Any advice? For me that is?
Dottie, is he a student of yours in a school class or a student you're tutoring outside of school (or other?)?
I had a friend in school who was very much like this - he may very well have been the smartest student in our school, but he had an attitude about school lessons in the elementary - middle school years that it was all covering things he already knew simply because he was so smart, therefore he didn't need to do any work (and he literally spent most of the time in class reading books that had nothing to do with the classwork). It was, and still is, a mystery to me how he managed to get passed on to the next grade each year because he never did any work. I am sure he was smart enough to pass all the tests we had, but it just always amazed me that he was never held accountable for participation in class and turning in work assignments outside of tests. I suspect he didn't get the best grades in the world, because by the time we got to high school and we were able to track into honors and AP courses, he was no longer in any of my classes (but he was still attending the same school). He certainly was smart enough to have been our class valedictorian, but he wasn't even sitting in the with the honors ranks at graduation. This was *many* years ago, and the ticket into those honors classes and AP courses was achievement and grades - there was no getting into them simply via a high-scoring IQ test. These, in turn, at that time, were the key to getting into prestigious colleges.
I lost track of him when we graduated - and didn't hear anything from him for years. If you'd asked *him* in middle school where he would end up in life, I am sure he (and his parents) would have been certain he would be a highly-acclaimed scientist who'd made some amazing discovery and won a Nobel Prize or something. I always assumed that, because of his attitude in class, he *must* be profoundly gifted and would end up doing amazing things.
He found me via FB when our graduating (high school) class had one of our memorable-year reunions. He's a computer programmer, nothing more. Very ordinary life. Not the predicted Nobel Prize winner, didn't do anything amazing in life (at least not yet) and hasn't changed the world. OTOH, he's had a very good life. He turned out to be much more humble, now, as an adult, than he was as a child who thought he was "above working" simply because he was smart. I'm guessing the reason he fell out of the honors/ect classes etc in high school was his refusal to do work that he thought was below him... so somewhere along the way his teachers must have started to hold him personally accountable.
I realize this isn't advice at all - just an observation of another person's experience. In the end, it seems to have all worked out ok! He didn't get into a great college, but he got into college. Somewhere along the way he got it that you do have to do work and that profound intelligence isn't an excuse to have the world be your servant. He never set the world on fire, but he turned out ok. I am much more impressed by the nice, well-rounded person he is now than I ever was with his attitude as a teen who thought he didn't need to work. I suspect that the teachers who finally did hold him accountable and responsible for doing his work did make a difference for him.
polarbear
