Did I get it from here? Apologies if so. I had this interesting idea pop into my head as I was driving home the other day, thinking about DS8 and his new school year.
He has the classic perfectionist thinking when it comes to learning new things, which I understand deep in the heart from having it myself -- he's never had to work at learning anything and has always known the answers, so his first reflex when encountering something he doesn't know is "I'm stupid." He's not used to not knowing.
So this thing I thought of is:
Imagine that every student at every desk is a glass. The water in the glasses is their knowledge of the subject of the class. Now, some students know nothing at all about the subject going into the class, so some glasses are empty and dry. Some students know a little, and they have a little bit of water in them, and some know more, and have more water. Their job this year is to fill those glasses with more water; some will do this a drop at a time, some will do it in teaspoons, some might use small cups, but they will all have more water at the end of the class. (At this point my son knew where this was going and broke in with the answer, which was...) Now you, DS8, are that big glass over there, and you are full and spilling knowledge all over the classroom on the first day. This is why you've never had to work at learning. One of these days, there will be something that you don't know, and you will have to learn to carry a teaspoon or wring water out of a towel to fill your cup.
I told this story to the principal, counselors and his new teacher in a meeting today, and they are going to use the metaphor to work with him on the things that he does need to learn, including how to handle it when you are bored with everybody else's glass-filling and want to get on with something else.
