...she is just 'an average kid' as the teacher says - teacher said she isn't convinced about the report and that she has other really gifted kids in the class, thereby saying she isnt the brightest so why am i hounding her type of response.
In general, I'd say that teachers are not very good at identifying who is and isn't the "really gifted" among their students. Teachers, and this is a generalization, tend to view the most compliant, convergent, high achieving kids as the most gifted when they may not be gifted at all but rather simply high achievers who fit the bill of what school has to offer. Have you ever read this article on the difference btwn high achievers and gifted kids, the latter of whom may not fit into school well at all:
http://www.giftededucation.org.nz/documents/high-achievers-pdf.pdf ?
Great observations!!
The gifted children that teachers identify are
motivated to demonstrate what they are capable of. I'd say that teachers identify gifted students in a sliding-scale fashion in two dimensions-- motivation to do the tasks demanded, and awareness of normative development.
I think that PG kids are very hard to miss (barring 2e issues) unless they are deliberately hiding (and good at doing so). They just tend to do things that are jaw-dropping-- now, if you have a teacher who doesn't understand "that's not supposed to be possible" or thinks "no way-- didn't happen" then maybe.
HG kids easier to miss, and MG kids
easiest of all to be overlooked by teachers.
IMO.
My own mom (a primary teacher) thought-- loudly, I might add, and at some length-- that my DD was "completely normal" when she was 1-4yo, and it's pretty darned clear that she's at least HG, probably PG. Frankly, when she cared to show you, it was crystal clear even THEN. Most 2yo's are not asking questions about God and theory of mind.
