The kids who thought all their answers were right were upset and cryng... He wanted to find out were the team placed but his teacher did not want to upset the other kids on the team.
I see the teacher's actions as feeding a negative downward spiral in which the team is ruled by emotion. That said, the teacher may have been waiting for other timing to present the team with factual information when they were not in an emotional state and could better absorb the feedback, and understand the process as one in which math facts, logic, and showing one's work step by step win out over emotion.
The proctor brought his scrap paper to him at the end and told him he did a awesome job...
I skippd the after competition lunch and let my son ask the judges all the questions he had. They were very kind to him. By the time we left he had figured out the team would not have been in the top 3 winning but they would have placed in the top 6.
He was happy and pleased to know this information
Kudos to you, and to your son.
His 2E (Aspie) does not help in these situations as he found it difficult to understand why his team mates did not just use his answers.
I believe that any person thinking logically would find it difficult to understand why the team mates could not follow the math problem solution steps jotted on his piece of scrap paper and understand the answers which he derived (and/or suggest where a step might be worked in a different manner).
Maybe working together in class will bring them to a better understanding of team work..
That may be, however the creation of effective teamwork rarely occurs in a vacuum. It may be helpful/necessary for someone to explain the process as one in which math facts, logic, and showing one's work step by step win out over emotion.
There's an old saying that
a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
There are other types of competitions, and better/different teachers/coaches. One idea for a mathy kid may be to begin working prior years' middle and high school math problem sets and reviewing the provided answers, from a
math talent search. By the time the child is in middle school, s/he may be interested in competing in the math talent search.
