Zohran Annoyed a Lot of New York Public School Parents With This One. But He's Got a Point.

The many ways we've tried to identify gifted 4-year-olds, and how they've failed. When I was a kindergartner in the 1980s, the "gifted" programming for my class could be found inside of a chest. I don't know what toys and learning materials lived there, since I wasn't one of the handful of presumably more academically advanced kiddos that my kindergarten teacher invited to open the chest. My distinct impression at the time was that my teacher didn't think I was worthy of the enrichment because I frequently spilled my chocolate milk at lunch and I had also once forgotten to hang a sheet of paper on the class easel--instead painting an elaborate and detailed picture on the stand itself. The withering look on my teacher's face after seeing the easel assured me that gifted I was not.