It becomes a need for gifted students to be better than their peers because they are taught that their worth is defined by their intelligence.Īt my high school, we had three different diploma options to choose from: the regular one, Gold Medallion and AP Capstone. Friend groups are determined based on what classes are taken. Suddenly, students are signed up to take every standardized test the school has to report. The constant pressure of having to live up to the expectations schools unknowingly place on students takes a toll. This is the epitome of what happens with gifted kid burnout. Eventually, it can also lead you to stop trying to succeed.” It can lead to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-harm. According to Healthline, “perfectionism can make you feel unhappy with your life. As these students get older, these perfectionistic habits can manifest into more mental health problems. These perfectionistic ideals are very dangerous habits to have growing up. If they don’t live up to these expectations, they are seen as a failure. This is a struggle 1a lot of gifted kids face.Īccording to a 2019 study conducted by Journal for the Education of the Gifted, “highly intelligent teens tend to be compared to their peers.” When students are labeled as gifted at a young age, it instills these perfectionist ideals. Since I had been defined by my intelligence for so long, I felt as though I was letting people down by not accomplishing that task. After this, I went home and cried for hours because all the smart kids were in SAGE, and I had been taught that by not making it, I was not smart enough.
I ended up not making it in by a few test points. In sixth grade, I took the test to enter the SAGE program. According to a report conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “the top environmental conditions harming adolescent wellness… were poverty, trauma, discrimination and an excessive pressure to excel.” In fourth grade, I was separated from the rest of my classmates into my first advanced math group.īeing labeled at such a young age as a gifted student sets the scene for the rest of a student’s middle and high school career. I had my first experience of being a smart kid in third grade. Due to this constant stress, they are left facing issues with their mental health and well-being later on in life.
According to the Davidson Institute, “the definition of gifted child burnout is chronic exhaustion that stems from a mismatch between the individual and their current educational environment.” In other words, this means that when a student becomes tired of dealing with pressures of perfectionism placed on them at a very young age. While gifted kid burnout was brought to light as a joke, it is an issue a lot of students deal with today.
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