Lately he has been asking questions like:::
"what is the purpose of even being alive if i can't learn new things?"
"i don't understand why kids have to go sit in class and just sit there. i just want to learn something new. How can I invent things if I can’t learn what I need to know. this is why humans are killing the planet earth, because most kids just sit there & don't care if they learn, they just sit there and then grow up and they are adults who don't do anything." *that one startled me!
i was dumbfounded he said this, i just sat with mouth hanging open. literally.
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The sounds oddly familiar- a very similar statement came from my DS6. He is in 1st and wants school to be more challenging. He was dramatic..."I think that I would be better off dead. School is never going to be hard and I don't know why the teacher keeps calling me a gifted learner because it's NOT a gift. It means that I'm going to bored for the rest of my life in school so I would rather die."

He didn't like Kinder either but it was only 1/2 day so it was tolerable because it was social and then he got come home, take a nap (he was 5 and has always needed alot of sleep I think because of his allergies) and then explore the world through music, art, playing, building, chess, ect.

It must be hard to be capable of learning so much and feel stuck repeating reading and math concepts that seem second nature. He says 1st grade feels like preschool to him, not in a mean way... just that it is frustrating to sit and "practice" things he knows when all he really wants is the chance to feel challenged.

We finally made headway by bugging the public schools and paying for our own private testing. Once we had scores to back up what we were telling the administration, it seemed to open a few new doors. We kept hearing "Your son is very bright, you should be proud" when the problem was not that we need confirmation... but that we were trying to advocate for a little guy that was melting on the inside from his learning environment, or lack there of.

Private testing might be expensive, but it might help advocated for a change.