Well, when you figure this one out, though... let me just get in line for the answer to it now, okay?
I'd love to know as well, because I also have a fairly difficult-to-motivate kid who likes to read, and... well, think/talk about whatever other interest-du-jour she happens to be onto that day. And not much more. Extrinsic motivators do NOT work, and there appears to be precious little
intrinsic motivation at work, either.
We see occasional flashes of extraordinary effort, all right... but those are GENERALLY directly related to negative habits like formidable procrastination or even more overt self-handicapping.
I've only been able to really discuss this with two people associated with the school-- and both of them were sort of... stunned... when they realized just how little of her ability they DO see on a regular basis. They certainly don't accommodate it or nurture it. She has never really taken a class that she couldn't learn 16 weeks' worth of material in under two weeks. Mostly, in under two DAYS. So when she chooses to do stuff like that...
and still gets A grades...NOT things we want her to feel "good" about. But they
are challenges that she is choosing and engineering for herself, I suppose. Amidst all of this, we see
occasional glimpses of her actual ability, which is frankly a little frightening in its scope and intensity. She really could do world-shattering things. If she cared enough to bother, basically. And mostly, she doesn't.
Ahhh, the quandary, there... do we praise her for the A in AP physics, when we KNOW that this was an 11th hour sprint and that she has been lazy about her approach all term long? It's
still probably not her "best" effort. We, too, are pragmatic about "best" efforts ourselves, so "good enough" has a place in life, as does "individually determined challenge to one's self." Hard to know-- after all, she DID turn it on in dazzling fashion there right at the end... and she DOES have A-level understanding of the material now. Is it just an unconventional approach? Or is it maladaptive?
