I could see her face screwing up in that all-too familiar rictus of disbelief, and her brain juices (I'm no longer a biology student) sloshing around varied pathways to arrive at the very same reaction a thousand others shared.
"You're a GEP?!?!?!"
Yes, the extra exclamation and question marks were apparant in her tone. Ah, and since human beings are more alike than you think, I steeled myself for the inevitable follow-up remark.
"I always thought GEPs were like bookish and smart. You hardly look like one!"
Ouch.
"But wait, actually I can believe you are one. You behave like a GEP sometimes"
Ouch again.
A short history lesson is needed here. MOE launched the Gifted Education Programme in 1984, the year I was born, hoping to cater to quicker learners. One great miscalculation though, was the divide it would create between the GEPs and the rest of the world.
I've heard people detail GEP stereotypes, crack GEP jokes, spew anti-GEP sentiments. At the best of times, it's quite amusing, how people have enshrined the GEP as a short, thickly-spectacled nerd who uses bombastic words when elementary and inelaborate ones suffice, and possesses the social grace of a duck.
At the worst of times, it's baffling how people leap so quickly to judge.
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