It does sound over-the-top, and I couldn't help but think it also.

At this point, I have two theories. One is hyper-logical, one is a little woo-woo. I'm not sold on either of them....yet.

1.) Gifted education curriculums were written by people interested in the human potential movement, and well-meaning but careless teachers embraced and taught the lessons. Us kids were way too young psychologically for consciousness-expanding exercises and it left a lot of us burned out.

2.) The CIA funded gifted programs (especially multi-year programs) to develop extrasensory abilities in children, using consciousness experiments, testing them repeatedly, then ultimately de-activating certain students before they left the program.