Usual disclaimer based upon Gifted and Talented (MC, IQ-) By Ozhojabbe

If anyone has any ideas of another variation of this story I wish you would write them Or you could message me and I'll see if it will inspire me. :mrgreen:

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Miriam Werner heard her office door open and continued to type the email she was writing.

"Um... excuse me. Is this the school counselor's office?"

Miriam looked up, and tried to place the student. Blonde, glasses, no slouch in the looks department (in spite of her conservative clothing and lack of makeup) and eyes that radiated intelligence. Miriam prided herself on knowing all of the school's students (even if it wasn't much of a feat in a rural school like this). Every student saw her. They all had names, but it was their assigned number that was important to Miriam. Since she didn't recognize this girl, she must be one of the transfer students. There were a few every year. Miriam hated them, they made her job so much harder. She nodded and motioned for the girl to sit.

The girl obliged and spoke again. "I know I just transferred in, but I'm not finding my classes challenging enough. I was hoping I could talk to you about fixing that?"

Miriam smiled. So this was the new transfer student all the teachers were talking about. "Ah, so you're Susan Corsetti, then? What exactly is the problem?" This was the third transfer student this year. The other two were average students and they accepted their average schedule. Miriam pulled up Susan's profile on her computer.

Susan looked nervous. "Well, it's just... At my old school I was in the gifted and talented program, and all of my classes were honors and AP classes. Right now, you guys have me in the same classes that all the other seniors are taking. I've already taken half of the classes I'm currently enrolled in, and even the ones I haven't taken already are painfully slow and, well, easy. Since this is my last year, I was hoping to have more challenging classes to prepare me for college..."

Miriam looked over Susan's records. "I'm sorry Susan, but we're a small district. We have limited resources, all of the advanced classes have been filled. I'm afraid your last year might have to be an easy one for you. Look on the bright side, you'll probably be a shoe-in for any college you decide to apply to." Miriam couldn't be any clearer, you have to go with the program, there was little that she could do.

In a small school like this, they couldn't waste money on having half full (or overflowing) classes of any type. Every class had an exact number of students to maximize efficiency. There were exactly twenty students in each of the remedial (special education) classes. It was always eleven boys and nine girls. It was the same in grade nine as it was in grade twelve. Any student that was assigned to a remedial class in ninth grade would be taking it throughout their high school career. They would all pass, of course, but they would never be mainstreamed. Miriam saw to that. Likewise, any student who was in the gifted classes (there were always 26 students in them, 13 girls and 13 boys) would also stay within that group their entire high school career. No resource would be wasted as there were limited teachers too.

The vast majority of students were in the average classes. There was always between twenty-eight and thirty students in each class. There were slight differences in the levels of each class and might be some slight movement from one to the other, but for the most part, when a student entered the school as a freshman, every class he would be taking for the next four years was selected for them. If there was a problem, a student had problems at home or took up drugs whatever, they would visit Miriam and she would correct the problem. When Miriam corrected a problem, it stayed corrected. Miriam didn't have a problem meeting with a students parents to see that her remedy was fully implemented. With all this known, budgets could be selected and maintained for the foreseeable future. Not a penny was wasted.

The case of transfer students was a problem. The odd transfer student could usually be plugged a spot in the average classes. But on occasion a truly gifted student or a special education student would transfer in messing up Miriam's efficiency. This was the case here. Susan had transferred in at a time when another student had transferred out and Susan was simply put into her schedule. Miriam had planned on requesting that Susan visit her in the future. There were now two clubs that were missing a member that she wanted Susan to join. It didn't matter whether she wanted to or not. A club without enough members was a waste of resources.

Susan looked crestfallen.

"Maybe if you joined some clubs the extracurricular activities would look good on your transcripts," Miriam said hopefully. Miriam needed Susan to go along with the program.