[philipov]

No. I am simply lucky to have been born into a family of Russian Intelligentsia who could provide me with a real education.

In 1st grade, I enjoyed learning math too much, and the teacher found this disruptive, so the school found an excuse to get me classified as learning disabled and put me in special education where I spent all day isolated in a detached cottage with 2 teachers and no other students.

The teachers had no lesson plan or anything for me to do, so my mother bought logic puzzle books for me to play with to relieve the boredom. I had already gotten a strong foundation in reading from my family, so I enjoyed filling them out on my own. I also had plenty of educational video games to play at home that I greatly enjoyed. Learning to program was just another toy to play with.

Oklahoma education system at its finest!

[wallflower]

Thanks for the detail, it seems like you and your mother were able to "home school" yourself inside the school system.

[philipov]

Yep, precisely that.