(not replying to anyone specifically in this discussion, hence stripping out quotes. This is a summary of my experience/what I've been exposed to).

There's a big problem in schools (particularly primary) where incredibly smart children (more so twice exceptional children) are seen as low achievers because of a learning difficulty, social skills not being what a teacher expects and so on. Or kids who are very aware they're different so they dumb themselves down to blend in, become disruptive or have low mood due to boredom and just generally hide how smart they are. Then of course you have the fallout from underachieving-- problems with self esteem, confidence, believing one is stupid, anxiety, depression, etc. All in primary school where there is often zero support and this carries over in to adolescence and often adulthood.

A friend of mine is both a teacher and counsellor and works with parents to advocate for these children and to get them the right support in school and I've dealt with some of her work. For decades my friend and people like her have been banging their heads against walls trying to get the education system to help these kids. In their experience (decades worth!) it is rare for a teacher/school to recognise and/or fully understand the intellectual potential of the really smart kids to the point where they do their best to help the child. There are kids who are being refused entry in to accelerated programs/streams simply because they're not seen as 'smart' (in some cases, the child has had IQ assessments but the schools still don't buy it. "She's not gifted, her spelling is terrible", "he's not gifted, he doesn't interact well with his classmates" etc). There unfortunately is more refusal to believe this when the child has been assessed as exceptionally gifted (the needs of an exceptionally gifted child will be different to most kids in acceleration programs).

Acceleration programs can be fantastic for many kids but sometimes they're still not enough for the students who are still not challenged which again can cause problems for the child. These kids may be rare but they're mostly not supported. When you have grade 3 kids working at middle-upper high school level maths and science (and just about everything else) when they're not at school, being put in to accelerated programs at primary level still won't be enough. In year 7 they're doing university level maths, so high school acceleration programs often won't help. These kids may be rare but regardless they should be supported. Sure, parents might get them help outside of school but at school, where they spend most of their day, they're unsupported.

Some of my friends have very bright kids in select entry schools and they've been disappointed because the 'more challenging/intellectually stimulating curriculum' seems to involve giving the kids more assignments and home work, than actually providing the challenge/stimulation in the classroom. They're still finding the work easy to the point of being boring but the amount of written homework/assignments causes problems.

Even if a child has a great teacher who wants to do their best, all it takes is a change of teacher or unsupportive senior member of staff to just screw everything up. I've met a few teachers who got in to teaching because they themselves are 2e and struggled at school despite being highly intelligent, they ended up quitting teaching because of the the overall refusal of other teachers/senior staff to recognise these children needed specific help and support. When you have senior school staff going to seminars where leading world experts in gifted education are presenting on the difficulties gifted kids face, then staff walk away with "I don't buy a word of it, gifted my foot, they're just precocious spoilt little brats", you have a big problem. Unfortunately this attitude is incredibly common, smart children are seen as brats or even 'dummies' and the parents are seen as pushy when they ask for support. Advocates who are teachers and gifted ed psychologists trying to speak up for these children often have their professional peers bad mouth them. Many of my friends are teachers and they all say they just can't help these exceptionally bright kids because there's no support structure for them, or their colleagues just refuse to even try to understand. Another acquaintance of mine specialises in gifted ed and special ed and she gives lectures to students in teaching courses and has been shocked by how many students (and their lecturers) refuse to believe what she is saying.

There are bright kids getting supported and really enjoying programs they're in. But the kids who require even more than this don't seem to be getting the support, which can lead to (in a nutshell) much unhappiness for them.

If anyone is interested in this topic, Prof. Miraca Gross has written extensively on the subject of exceptionally gifted children.

Again, my comments are not a direct response to anyone who has participated in this thread.

faye

Faye Coker

faye@lurking-grue.org