My experience at JCE, Gifted Child Centre

I, too, attended the JCE gifted child centre in the late 1980's.  I had a similar experience.  I recall writing an intelligence test around age 9 in our school library. There were pattern recognition questions and questions where you had to select the correct sequence or fit shapes together.  I loved those. It seemed quite logical.  A while later, some kids in my class, about 4 of us, were given letters to take home.

I remember that particularly as my brother, who was 18 months older than me and a grade ahead, was very upset that I was being sent to a gifted centre and he was not. Ironically, he was the diligent one who did very well in school.  I found out as an adult that I have ADHD, and homework was not something I ever did conscientiously. I only performed under pressure when stress overcame my procrastination. But he was selected a year later, and we continued to attend together thereafter.

So I was quite young when I first started attending.  My parents paid a fee, and selected the day of the week I would go (I think it was a Tuesday), and I could choose the programme or subject for that term. My parents arranged a lift club with kids from other schools. We were a strange cohort of kids from Joburg schools who became a group of peers.  I would bump into them on other occasions (Mini City Council in standard 5 was full of JCE kids).

I remember the large JCE campus with confusingly similar grey blocks (A to F?) connected with a long corridor like the spine of a dinosaur.  What I did love was the canteen. This was a time when my school only had cake and candy once a month.  No tuck shop. The JCE canteen was a cholesterol wonder of hot chips, crisps, chocolates and Chelsea buns.  I learned to take some money with me as the afternoons were long and I got very hungry, especially in high school, as our programmes were later.

My dad would fetch me and whoever was in my lift club after 5pm, and I clearly remember the drive through Parktown in the traffic. I have never loved my mom's pork sausage stew more than when returning from JCE on a cold winter's evening.

I loved the pottery classes, the art classes and the drama modules. I could lose myself in those.  I remember doing some basic turtle coding, which was fun. I didn't really spark on being able to write code to create invitations for a list of people invited to a party, although I could see the utility.  Some of the modules were not memorable.  Palaeontology was fascinating.  Geography was fun as the teacher took us out on trips to places.  And I recall a very fun film module where we got to play in the JCE film studio, and record and edit a bit.  I remember the buttons on the edit desk to cut and slide from one scene to the next (way before PowerPoint transitions were a thing). There was also a fun photography module where we got to take photos around campus.

I recall sometimes not being able to find my class or getting the room wrong.  Or walking an age to find where it was scheduled to be but wasn't.  It was less formal or strict: more like a college campus.  If you didn't attend a class and sat on a bench, no one would bother you.  We felt quite adult, for school kids. By the time I reached matric, I was just too busy with school and stopped going after Std 9 (grade 11).

I, too, didn't quite understand what it was all about.  I was considered a gifted child, and that helped me form a better self-concept at a vulnerable and difficult time in my life. Someone else considered me gifted, even if I battled to see it. That external validation is needed.  I agree with blogger bokomo, that one-on-one mentoring would have helped.

I did gain value from my cohort of fascinating and quirky JCE friends. And I do think it extended me mentally and opened my mind to more possibilities. 

I am grateful to the people who set up the programme and to the creative teachers who participated. And to my parents, who were burdened with the lifting for so many years.

We were part of something small and special.  I think it gave me an awareness that I had a unique ability and exposed me to lessons I would not have experienced at a government school.