But my 2e DS12 does what he wants and is not ready for the game. Ironically, he's probably learning more effectively this way.
Mine was not ready last year, either, and I agree that he actually learned more advanced concepts when he was left alone.
The only (and I do mean ONLY) reason DS is now ready to hear/learn/try re: the Game is because he really, really wants to stay in his program. This is not because he feels anything important is happening academically, but because his identity is tightly mapped to the "gifted" piece and he really, really loves the banter with a couple of his similar friends.
If he didn't want to go to school, or didn't care about his placement, I'd have zero leverage.
I guess, for DS, with puberty has come a bit of a transition from idealism to pragmatism. This happened when it happened. I don't think there's anything I could have done to accelerate the process.
