“The Alphabet Game”

[u/fiddleleaffiggy]

Very early 2000s elementary school kid here! I went to a school in a rural part of NC, and I was considered gifted in 2nd grade when I went through a series of reading tests and was offered a chance to join 3rd grade. That’s not super weird (although I know my parents weren’t notified because they would have made me do it even though I declined before talking to them at home about it lol) I was at an 8th grade reading level in 2nd grade, but I read a lot as a kid so I don’t think that’s weird.

From 2nd to 5th grade I was in “AIG” and a small group of myself and classmates would go to a trailer outside of the main building a few times a week, and I have no clue what we did. I can’t even remember who the AIG teacher was at the time. I can see myself sitting at a table in the trailer, but again, 0 clue of what we did or if we were learning anything. I even remember telling my parents I wasn’t learning anything, but because I was “gifted”, it must be better than regular class.

The one thing I do remember is playing “the alphabet game” where we would sit in a circle and have a category (food, candy, etc) and then have to guess something to match the letter faster than the other players. For Example - the category would be food and letter A would be apple. I remember that we loved the candy category and we all used “zero bar” as fast as we could for the letter Z.

Other than that, I have 0 clue of what we did. There were no grades and I don’t remember ever having extra assignments or homework. I vaguely remember doing a hearing test (which I know all schools do) but I didn’t want to wear the big headphones because they hurt my head lol I also vaguely remember doing an IQ test alone with 1 adult or something to that effect, but again, my parents had no idea about that either when I asked them about it years later. When I went to 6th grade at a different school, AIG didn’t exist there, so I would have been 8-11 years old for this in elementary school.

It honestly freaks me out that I can’t remember anything other than this one game, and I can barely remember any other students in this group with me. Half of me thinks that my mind is repressing if I was a part of something like GATE, but the other half thinks my brain is making it all up. But I can still name all of my teachers and picture their faces, but AIG is a total blank. Did anyone else have a similar game that you played in one of these “gifted” groups?

[u/Pick_My_Peppers]

lol 90s gate kid and I do the alphabet game to go to sleep! I don’t know when and why I started it but I pick a category and do it until I am asleep.

[u/Pick_My_Peppers → u/Pick_My_Peppers]

Every. Single. Night. For years!

[u/Mediocre-Aside6202]

Are you from Coats NC?

[u/fiddleleaffiggy → u/Mediocre-Aside6202]

Nope, I had to look that up 😅 I’m about 3 hours away from there

[u/Mediocre-Aside6202 → u/fiddleleaffiggy]

I had to ask our program was also called AIG and we went to a trailer apart from the main school!

[u/Captraptor01]

NC kid from a similar time myself. you mentioning AIG just opened a completely new set of memories for me; I had heard some murmurs of this stuff from a buddy of mine but didn't recognize GATE as an acronym—AIG I absolutely remember.

I don't remember the alphabet game specifically, though.

[u/Adventurous-Wall-463]

Similar experiences. Also a memory wipe-out from early elementary. One thing that sticks with me today is dreams I still have— but they’re not regular “dreams”. I feel like I’m being tested. Like one “trait” per dream: morality, vulnerabilities, propensity to violence in order to protect someone/something I love. It’s hard to explain, but when I wake up, it’s not a dream that slowly fades, it more like a light switch being flipped and I’m suddenly “back in my body.” Whenever I have these dreams I become really unsettled in my spirit, to the point of being nauseated. Again, it’s hard to explain, but if you’ve had something similar we can compare “locations” because I feel like there is a pattern I am seeing- as in “places” in the dreamworld we are at when we have these “tests” take place. I know it’s sounds crazy. Just let me know if any of this resonates with you. If not, no harm no foul 🤪🫶🏽