I'm not sure whether we are successful but we are hopefully on the right track. DS13 had a miserable time in grades 6 and 7. It was a time when all the bad feelings that he accumulated toward schools over the years surfaced and became too much to bear. I thank three factors that saved DS from going down the underachievement route too far. 1. He participates in lots of extracurricular activities including academic activities and a ton of music. He is always a high achiever in these activities, which helps him put things in perspective whenever he has self doubt. 2. He did the middle school talent search in 7th grade. We weren't interested before that time but realized that he needed reassurance. He got a fantastic result from the talent search, which helped him regain confidence in himself. 3. We pulled him out of the public middle school, which has a great reputation but really was a bad fit with DS. We are now in a private, gifted school, which turns out to be not nearly as good as we were hoping for. But the school gave DS a lot of space so at least he doesn't feel stifled anymore.
