Shankar Vedantam

The conclusion that many people drew?

Scott wasn't very bright.

Scott's teachers didn't know what to make of him.

He was often very creative, but he didn't seem to be able to keep up with his peers.

Things came to a head in the third grade.

Scott has seen the reports his teachers wrote about him when he was a kid.

They say the problem was about more than academics.

He quickly discovered that when you repeat a grade, the kids around you start to look at you differently.

Scott has a specific memory from that additional year he spent in third grade.

A group of kids formed a circle around him in the bathroom.

When Scott was seven, and again at 11, school administrators made him take IQ tests so they could figure out next steps for him.

One test stands out in his memory like a scene from a movie.

From the outside, it might seem like Scott was privileged.

His family had the resources for him to go to a school that would meet his needs.

But as a kid, Scott felt the adults in his life were sending him a clear message.

The outcome of Scott's IQ test was the opposite of what he had secretly hoped for.

His dream was that he would do so well that the psychologist would recommend he move to a prestigious school near his Philadelphia home.

It was called the Haverford School.

Now, each day on his way to his new school, he'd pass Haverford.

To Scott, his dream school might as well have been on Mars.