I was extremely lucky. It was a gifted program that vetted kids for both academic ability and good behavior, so all of the kids were also decent classmates. It was a dream class. My teacher was nice, respectful, and really good at what she did. And when I finished third grade, she retired. I also would not have qualified for the class in first grade under their normal rules, because I was not able to read, but they decided to experiment with accepting a bright child who hadn't yet learned to read to see if that requirement was necessary.
The downside was that all of the assignments were written on the board for each grade at the start of each day, and I had no idea what I should be doing at first. I found out afterwards that my teacher gave a lot of thought about how to treat me, and decided she'd try full immersion and not singling me out. I don't know what approach would have been best, and I spent a lot of my early first grade days asking other students, "What does that say?" to find out what I should be doing. And I worked really hard in first grade. But she worked very hard on catching me up to speed on reading, so it worked out well. I'm really grateful to have had such a good teacher.
Then I had fourth grade, which was untracked and so disappointing other than taking a lot of field trips. Plus, I didn't know the other kids in my school. The only other student in my class I knew was a boy who didn't even like me. And I'd been in a mixed-grade class, so they all knew each other and knew I'd been in the same school as them but not socializing with them. So, fourth grade was really awful. But first through third was great. Plus, it taught me how to work really hard. For many, many years I found that I did not have to work nearly as hard as I had worked in first grade, but that experience was a useful one to have had.
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The downside was that all of the assignments were written on the board for each grade at the start of each day, and I had no idea what I should be doing at first. I found out afterwards that my teacher gave a lot of thought about how to treat me, and decided she'd try full immersion and not singling me out. I don't know what approach would have been best, and I spent a lot of my early first grade days asking other students, "What does that say?" to find out what I should be doing. And I worked really hard in first grade. But she worked very hard on catching me up to speed on reading, so it worked out well. I'm really grateful to have had such a good teacher.
Then I had fourth grade, which was untracked and so disappointing other than taking a lot of field trips. Plus, I didn't know the other kids in my school. The only other student in my class I knew was a boy who didn't even like me. And I'd been in a mixed-grade class, so they all knew each other and knew I'd been in the same school as them but not socializing with them. So, fourth grade was really awful. But first through third was great. Plus, it taught me how to work really hard. For many, many years I found that I did not have to work nearly as hard as I had worked in first grade, but that experience was a useful one to have had.