I also think that so much readily available recreation makes it less likely that a child will delve deep into interests on their own. Why study physics when you can pay videogames?
Becuase you like physics? Honestly, this sounds a lot like the kind of comments we hear that refer to our physics/math/computer/chemistry loving kids as weird because they choose those subjects over videogames. Recreation has always been readily available in some form or another. If a person is passionate about and driven to learn physics, then learning physics
is their recreation. I don't think that has changed over time.
Well...this idea really gets at the heart of the teacher's mistaken assumptions. She complains that it's important to let kids be kids, but fails to recognize that some kids just like science, or math or whatever.
Fourth ...and lastly let your child be a child.... don't single them out as better than other children....
It bothers me when teachers decide that there's a certain way of being a kid, and all other ways are somehow incorrect or due to parental pushing or whatever.
It bothers me even more that "learns faster" is being equated with "better." I don't even know that means, but I'm definitely tired of it. Sometimes I wonder if there's some resentment going on (?). Please correct me if I'm wrong.
FWIW, I spent a lot of time wanting to be "normal" when I was a kid and not understanding why I couldn't be. I hated being different, and looking back on it, I understand that part of the problem was that being different (in my case, thinking differently) just wasn't allowed.
It seems to me that this person's wants to to force highly gifted kids to be people they aren't --- which sounds a lot more damaging than watching
Nova.
Schools of education put a lot of emphasis on "diversity" and accepting (even celebrating) differences between, say, ethnically diverse kids. This is nice, but does anyone find it interesting that the idea doesn't seem to extend to gifted kids?
I have to add that I completely understand complaints about parental pushiness. I've seen it (mostly in athletics, though many parents in New York hire coaches to boost standardized test scores for their toddlers). But a responsible teacher should be able to use her diversity training to recognize another type of difference.
Val
