I certainly understand the frustration, however, nothing really harmed here, the desired grade stayed in tact, in fact, this was best case scenario in my opinion. Having raised a GT perfectionist as well who is now in college and being married to a Middle School / HS GT teacher....
The child learned that there will be circumstances beyond their control that often affect their performance and the outcome. That's not going to change. Control what you can, get over what you can't control. The best insurance is strong preparation, then good focus, from there, the chips will fall where they fall, learn to live with it. (in short, life isn't fair)
2. The sooner a perfectionist child, especially one who has straight A's gets their first non-A grade, the better. I've seen it over and over again. When a straight A kid gets their first non-A grade it's one of two things, either they have a break down for a couple of weeks or they cry from relief as they don't feel the pressure of being perfect anymore. In either case, they learn to deal with struggle without the result being perfection. If they don't learn that in grade school, they'll learn it in middle school, high school, or college, the later they experience it, the more devastating it usually is. Many a GT student has run into their first struggle / non-A grade in college and it crushes them to the point of dropping out as they don't know how to deal with it having previously not done so.
Last edited by Old Dad; 06/10/14 07:38 AM.
