And when there was an assignment that didn't "speak to her", she would think about how to make it more fun and she'd ask the teacher if she could do that. Say, instead of drawing a picture on the back of the page while waiting for the others to finish, maybe he could find all the words on the page that start with f, count them up, and find the average number per line. That sort of thing. Something to occupy the mind that allows him to be mentally present and participating in class.
This was something my DD's school was hinting at, when they suggested DD "use her giftedness to probe deeper into the material," or something to that effect. And while I think that's certainly something that can happen, I think it was wholly inappropriate at the 1st grade level, because:
- It needs to be spontaneous and child-driven, not a requirement for every assignment ever day.
- At that level, there are too many things that don't get any deeper, like the aforementioned 10+10.
- It effectively shifts the responsibility for teaching and engaging my child from the responsible, paid adults to the 7yo child.
So yeah, we basically looked at the principal like she'd just uttered a four-letter word.
