Anyway, it was about "obedience" and he was "disobedient" and this is to "teach him to follow directions."
In middle school educational institutions may begin to value student-exhibited characteristics of setting goals, thinking for themselves, taking responsibility for ensuring they are learning, knowing when to make an appropriate exception to rules and guidelines to overcome hurdles and keep learning, and generally being self-determining. Unfortunately, our children who are self-determining at a young age may have this drummed out of them by a system which essentially breaks them with arbitrary and ever-changing rules with little philosophical consistency.
You have noticed how fast your cheetah runs when given an antelope to chase. This is a reference to Stephanie Tolan's metaphor,
Is it a Cheetah?, as applied to your child excelling at math and at reading when exposed to higher level work, a challenge worthy of his potential.
A teacher/school/program presenting only lower level books so no child may feel disheartened by the idea there is more difficult material available, not only creates a ceiling but also encourages fixed mindset.
While in some cases sharing resources with teachers about the characteristics and development of gifted children may help alleviate this damage to our children (when it is unintended), in other cases educators may read or have joined forums and discussion groups such as this specifically to gain information about how to slow down gifted kids, as the teachers/schools/programs may be evaluated on closing a performance gap, achievement gap, excellence gap in their classroom. Parents may need to learn the philosophy of the educational institution, be willing to acknowledge if it is toxic for their child, and leave.
In the view of educational institutions, giftedness may increasingly be defined not as how the child IS, or learns, or thinks, or develops differently... but in terms of
achievement. Achievement can be managed downwards or squelched, damaging the child by giving no-win choices. One example might be: learn by reading at your appropriate level and be considered as misbehaving -or- read below your level and be considered compliant. In this scenario, the child is forced to either be compliant by not learning... or be considered defiant and learn. This may encourage underachievement. A winning scenario would be pairing compliance with learning, in which the child is considered as engaging in appropriate & desired behavior by reading at their appropriate or challenge level.
Vast research has been done regarding underachievement. This research was ostensibly intended to avoid instilling the maladaptive behavior of underachievement in kids. Like any tool, this may be used for other than it's intended purpose. Some may glean from this research HOW TO create the maladaptive behavior of underachievement in gifted kids.
Where to go from here? Possibly acquainting the teacher/school/program with material on the growth mindset, as this is a benefit to all students?
