The students are told to show their work and we all know how gifted kids are with showing work. So you have a situation where the children told to do something that makes no sense to them. Multiply these two numbers and show your work for example. When a student asks her why and her response is "because I said so" that's not teaching them anything. There's a thin line between acting like an adult and acting like a dictator. We teach our children common sense so if someone said go jump off that bridge we want them to be able to use that common sense and not do it right? Well in a gifted child's mind , at least with my child, it doesn't make sense to show his work. If the teacher takes a moment to explain to the kids why its important to show their work they would be inclined to do so. I'm not talking about the kid who asks "why" when you say for the hundredth time its time for bed we are talking about a group of kids who have this inner need to understand the importance of what they are doing.
Yes we get a lot of push back from this one teacher and it stems from the internal investigation from earlier in the year and yes there are personal issues. But my question is...why should we force these brilliant minds to be quiet and conform when allowing them to be gifted children will help them grow up to be independent members of society who can change the world? Imagine if Martin Luther King or Hawkings was told "because I said so" and they never questioned anything?
