Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The Ultimate Bad Homework Question Thread!

Sure. I just didn't assume that conforming to expectations is always about abuse of power, and that a nonconformist is always right. I'm discussing specifically when one is 100% right and can prove it to any reasonable person, yet a person in authority is simply refusing to admit it out of pique. There is no real nuance, for example, to a teacher getting the wrong numeric part of an answer on a simple word problem during grading (implying failure to even check the answer key), the student getting it right and insisting on rightness, then the teacher reporting at a parent-teacher meeting that the student couldn't do word problems. (That actually happened to us, resulting in a daddy smackdown of said teacher, who retired suddenly soon after.) Or, perhaps, the nuance adheres when figuring just how far up her rump the teacher's noggin actually has been planted.

When a child is young and inexperienced like DS7, there is an easy solution: teach him to politely and persuasively argue to the teacher in favor of the right answer, and then appeal to a superior authority on the academic subject (me) if the teacher won't see reason. I can then also double-check to make sure he's in the right (he always has been so far). Eventually I expect his own ability to discern when it's a black-and-white or gray-area situation to develop further, as well as his ability to handle disagreements gracefully with all kinds of people, and I will help him grow in both respects.

Still, I want him to wind up with the ability to know when he's completely right and an adversary is completely wrong untarnished. He also should be able at some point to assess accurately when he won't win a particular battle at the initial stage or on appeal, as well as the likely outcomes of pushing a point regardless of that instead of bending. I won't be there to save him forever.

But still, right is often just right when it comes to math. The ability to be right with near-perfect or perfect accuracy is so valuable that I refuse to take even the risk of impairing it at this stage, just as I want him to have confidence in himself. The rest will come with time. And in extreme circumstances, sometimes a brave person just has to be ready to make a stand.