Well . . . . since I know the kid in question, I'd argue that I'm a better judge of his needs and whether school meets them, which seems much more complicated than whether he can check out by playing chess in his head. He happens to love playing chess in his head,
...
Even in professional life with a cohort of seriously HG folks around me, I encounter slow situations and I still occupy myself in thought . . . . something I suspect I started learning in first grade.
I didn't mean to offend you. Obviously I wasn't suggesting that I know the child better, and I certainly didn't intend to attack your choices. I know how hard this is. I'm sorry if that's how it came out.
What I *did* mean to say is that in general, I believe that "compliant" and "served" aren't necessarily the same thing, and I think it pays to consider the distinction between the two.
I "checked out" in school by reading novels behind my textbook and writing notes to friends (and boyfriends, as I got older). I happened to love that, too, but I recognize now that it wasn't necessarily good for me. That ability to entertain myself serves me in line at the bank, too, but I think it also left me underchallenged and not good at self-starting for a lot of years. As a result of my experiences and even worse ones from my DH, I don't think that sort of scenario is necessarily harmless.
My opinion. No offense intended. Feel free to ignore.
