This is why I'm skeptical about "gifted" programmes: they segregate children based on innate talents, rather than emphasizing hard work and dedication, and that seems to leave a lot of otherwise intelligent people unable to cope with day-to-day existence outside the world of academia.

This is precisely why I endorse gifted programs.

No matter how much one values or promotes hard work as the road to achievement I think actually having to work harder to achieve "good results" imparts the lesson much better.

The greater problem is that talented children might get distorted ideas about what the average person is capable of. I have to constantly remind myself that the average person isn't slightly above high school level because I've spent so much time in academia that even that seem almost too low to believe. Many people here probably spend days or weeks without ever talking to someone who is below 100, and don't associate or work with people bellow 130. Its useful to remind myself that the average is determined by the adults my classmates in primary school turned into (on a meta-level I of course realize the school was attended by many more children from poor backgrounds than the norm)