I think that you hit it right on Trinity...if you're stuck sitting in a class where all the children are "lower" than you are and they are the ones that are popular and considered "preferred students" by the teachers and administration then it must do horrible things to your self esteem.
One thing that has worked out very well for us is a local college does a summer camp with various classes for the kids to choose. Everything from building small rockets to "supermarket science" to harry potter. It's only for a week but my son loves it and can't wait to go. I think that's mostly because it IS pretty much all children close to his level and for one week a year he finally "fits in".
And I"m actually glad to hear that other gifted boys tend to cry easily too. For the longest time the school had me convinced that I had raised him wrong...we didn't do daycare and I stayed home with him until he started first grade and even now I only work part time. So I had that "mommy guilt" thing that I had really messed him up. He IS getting a lot better about it and will vent more to me when he gets home which is fine.
The sad trend that I see is that the highly gifted children in my son's school (there is one other in my son's grade) tend to withdrawal inside themselves and are ignored which the below average children are nurtured and have the self esteem and ego's of movie stars.
I have seen the same thing where the teacher bullies a child and the children see that it's "ok" to pick on that child and then continue to do so. Sad that some adults can't act like one!
The tape recorder worked wonders! I advise all parent's to use it if they think it's necessary! ;-)
