Indigo, I think that many teachers, especially those without specific training in gifted education (and this seems to be the majority of teachers we've experienced), presume that gifted children will typically be the high achievers, the compliant and easy to teach types. I think the voting public often assumes that gifted children will naturally "rise to the top" in our education system as it is now.
Many of us here probably realize that these are myths, but I don't believe that thos of us on this forum are highly representative of the general population.
