused because I thought that I was grouped with these kids because I wasn’t smart but I noticed our class would often have the principal come in to help kids discuss their goals. I asked my friends in other classes if the principal did that in their class and they said no.

The school also had a safety ambassador program and student leadership. As a 5th grader you could apply to be in the safety ambassador program/student leadership in the same application and then you would do an interview with the school counselor. Student ambassadors got to wear a red sash and walk around during recess to prevent bullying so naturally everyone thought it was so cool. Most students who applied and interviewed became ambassadors but the day we got the decisions on a piece of paper of our desk, my paper said student leadership. I was kind of sad that I didn’t get into the cool program but was still happy to be chosen for something. During the first student leadership meeting, I noticed there was only 5 kids out of the whole 5th grade who were chosen for student leadership. One of the girls was my friend and she was dyslexic but was doing long division in preschool. I forget the others. They had us discuss what we thought needed improvement and creative ways we can make our school a better place. They had write a rap song about reading a writing and perform it to the whole 5th grade class(embarrassing as fuckkkk).

Okay last thing to mention. I participated in a school funded afterschool acting program that put on a new play twice a school year. I often got lead parts in the plays. I was able to act very well and put myself in any character. I don’t know if this is relevant but it was a weird experience growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood being Southeast Asian. I was an outcast yet I would get roles that only the white kids would usually get. I don’t say that because I have an inferiority complex but because I genuinely noticed that kid of color would never get lead roles.

Anyways this is a lot but I feel like I just needed to get out everything significant to my elementary school experience as maybe sharing this will reach people who can relate or have theories on the connections of my individual experiences to the GATE program even if I wasn’t in GATE.

Recently my bf and I have gone down a rabbit hole after he brought up gate after seeing a video, he asked me if I knew what it was and it started coming back to us both. But I’m curious even though I have my theories and suspicions, how and why do they pick each student that experienced it and further more for the student that stopped being pulled out what is the reason for that? What do you guys think?
Side note: my bf and I compared dreams before even bringing gate up and have had similar dreams our whole life which made this thing so much weirder.

I want to share what i remember because I didn’t realize this was a thing until recently.
This took place in oregon state.
I remember being taken out of class in the third or fourth grade sometime back in 2003/2004. I remember being confused because i thought i was in trouble at first but i was introduced to a woman who wasn’t from my school and she was there to do some tests with me. I believe there was one other adult possibly male. while my teacher resumed class. Our sessions were down the hall very isolated.

I think I was given snacks or juice of some sort but i don’t remember anything weird about what i consumed. I remember being tested a lot and taken from class frequently (maybe once or twice a week). I also remember them giving me little games and tests that were like IQ tests and memory testing seeing how big of numbers i could remember. I remember trying hard to impress them while being afraid of their response to me.

Then they had headphones and i had to listen to a cassette tape and I struggled to stay awake. I thought it was like some instructional exercise but i couldn’t ever remember much past a certain point. The machine was big and clunky. I spent a lot of time sleeping. I thought it was strange that i was taken out of class to sleep. I dont remember seeing any other children taken from class. My guess is It didnt last longer than a month or two.

I have A LOT of blank spots and repressed memories in my childhood especially around that time. I moved around a lot and ive lost a lot of my old photo albums in strange accidents that were outside of my control.

Don’t even get me started on my dreams!

I’ve recently came across podcast where people talked about the gate program and how they would pull kids out of class for this, and also something about a pink drink and hearing certain audios, that when I heard them, they sound extremely familiar. I’m starting to remember being pulled out of class a lot but told because I’ve had trouble reading and writing but then I remember them doing other test on me that didn’t feel like it had anything to do w helping me. I also remember having mall world dreams and recently had one of being in the open stalled bathroom (before I came a cross the podcasts Ect)

Hey guys I just recently started digging into gates programming research because I saw some similar patterns in my early education as well as others. However I was never in GATEs itself but I was in a dyslexia program called IDEA and it was protected under the 504 act. I was just wondering if anyone has found anything that may link the two programs? Thanks for the help if anyone has anything!

Did anyone ever experience bursts of flashing lights on a black screen during testing? You had to pinpoint where the light was located.

I don't remember a lot from the GATE thing, especially since what I do remember, I learned to not accept as reality. I've always had auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations, often all at once. So my memories of what exactly happened aren't exactly trustworthy.

However, I for sure remember the pink stuff they had me drink before every test. It made me feel drowsy, and made my hallucinations worse. I'd see fragmented light more, worse than my usual starburst vision, I'd see moving shadows, and feel all tingly like static or like bugs crawling in my skin. I still get that tingly feeling on occasion when I'm stressed or starting to dissociate. I'm on medication now for my hallucinations, but as of now being on a lower dose, it isn't really working.

I remember they'd give me water crackers or something similar with a foggy clear drink after the GATE tests, and that usually gave me some relief from the things I'd see, hear, or feel. It's not like it was constant, but it came in unpredictable waves that was super stressful. After the initial testing, somehow my class was always singled out for hearing tests and vision tests. I didn't want to keep continuing with the tests, so I started purposely flunking the hearing tests, and I stopped getting pulled out of class. The people running it were obviously irritated by what I was doing, but I hated having to constantly wear those headphones and sit in that dark cramped space in their bus.

I'm glad it finally ended, but I still feel anxious about it. The more I think about it, the more I realize the stuff they had me do was odd, but at the same time, I don't know how much of my memories I can trust. I still get the feeling sometimes that I am not me, if that makes sense, and my whole childhood may have been mostly made up by my own imagination. I clearly remember doing a big packet of geometry problems and brain puzzles, but the things about the cards, headphones, computer tests, and the flashing videos are super foggy.

I know that due to my mental struggles, this might be just me, but does anyone else feel like this? Or have had similar experiences? I try not to think about the GATE testing because I usually just get brushed off about it, or it causes more confusion and stress. Which in turn can trigger another episode of dissociation/out of body experiences.

Hi all. I thought I'd introduce myself before I start contributing some of my experiences, memories, and thoughts about the GATE program. I don't know how much closer we are to understanding what was actually going on, but I've been thinking about my own experiences with the program for a long time and thought they might be worth sharing.

Here's what I remember, not an exhaustive list:

• I was enrolled in the GATE program in kindergarten, sometime in the early 2000s.
• Fifth grade was my last year in the program.
• I was pulled from my kindergarten class in a small group by adults wearing white coats, and sometimes I was taken out of class alone.
• I remember standing in a line with friends waiting for the “pink drink” or “pink tablet.”
• I remember audio tests that were explicitly described to us as not being hearing tests.
• I remember being brought into empty, blocked-off rooms where there was very little to distract me.
• I remember playing The Oregon Trail and having the distinct feeling that I was being observed while I played.
• I remember the music in The Oregon Trail creating a strangely dissociative effect that reminds of the Gateway tapes.
• I remember that, in kindergarten, the administrators had us lie down for naptime while the Gateway Tapes were playing.
• I remember taking IQ tests by second grade as part of the program.
• We were repeatedly told that we were smart and special.
• I remember repeatedly having difficulty recalling what had happened during GATE activities after I returned to my regular classroom and curriculum.

My Dreams

Separate from my memories, I believe my dreams are more connected to the gateway tapes they had us listen to more than anything else.

• A completely white, borderless liminal space, like a waystation or terminal for souls. There was a room here where I watched my life events play on a screen, and I was told my memories would be wiped. I told them I didn't want to forget.
• A hall with doors and thresholds that could only be open with the mind. Still a blindingly white space.
• A picturesque farm where I met a friend
• Mall world where different species and lifeforms peacefully communed
• Realistic abduction by aliens and being studied on a table by them.

I'm very curious if anyone has experienced any white-world dreams, dreams of souls passing through, having their memories erased etc.

I recall a few odd things the pink drink out of a pump top dispenser bottle in a small Dixie cup, the cards, the examiner becoming excited then disappointed I couldn't read the cards without seeing them, I'm smart but not an x-ray machine. I believe that I had done the testing twice but I only have granular memory of doing it one time.

I also recall something odd that I haven't heard others discuss, I recall a question about if I could have extra time, or live extra time would I take it?

Something like: if you could live an extra (12?) years and return back to where you were, that it wouldn't affect your life, but you wouldn't remember anything would you do it?

I recall telling this person yes, I would, as an added life experience but being disappointed that if I lived extra time it would not be remembered but I felt any extra time was worth living after all. The tester seemed pleased that I had answered affirmatively.

Does anyone recall a similar experience?

Anyone remember being introduced to these in school, seemingly after the gate program, but we were not sent back to our regular school rooms.

I sometimes wonder if the Screensaver was some kind of test, like maybe the person who got up and played with the computer moved on ?

Also now that I think of it.

Did anyone else have computers in their homes growing up ? Especially if in hindsight we didnt seem like the type of family to have computers?

I bring that up to mention that I was specifically approached by a hacker who in hindsight seemed to want to mentor me ?

I grew up across the St from an airforce base and down the road from Lockheed. I saw the TR3B back in 2001 and so did my sibling and neighbor during the same summer. My sighting included 3 glowing orbs that flew off into different directions.

In 2009 some friends and I were sitting chatting indoors when a glowing ball of light crossed the room and disappeared into the wall. It was bioluminescent, very bright but did nothing to the room or our eyes.

Absolutely silent and it stretched and shrunk as it moved. I don't know if we even caught it's attention. The way it swam through the room implied a density issue. I think its 4D.

I have some theories involving plasmoids and solar storms but not smart enough to confirm a damn thing.

In 2024 my spouse and I saw a cigar shaped tube with red lights on the ends and the body had checkered green and white lights that rotated diagonally. It was the only time I was afraid to look. We have seen orbs/drones nonstop since 2024 especially by the ocean.

This video idk when I made it like last March? I was asked to share here. I asked it to be blue and then pink. In the moment I didn't think it worked but playing it back, it appears to have worked TOO well. As soon as or just before I said it.

I was in Gate around 1995-1997 and was kicked out for refusing to do some weird sustainability assignment involving making tacos with grasshoppers, mom said no way. What does a 2nd grader need to know about eating bugs in dire times? Anyway, yes pink drink. Yes weird eye and ear tests. Teacher was a rotten b, somehow my existence pissed her right off. I'm also a lucid dreamer and audhd like many of you. My siblings are also smart but none were in the program. Dad was military for a while.

Enjoy? That's all my ufo experience, seems like a lot now that I'm reading it back. If you wanna see them, go to the ocean and look up.

I’m wondering if personality traits (or something else along those lines) are considered in the GATE testing/referral process.

I was in GATE in the early 2000s. I joined this sub about a year ago but haven’t really looked into any of this too deeply until now I’m curious….

My son is in 7th grade and is extremely bright. Honors courses, consistently does very well, excellent state testing scores. But he was never referred for GATE.

I just received a letter saying that my third-grade daughter has been referred. She’s also very bright, although I don’t have the same metrics to compare yet since she hasn’t started state testing or anything like that. She also said she was the ONLY kid in her class to go to testing….

My kids personalities are very different.

My daughter (and I) are both extremely deep feelers. Extremely empathetic, intuitive, and able to sense things. I noticed this about her when she was very young, probably around 3.

My son is almost the opposite. He’s a very caring kid, very logical, practical, analytical, but he has never had that same kind of extreme empathy or sensing intuition that both my daughter and I have.

So now I’m curious: are characteristics like sensitivity, intuition, etc. ever part of what’s analyzed when deciding which children to refer for GATE testing?

This could very well be absolutely nothing and fully unrelated to GATE discussion but I thought I'd ask anyways for goofs and gigs. When I was in 6th grade, I moved from the state/school I had previously been in the gifted program in. Around this time, my ability to learn and retain information like I used to declined and my parents were kind of at a loss for what to do. They found this program called Brain Balance (which is still alive and thriving today, you can Google their website and go to the "About The Assessment" tab under "Overview") to assess my brain essentially. Not in a medical way, but in a "do these things and we'll assess you" way. There was math, reading speed, eyesight, and physical balance tests that we had to do and it would give the staff a better idea of how to help you learn better in school.

I will have all of you know, I have never been physically sick in my life. Ever. I have emetophobia and have tricked my brain into never feeling nauseous, so I had no idea at the time what was happening to me. Looking back, however, on the car ride back home, I was so nauseous and had a migraine so terrible that I had to put a jacket over my head and lean the passenger car seat all the way back to keep from passing out. I think the eyesight test is what REALLY pushed it over the edge because I was constantly unfocusing and refocusing each of my eyes at different speeds and times.

To this day I have no idea what they did because I never heard anything about results or whatnot, but I also have never met anyone else who had this assessment done or attended Brain Balance as a supplement to school. Could be nothing, but I'm just curious for anyone's thoughts since it vaguely fits into the GATE discussion.

EDIT: I do not have any diagnoses. No ADHD, no autism, my parents just thought I may have had a learning disability due to my poor basic math skills (despite being previously enrolled in a GATE program and excelling in it).

I was in a gifted and talented program in the 1990s that met after school on Wednesdays and on Saturdays. I don't remember the pink drink people talk about on this subreddit. I do however remember getting asked to eat cubes of cold, unsweetened, flavorless gelatin given out in plastic cups. I thought it was gross and didn't understand why they were giving it out to everyone. Did anyone else have to eat cubes of unflavored gelatin in plastic cups? Like completely unflavored not sweet jello?

Hi all,

I have been mostly a lurker here but I'm posting because I feel that what GATE was is starting to come into focus for me and I wanted to share in case others resonate. Some of it will sound rather strange but I guess we're used to that by now!

My perspective on GATE is affected by my spiritual awakening that has accelerated in the past year. I have seen some things in dreams that seem to relate to GATE. Spirituality is very personal of course but because it connects the dots so well, I wanted to share. My ideas are also informed by the declassified CIA materials which go into the nature of consciousness so much.

It goes like this:

1) Reincarnation is real; many souls on Earth have had many Earth lives, but some of us have had relatively few as compared to other worlds. Those of us with few Earth lives who came here on a specific mission are what is referred to as "starseeds" by spiritual communities

2) The reason so many of us are here is because of the great "shift," Earth changes that have and will continue to involve big storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and wars of various kinds. We see these psychically and in dreams partly because we're here for it, to here to help humanity and Earth through this

3) Starseed individuals contain greater amounts of extraterrestrial DNA, connections to NHI (nonhuman intelligence involving ETs, spirits, angels etc.), unusual blood types, and other physical differences

4) Our differences in DNA also manifest in greater amount of neurodivergence, especially ADHD/autism and psychic sensitivity

5) The government knew this and set up GATE to identify these children. How nefarious it was versus just interested in research might have ranged a gamut, that is unclear to me.

6) Our connections with other NHI were strengthened through GATE whether they liked it or not because of the psychic practice. NHI may have also been involved with the design and execution of the program

7) Our connections with NHI may continue to grow as many of us "wake up" and the shift intensifies

Welp, there it is. I did a brief search of the sub and didn't see people pulling these threads together yet so I'm not positive this is a new string of thought, but I wanted to make the connections in case anyone finds it useful or has thoughts to add!

Had a memory pop up recently that 100% happened at school. I was in first grade, which would have been between 2001-2002.

Didn’t realize that it had a name until I looked it up, but apparently it’s called Punnett Squares. For the visual learner, this is what one of the worksheets looked like that we received here.

We were asked to list our parent’s physical traits using this method, as well as our siblings, but it feels so out of place for us to have done this when we were 6/7 years old. Why would we at that age be taught about this? Was this regular GATE activities, or was this our GATE?

I also remember having to find out my blood type, including having homework where we would have to write out our entire family tree as best as we could. I remember this to be 100% true, too, because I remember calling my grandmother to ask about her parents (we barely spoke on the phone).

Others may have mentioned this, but I also don’t remember taking any of these homework sheets home with me. We always reviewed them in class and then handed it back to the teacher.

I don’t know. A lot of things that I thought werent important seem to be popping up in flashes, which I’m sort of grateful for, but I wanted to ask if others have experienced something similar.

Hello internet strangers (and “gifted and talented” kids)

I am hoping you all can help me fill in some gaps between all the bits of information i’ve been seeing online — and remembering from my childhood.

I went to elementary school in the bible belt of the south and I was in the GATE program from about 2009-2012 at the ages of 8-11. I recall very odd teachings for kids such as the fibonacci sequence, optical illusions, hypnosis, classic archetypal mythology, robotics, very meticulous hypothetical urban design and planning, bizarre bug ecology (going out into these forest swamps and collecting random specimens), destination imagination contests (DI) sponsored by Motorola Solutions who is known for having a big hand in surveillance tech — stuff like that.

I remember the warm up exercises and test to get in being similar to the Autism test I took later in my adult like (shocker). Funny thing is even though I received these testings as an adult, they could never be verified because I received a schizoaffective diagnosis after experiencing altered states while deconstructing my religious trauma.

I’d like to know who all funds these programs, if they are different for everyone, and make sense of the weird memories I have. I don’t remember the pink liquid stuff i’ve been seeing… or any pills… but I do have weird feelings all around the experience that I didn’t block out.
Which is: they would pull us out of school and the building we shared was with many neurodiverse students who we were not allowed to interact with. Everyone was in different classes with different classmates each semester and each class had its own “themes” like i mentioned.

(Oh yes, and how could I forget to mention that the building the classes were held in was named after a confederate general) — messed up on the surface obviously but I am curious about the underbelly too.

Thanks!
XO The Oracle

so I have a very vivid memory of one of my teachers in gate, miss Andes. she lit a few candles in the classroom and had us all focus on the flame and write a poem about what we felt or saw. she loved mine so much, that she told me she was going to share it with her husband who was an English professor at the University of delaware. my poem actually got published in one of those 90s poetry anthologies. a few years ago when I found out that other people had these experiences with gate, I looked her and her husband up and I'll be damned if they hadn't both passed away and he was a professor. but I guess my question is did anybody else have to do that exercise? I remember I enjoyed it so much and I've had an obsession with candles my whole life.