I don’t remember precisely when I first heard the word “gifted,” but it must have been in early elementary school. I do remember being pulled out of my first-grade class and led to the fifth-grade classroom, where a teacher told me to choose a chapter book that was “more at my level.” I appreciated the chance to choose from all sorts of new books, but it marked an early example of what would eventually be both a privilege and a curse: my foray into being “set apart” academically from my fellow classmates.
