This is an argument for acceleration that I've started using.
Avoiding Gifted Kid Syndrome.
I've thought a lot about what happens to kids who don't have to exercise their brains. I call the result Gifted Kid syndrome.
I'm talking about kids who coast through elementary school getting high grades with little effort. Meanwhile, the other kids have work to understand what is being taught. The other kids are exercising their brains and learning how to figure out things they don't "get" immediately. The bright kids are not.
So when the bright kids hit subjects that are much harder and/or require a different way of thinking (algebra, geometry, physics, etc.), they don't really know what it's like to focus their minds and work hard to understand something. Many of them have been coasting through school for years, and learning to focus on something hard can be very difficult. It can lead to feelings of being dumb, underachieving, etc. This is Gifted Kid syndrome.
I think it's very important that these kids be challenged from an early age. They need to learn how it feels to work through something they don't "get" immediately. This process gives them a sense of achievement and also teaches them how to learn. Then, when they have to read John Milton or learn quantum mechanics, they'll understand what they need to do to figure out something hard.
I'm applying this approach with my kids, and I'll try the argument with the school system in a couple months when we meet to talk about skipping a grade next year.
Comments welcome.
Val
