This whole style of "Write a novel, paint a mural, and produce an opera to explain to your dog how you feel about adding two and two" is very damaging to math education. (Okay, that's maybe a slight exaggeration)
True. None of my kids have ever had to produce an opera for a dog. As for the rest of those requirements....
If I understand correctly, writing the opera to explain to your dog may be the new "differentiation in task demands" for gifted pupils. While others merely show their work to add 2 + 2, to provide sufficient "challenge" gifted pupils may be graded upon their operatic expertise in explaining the concept to canines... not be instructed at a higher level in math or allowed to proceed to multiplication, fractions, decimals, pre-algebra, etc.
