First, I'm glad someone already referenced the "What a Child Doesn't Learn" article, 'cause I hate sounding like a broken record.
Addressing the initial question, "Can coasting be just fine?" I'd say absolutely -- I'm sure that the potential exists for a student to coast through all of K-12 and then magically readjust everything necessary to succeed in college. I just don't think it is worth the risk to wait that long to find out the answer.
It'd certainly be a lot easier for the first dozen years... just letting the kid roll out of bed everyday knowing all the answers... easily bringing home the straight-A report cards... almost always being the smartest kid in every class -- without having to crack open a textbook.
But if you go this route, you'd better be ready to help during those first crazy days of college... when zero effort will most likely result in zero credit.
As you might have guessed, this was my personal experience. Except that I had no idea that I was coasting all the way through school. I knew I was goofing off a bit more than most kids throughout high school, and maybe not going to class as often as others -- but I truly did not recognize how easy everything was for me.
And then off I went to college: Going to every class? Seriously? Note-taking? What's that about? Studying? How do you do that? I crashed into the proverbial wall so bloody hard. I dropped calculus and chemistry within the first month thinking that someone was playing a practical joke on me - this stuff was way too hard, even for a genius like me.
I dropped out completely shortly after finals.
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I didn't realize what happened to me until I was researching GT-Ed in relation to our son, when his school recommended we put him into 1st grade at age 4. I stumbled across the report, "A Nation Deceived," and spent hours reading through the gory details and then was nearly brought to tears by the personal stories shared by students and parents. I was seeing my life described in dozens & dozens of the anecdotes; it was very powerful stuff. And a big smack in the head, albeit some 20+ years after the fact.
By the time our son was in third grade, and despite starting school a year early, I began to see the signs that things were still too easy for him. He knew all the answers, he was whipping through his books, he was getting top scores in everything... only he wasn't exerting any effort to accomplish any of this. But unlike some of the gifties out there -- and very much like his father at that age -- he wasn't bothered by this a bit.
I did notice, however, that he was greatly bothered by anything that presented even the slightest challenge. He was already addicted to the easy A.
Thankfully, through a fluke speech screening, he was given a test that lead to formal IQ and achievement tests. His scores caught the attention of some district-level people and with their help at the beginning of 4th grade, he was skipped into 5th and was working on 6th grade math.
This second full skip, along with the extra acceleration in math, was finally making our son work a bit more for his grades. He slowly became accustomed to the idea of exerting effort to achieve and as the year progressed, was no longer frightened by every little challenge that stood in his way.
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So, no, I guess I'm not a big fan of coasting.
