Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
That isn't my daughter. She desperately wants peers who are equally bright, and she is endlessly disappointed to find that the majority of the kids she runs into are doing what they are doing because someone ELSE thought they should... or because of how it will look to someone else. frown That's rather sad all the way around-- but it's not a surprise that they don't want my DD to get the teacher/leader going on something even more nuanced/difficult if they aren't passionate about it to start with. Therefore, she gets told to "shut up" when things get (in her mind) most interesting and engaging. By TigerCubs and the teachers who have learned to cater to them.

I get this. My DD is in a GT program and has expressed this sentiment at times. She complains of certain discussion groups where she is the only one raising questions and the other kids just dutifully write down the things that she says. Occasionally, she will get a "good group" and come home energized by the fact that other kids brought up things that she hadn't thought of or made her think about something differently. DD also loves some of the discussions that they have where the teacher lets the class run with a tangent that is interesting to a large number of students. She has been dubbed one of the "smart" kids in the gt program. In math, she maybe has 2-3 peers. Everyone else just doesn't get it on the same level. I've told her to relish the good days and try to picture what it would be like in a traditional classroom.

At the same time, there is a kid in her class who is obviously bright but also is an insufferable bore. He always tries to hijack classes on to tangents of marginal relevance. When DD describes him, I harken back to people who I knew in classes who were just like him. One guy actually had a gag order placed on him in law school and everyone breathed a sigh of relief that we didn't have to listen to him drone on everyday.

I guess my point is that I think that teachers have a fine balancing act when one kid may want to go "deeper" or in a different direction and seems to constantly be derailing the class. DD told me that the teachers try to get the kid in question to limit himself to one tangent per class or to come talk afterward. At times, this kid gets belligerent the teachers if he doesn't get his way. I've asked DD if he ever brings up anything interesting or insightful. She said that the valuable nuggets are steeped in a whole lot of bs in her opinion.