Good point Dazey. That's another aspect of "boredom" in school that I've thought could be detrimental to my children. I like to think of mental effort as a habit, just like physical exercise. Yes, our kids have a drive to be mentally active but that drive sometimes needs a kick start and needs to be focused on learning in a way they might not necessarily do on their own. It takes more effort on the school's part to give our kids that kick start than the average child. The reductionist in me sees it like this: If the average child in the class is learning new material, say, 50% of the time, they get more mental stimulation than my DS who is learning new material, say, 10% of the time. (Made up numbers). In a public school, doesn't my child have a right to get just as much mental stimulation as the next child? I pay taxes, so I feel my kid has a right to as much new learning as the next kid. In reality, I know that may be too much to expect, but that way of thinking about it helps me justify the fight to get more challenge for DS. What I'm struggling with is: DS will probably never get his fair share of challenge in math in PS - I can push to make it better, though. I feel that at some point, we do have to settle for "good enough". I just don't know what that is yet.
