Not a teacher, but I went to a ~gifted~ school for ~gifted~ children way back in the day. It's amazing to see how differently everyone turned out. One guy is a marine biologist. Another one is an architect. One woman is a computer programmer/hippie/polyamorous Burning Man-attendee who I think also does some sort of aerial gymnastics. Another woman moved to LA, got some plastic surgery, and is working as a set extra.

There are a bunch of others I've lost track of over the years who ended up in more "normal" careers. Everyone was wicked smart (I think you had to have an IQ of 130+ to get into the school, but don't quote me on that), but the ones with IQs in the 160+ range all seem to have turned out either wildly successful or are still struggling with mental illness as they approach 30. I'll give you a guess which category I fall under, hah.

The kids I remember as being less smart than the profoundly gifted ones have had nearly as much success as long as they worked hard. On the other hand, those of us who seriously lacked in the work ethic/study habits department have experienced a very different life trajectory. IQ doesn't mean shit if you're a stranger to persistence and determination. I've met a few Good Will Hunting-esque math geniuses, but I've also met just as many stellar math students who got that way by working their asses off every single day. I could never be bothered to do homework, especially math, so even though I was at the top of my class until around 6th grade, I started to really fall behind at that time. Up until then I had skated by in school on sheer intellect, but my lack of effort seriously hindered me going into High School. Even though I was a National AP Scholar, I failed a bunch of classes and barely graduated. Dropped out of a college repeatedly after that and have been unemployed for more of my twenties than not.

The backstory here is that my home life was terrible, and parenting was...sorely lacking. Of course I take full responsibility for where I am in life currently, but I think it's important to illustrate that poverty and social circumstances can drastically impact even a "genius" or "gifted" child. I don't have links handy but I know there are studies out there linking the experience of growing up poor with measurable, lasting brain damage, for example. Obviously this kind of experiment would be unachievable in the real world, but if you dropped gifted babies into two different families--one with wealth and excellent stability, the other poor and dysfunctional--you would see very different results down the line. Human triumph over adversity is always possible, of course, and I don't mean to discount the successes of people who have overcome such backgrounds. But it's important to remember that what's going on in a child's home life can easily, easily overshadow whatever natural cleverness s/he may have. We would all benefit from decreasing poverty and improving access to services for these families across the board. More kids tapping into their potential = more kids who can grow up to cure disease, make beautiful music, engineer solutions to the climate crisis, etc.