In summary, she said that mastery of a subject is very important and that a child can't move forward until s/he scores 80%+ on a subject exam. This is why she won't let him do 5th grade science in spite of his obvious interest in moving to that level.
I'm just not convinced about the need to master something before moving on. I mean, I thought that an important characteristic of gifted people is the ability to backfill on learning to suit their needs?
What about suggesting that she set a subject exam for him to show his mastery? Or could she give you a list of topics she feels he hasn't "mastered" yet and work on them with him at home? This could speed up the process. I'm guessing that she requires "mastery" more as a way to protect herself from other parents who may want the same thing, but not have the same type of student. (ie wanting to keep up with the Jones') Many teachers have had bad experiences with too many pushy parents (I don't mean you) and as a result develop rules that they apply to all students to save themselves problems.
