Ungifted

“I sighed. Did everything have to pass through me? I was only one person! ‘It’s on my desk, Cynthia. You can’t miss it.’” 

In this pivotal moment, Dr. Shultz instructs his secretary to take the list of students for the gifted program from his desk. Moments before, he had written Donovan’s name on a slip of paper. Cynthia takes that paper and submits Donovan’s name for the program. Later, Dr. Shultz will think Donovan somehow took the paper and will be unable to recall his name. Donovan is sent to ASD, setting the plot in motion. Dr. Shultz’s demeanor also demonstrates his self-absorption. His directions to Cynthia are too general because he is not focused on the task at hand: giving her the correct list. This enables the clerical error that allows Donovan to escape to ASD.

“Had that big doofus scribbled my name on the gifted list by accident? And everybody else thought it was there because it was supposed to be? It seemed crazy, but it did explain the two inexplicable things going on in my life right now: 1) why Shultz hadn’t come to kill me yet, and 2) why I’d just been invited to go to genius school.” 

Donavan tiptoes through the day after the statue destruction, expecting to be in trouble at any moment. His father returns from work to find a letter from the school. Donovan assumes the letter will inform his father about the prank, but instead, it is an invitation to attend a special gifted program. Donovan is shocked, since he had not even been invited to take the gifted entrance exam. He realizes that Dr. Shultz’s secretary must have taken from the superintendent’s desk the slip of paper with Donovan’s name on it. His lucky escape inspires Donovan to tread carefully at his new school; as long as he can keep up the charade, he lowers his risk of Dr. Shultz finding him. 

“She was telling me about Donovan getting his tongue frozen to a chain-link fence one winter, but by that time I’d stopped listening. I’d never met this new kid, but I already had him perfectly sized up in my mind.

“Donovan Curtis was normal.” 

In this passage, Chloe is narrating her experience of Donovan’s first day. The “she” is Abigail, who attended elementary school with Donovan and thus suspects he is not gifted. Chloe does not draw on past experience to assess Donovan, but she can tell from the way he attempts to relate to his classmates that he is more socially adept than the typical ASD student. In this sense he is “normal,” the quality Chloe idealizes and longs for in her overly-regimented life (25).

“I was beginning to see that they had two sets of rules in our district—one for the brainiacs, and one for everybody else. Of course, I was living the good life now. But I still took it personally since I knew it was all a mistake.” 

Here, Donovan has just attempted to copy from Abigail and been caught, but instead of getting in trouble, his homeroom teacher, Mr. Osborn, takes him for a walk and talk. Throughout this first day at ASD, Donovan has noticed how differently the students are treated, beginning with the bus driver’s indulgent response to a student who threw a paper airplane (it was seen a science experiment) to the quality of the facilities to the response to cheating. Donovan is speaking to the gaping disparity between how normal and gifted students are treated. This disparity causes them to remain divided and limits their ability to develop their weaker capacities: social for ASD, and intellectual for normal students.

“I had to give Donovan that. For all Noah’s incredible abilities, the boy would fail out of school if his teachers were to let him. Donovan alone had managed to engage him. Could that be a kind of giftedness in and of itself?

Regardless, Donovan had succeeded in running through yet another class without yielding the slightest hint as to why he was at the Academy.” 

Mr. Osborne is astonished to find Noah laughing over a homemade YouTube video. Noah’s intellectual abilities are exceptional, but he does not engage with any of his peers as he does with Donovan. Though Mr. Osborne is eager to find a talent in Donovan that would qualify as gifted, he recognizes that Donovan’s ability to engage ASD’s students does not count. His musings raise a question: should they count?

“‘These are tough time for our family, what with Brad deployed and the baby coming. And now Beatrice—like we don’t have enough stress in our lives already. Then you step in and do something for everybody to feel good about. It’s like it was sent from heaven.’

“I felt as if I was losing my mind. Hiding out in the gifted program, and carrying the emotional well-being of my entire family. No pressure.” 

Here, Donovan’s father praises him for his achievement, crediting it with lifting the family’s spirits. Rather than make Donovan feel good, it fills him with anxiety because he knows, of course, that his giftedness is a mistake that may be exposed at any time. Donovan is also getting his first taste of the pressure gifted kids face because of others’ expectations for him. This experience from the other side helps Donovan develop empathy for and eventually connection with the gifted kids.

“Maybe he wasn’t gifted in the way we were, but he had an uncanny knack for making a difference. Take the robotics program. From a scientific standpoint, Tin Man hadn’t changed at all since his arrival. Donovan had contributed a name, a few pictures from the internet, and his joystick skills. Yet somehow he’d transformed our entire team. We were focused, excited, united. Cold Spring Harbor had better watch out.” 

In this passage, Chloe theorizes that “The Whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Especially if one of those parts is Donovan” (58). Chloe is the first to recognize and assign value to Donovan’s social abilities. His social skills don’t just benefit him; they impact the entire team, instilling a sense of common purpose that animates them. The students bring a diverse array of talents to the creation of Tin Man, but none of them knows how to operate him to his fullest potential, until Donovan arrives. Chloe also notes in this section the school and its brilliant students seemed unable to solve the problem of the Human Growth and Development course, but Donovan found a solution “with a flick of the wrist” (57).

“The problem with our education system is if you score one little 206 on one little IQ test, everybody goes nuts about it. You have to go to a special school, only they call it an ‘Academy,’ which really just means the same thing. And then the pressure starts: Do better, reach for the stars, live up to your potential, go all out, strive, achieve.

“Why?”

In the first chapter he narrates, Noah articulates the problem he associates with being gifted, echoing what Donovan experiences early on as well: The external pressure is intense. The students receive the best of everything, but they are also expected to produce the best results. It is another double-sided coin. The very thing that makes them lucky (the great facilities, the benefit of the doubt) also exerts tremendous pressure on them. For Noah, this pressure to achieve makes him unhappy because he cannot see the point in it. He is still a child, but he is expected to have the answers for everything.

“‘They’re not misfits,’ I insisted. ‘They’re just—different. Super smart. But dumb in a way, too. Like babies.’” 

This dialogue is Donovan’s response to his sister, Katie, after she refers to the ASD kids as “misfits” (68). She is upset because she saw Noah’s video of her “fat belly” on YouTube set to the tune of “We are the Champions” (68). Donovan is encouraging her to take it as a compliment since Noah has “nothing better to do with his two hundred IQ” than create videos of Katie’s pregnant stomach (68). This section also demonstrates Donovan’s growing affection for and bond with the ASD kids. When he was at Hardcastle, he would have been doing what the Daniels and Katie do: mocking or dismissing the gifted kids as nerds and misfits. By engaging with them, Donovan is able to see them as human. At the same time, he recognizes that they have limitations, in that they do not know how to socialize and relate to normal people.

“‘The special expert is named Katie Patterson, and she’s the sister of one of the students, a boy named Don—’

“‘Just put it on my desk,’ I interrupted, still peering into drawers. Wasn’t that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result?” 

The speaker in this passage is Dr. Shultz, who is addressing Cynthia. She has come in to update him on the resolution of the Human Growth and Development issue at ASD, but he is so distracted that he does not let her finish. He has been fretting about the many “screwups” he has been dealing with, despite his “no screwups” rule (73). Clearly, he has made a rule that is impossible to achieve. The chapter intensifies the tension, as Dr. Shultz comes so close to hearing the name he has been looking for and possibly having his memory triggered, if he had been less preoccupied with his own agenda and paid attention to Cynthia.

“We were no different from the rest of humanity. And we were going to show that we were every bit as capable of having a good time.

“All thanks to Donovan Curtis.

“Obviously, I understood that Donovan hadn’t made any of this happen directly. He couldn’t possibly have destroyed the Hardcastle gym, forcing them to move the dance to ours. Nobody was capable of shaping human events like that.” 

In this passage, Chloe looks forward to the Valentine’s dance, which will be held at ASD because Hardcastle’s gym has not yet been repaired. For her, the dance represents an opportunity to socialize and experience a normal middle-school activity as well as to prove to those outside of ASD that its students are not robots. She credits Donovan because of the social interaction he has brought to ASD, not because she knows that he is responsible for the gym damage itself. Chloe’s statement draws attention to the unpredictability of human actions and outcomes. When she says that no one is “capable of shaping human events like that,” she is correct, but not in the way that she thinks. Donovan’s actions set off a chain of events that brought the Valentine’s dance to ASD, but he did not shape them intentionally. Like Atlas’s globe, the events took on a momentum and direction of their own.

“That’s when it hit me. I did care. Not so much about the robotics team—and definitely not about some bucket of bolts on Mecanum wheels. How many chances did I get to limit the damage of my impulses? Once Atlas’[s] globe is rolling, there’s nothing anyone can do to save the gym at the bottom of the hill.

“But this was different. Tin Man wasn’t wrecked yet. There was still time to make things right.” 

Just before Donovan has the insight he expresses here, he is torn between self-preservation and personal responsibility. He sees the Daniels on the dance floor with Tin Man. He had showed them the robot as a conciliatory gesture, not anticipating what they would do, and so feels responsible for any damage Tin Man may sustain. At the same time, he sees Dr. Shultz and is anxious to leave before Dr. Shultz spots him. Ultimately, he decides he cannot leave Tin Man to the Daniels. Once events are set in motion, there is no controlling them or predicting their outcome. Donovan exhibits growth here in that he pauses to think about what course of action he should take and chooses to take responsibility for what he is able to control.

“Sneaking back to the robotics lab with our prize was the most exciting experience I could remember, even better than my big takedown at the dance. I knew a lot about the effects of adrenaline on the human body, but that was different than actually feeling my heart pounding against my rib cage. Fear mixed with exhilaration, plus the notion that, at any second, we could get caught. It was almost as if I hadn’t really been alive until Donovan showed up at the Academy.” 

Noah is describing his feelings while the robotics team steals the motor from the custodians’ floor polisher. This passage expresses how others see gifted kids (as machines rather than humans) as well as what Noah’s education has emphasized (theory, information). Earlier in the novel, Noah indicates that he sees no purpose in achievement for its own sake. Here, he experiences adrenaline not through secondary sources but through his own body and mind. He also experiences the relationship between body and mind, and for the first time, he understands what it means to be human through his lived experience.

“And that was the whole problem. If one of Oz’s superachievers had found an undetectable way to take control of a secure computer and do the test for Donovan, who would ever be smart enough to prove it?” 

Here, Ms. Bevelaqua discusses Donovan with Mr. Osborne. She asks Mr. Osborne if he has seen any improvement in Donovan’s academic performance, and he admits that he has not. He admits that he likes Donovan, and more importantly, “he’s good for these kids. He completes them” (109). Unlike Ms. Bevelaqua, Mr. Osborne recognizes Donovan’s value not only as an individual but as part of the community. He brings balance to their experience, which Mr. Osborne seems able to value as much as academic performance but Ms. Bevelaqua does not. This passage is also foreshadowing events later in the novel. Noah admits to Donovan that it was Abigail, not Noah, who cheated for Donovan. Wanting to be expelled, Noah planted evidence that he was responsible, but no one is “smart enough” to prove it, so Noah gets his wish (110). His intelligence enables him to achieve his wish to leave ASD. 

“I’d never been much of a joiner, so this was my first taste of how it felt to be part of a team that was a real contender. And not just a part. With the robot completed, I was more important than any of them. All those geniuses, and the one person who could make Tin Man perform at championship level was the dummy who got stranded in the gifted program by mistake. I didn’t have a clue how to design, build, or program a robot. But it was up to me to bring home the gold.

“For the first time since I’d landed at the Academy, I truly belonged.” 

At this point in the novel, readers know that Dr. Shultz has realized exactly where to find Donovan, but he does not realize that Mr. Shultz is on his way. The robotics team is practicing for the competition, with Donovan in control of the joystick. Donovan’s connection to the team has been steadily growing, and in this moment, his feeling of belonging is at its strongest. Moments later, Dr. Shultz storms into the gym to escort Donovan out.

“Donovan might not be gifted in the same way as the rest of us, but he’s the heart and soul of our team! He’s the heart and soul of our class!” 

Here, Donovan quotes Chloe’s reaction to Dr. Shultz, telling Donovan that his parents are on the way. She mistakenly believes he is being removed for not being gifted. Her description of Donovan as “the heart and soul” of the team evokes The Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man, who longs for a heart. Donovan brought that heart to the robotics team, who saw and were seen as less than fully human.

“Week-old lunches overflowed out of every garbage can. The halls rang with the voice of an assistant principal, chewing out some poor kid over a random offense. Nobody took you for a cooling-off walk and a philosophical discussion at Hardcastle. Here, a paper airplane was not an experiment in aerodynamics. It was an act of war.” 

Back at Hardcastle Middle School, Donovan cannot help but notice the disparities between ASD and his current school. The maintenance is poorer. Administrators and teachers discipline, rather than guide. In this environment, the book suggests, it is not surprising that an adversarial relationship develops between students and authority figures.

“I caught a glimmer of how someone could disappear among a student body of more than three hundred at each grade level. It could never happen at my school. You were famous for what you knew, or what you could do, or what you might become. Or, in Donovan’s case, even for what you didn’t know.” 

At ASD, Chloe misses Donovan. She feels Donovan’s loss has depleted the team of its spirit and decides to do something no one expects of a gifted student: she cuts class to take a bus across town and find Donovan at Hardcastle. Walking around the campus, she realizes what Donovan goes through and how easy it is to get lost in the crowd, literally and metaphorically. ASD students are seen and valued for their gifts, even if they have done nothing with them yet (this is implied in “what you might become”) (132). Hardcastle students only get noticed when they do something wrong. How students are treated impacts how they see themselves, and the choices they make.

“My mom tried to pretend she wasn’t devastated by my new ungifted status. But I could read between the lines no matter what she said.

‘I’m every bit as proud of you as I was the day before we got that letter.’ See the problem? Think about it. It’ll come to you.”

Gifted or not, Donovan is witty and perceptive. This passage demonstrates his clever humor. His mother’s seemingly innocent statement masks a question: was she really proud of him before they received the letter? The day before they received the letter, Donovan was sent to the principal’s office for a spitball war with the Daniels, then given detention for mocking the basketball team on the school intercom system.

“School was the worst. I couldn’t hack it in the gifted program, but the work at Hardcastle was just too easy. Crazy as it seemed, all my fruitless studying at the Academy had stuck with me. Now I was getting straight A’s—and instead of being happy about it, my good grades served as yet another reminder of the place I’d been kicked out of. It was like I had a foot in two different worlds, and they were moving apart. I was going to crack up the middle like a wishbone, and I didn’t much care.”

In this passage, Donovan reflects on how his experience at ASD has changed him as a student. Ideally, these changes should be positive because he is doing well at school and resisting the Daniels’ attempts to get Donovan to return to pranking. However, the changes he has undergone make him not fit in among his friends at Hardcastle, who want the old Donovan back. Further, the work does not feel challenging. Donovan has achieved a sense of balance between intellectual and social, but his old friends and school have not yet, leaving Donovan feeling torn between worlds.

“Who would have dreamed that there were real hearts hidden under all that baloney? Not even the gifted program could have predicted it.” 

Earlier in the novel, Donovan expressed his belief that the Daniels would never have done for him what the anonymous friend who cheated for him did. Their friendship, he believed, was based on him getting in trouble for their entertainment, and as such was primarily selfish on their part. Here, Donovan realizes that perhaps he has been seeing them as machines, rather than humans, programmed for frivolous, troublesome fun, and that Donovan has overlooked their capacity for caring. Donovan has just discovered that the Daniels arranged with Katie to bring Donovan to the robotics meet.

“But as the competition progressed, the human element became a bigger factor. Abigail was at the controller, and she was darn good. But it was impossible to avoid comparisons with the way Donovan had handled the joystick. He couldn’t make Tin Man go any faster, of course. But there was a nimbleness to his driving, an economy to the robot’s maneuvers. Every cut and turn seemed to be an inch or two wider than it needed to be without Donovan at the helm. And all that extra motion added up to lost time.”

Mr. Osborne narrates the robotics competition and the factors that lead ASD to drop in their placements. Earlier, he noted how dispirited and fractured his team felt. Here, he focuses on Abigail’s driving skills. She is not as experienced with a joystick as Donovan and thus not as skilled. This passage highlights the value of lived experience, something Noah discovered through the adrenaline rush he experienced when stealing the floor polisher’s motor for Tin Man. Not everything can be learned through study and theory. Experience matters. Donovan brought experience, which rounded out the team.

“This great day never could have happened if I hadn’t been wrong about the sex of Katie Patterson’s baby. Just the thought that when I calculate, interpolate, extrapolate, infer, deduce, adjudge, analyze, derive, figure, reason, or surmise anything, there’s a chance that I might be wrong filled me with a sense of infinite possibility. Surprise didn’t come exclusively from YouTube anymore. It was a gift.

“I owed this, too, to Donovan.”

Noah has achieved his dream of getting kicked out of ASD, and he is grateful to Donovan for having shown Noah, inadvertently, that he is capable of being wrong. The realization has shown Noah that life can surprise even him. At the beginning of the book, Donovan introduced Noah to YouTube, and he took to it immediately. Noah appreciated the spontaneity and unpredictability of YouTube but feared those qualities could never be his. He feared that he was a machine incapable of being wrong. Jumping off the speaker at the Valentine’s dance, stealing the motor, and smashing Pot-zilla at the robotics competition made him feel present in his body, but they were also somewhat self-destructive ways of achieving feeling. Learning that he could be wrong gives Noah a sense of purpose; he realizes that he can experience the tension and excitement of anticipation that can only result when an outcome cannot be predicted.