Why getting ahead in school and being forced to not learn screws people

I agree with that. What do you think of this solution:
1: Identify gifted individuals early.
2: Move them to new schools with other gifted children
3. Have well educated teachers(beyond the scope of normal schools) at these schools.
4. Let them complete schooling at their own pace.

Some examples of obviously gifted children that got ahead of the "normal" kids:
https://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/…art-university
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/23/meet-…uate-ever.html

Sounds very good. Things like that are done to some degree in German schools - but I can't say how much successful that is.
And - there is that "club" as well : "Mensa" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensa_International

I totally agree with specialized classes or like-minded kids. Here's why -
I skipped 2 years (basically no kindergarten) and went straight to elementary. I was academically comparable to everyone in my class but physically smaller and emotionally younger (2 years is a big difference in emotional development at 7).
When we moved and transferred schools - the school didn't know what to do with me, threw me back to the grade for my age. I was significantly ahead, grade wise, but emotional/socially the same. There just weren't a solution that fit me 100%.
My little brother is in the same shoes, he's well ahead of his class, and bored as heck. So what my dad is doing now is just to keep him busy by giving him new math homework to keep him challenged. So he's working on Algebra 1 by himself on Khan Academy, and StudyPug algebra 1 - at least it makes his life interested and he won't spin the brain cycles on something not constructive.
So, I empathize - but at this point, if you are smart, and well ahead of the curve, you are your best teacher. There are tons of stuff on the internet that you can learn.

The key word is *forced* to learn. I also experienced similar thing to Damian when I was in high school. Asian parents tend to send their kids to learning centre so that they excel at school easily. Two problems here - either you get bored or burnt out (or both). I was not learning anything at school, sure, that is boring but i still have to come out on top of all asian kids attending learning centres. It was a fierce and confusing competition. Im a top student at school but only average at the learning centre. I always had to cram in more to keep my place without ever having a chance to take genuine interest in whatever I am learning. End result, i did pretty horribly in my last year in high school. On the other hand, I had chance to actually take an interest in subject Im learning at university and that made a huge difference. I *wanted* to learn more, spending time at the library doing my own research. I was often attending lectures/tutorials to learn about things I know about already but it was never boring. I always listened to others hopinh I can pick up something I don't know yet. Its all about your mindset imo

Originally Posted by Damian
Are "overachievers" synonymous with "hard workers"?

Definitely not in my book. There are people who complain what a hard worker they are but never seem to get the result they deserve. What if you are *working hard* using inefficient or incoorect aporoach? I had a friend who studied extremely hard, spending lots of hours studying but somehow always failed to meet the grade at university. The reason was, he was spending time re-reading stuff he didn't understand repeatedly all the time. When you do something that did not work say, 5 times, sure as hell won't work if you try 50 more times.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Definitely not in my book. There are people who complain what a hard worker they are but never seem to get the result they deserve. What if you are *working hard* using inefficient or incoorect aporoach? I had a friend who studied extremely hard, spending lots of hours studying but somehow always failed to meet the grade at university. The reason was, he was spending time re-reading stuff he didn't understand repeatedly all the time. When you do something that did not work say, 5 times, sure as hell won't work if you try 50 more times.

That is extremely sad.