I haven't even thought about repairing learned underachievement, except that I guess the longer a person is operating this way the harder it would be to "undo it".
Some gifted authors cite that if a child is consistently in this state of not having to do much - of working well below capability, that by the time they are 10 or so it's *that* much harder to undo, almost becomes a built-in character trait then. It's a scary thought.
My 5 year old son has been in this situation for nearly 2.5 years, and so far after 1 month of unschooling is still not ready to learn anything again. Just 2 and a bit years screwed him up royally. I am angry, sad, upset, emotional, anxious about it. I am also relieved that I trusted myself and found the information and strength required to take steps to un-do the damage. He is left with the thought that he "will never learn anything real in school" at the age of 5 how sad is that?
