Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Piggy-Backing on HK's Epiphany re: Challenges

This is DD's preferred method.

Heck, I get it-- this is the relatively painless way, when you can afford it. I'll just wait until it all falls into place... I have plenty of subconscious bandwidth to only be peripherally aware of the learning process, if I consider it at all, and it works just as well.



Mostly.



For things which don't have deadlines attached, I mean, and for which there are not external consequences/procedural requirements.

Yeah, okay, so this has limited application. On the one hand, rumor has it that this is how Kekule determined just how aromaticity "works" but depending on epiphany is a risky strategy-- and one that feels like it isn't an earned understanding, if that makes sense. So it doesn't do anything positive/authentic for our sense of competence/worth, either.

This is why we have tried to work on the metacognitive skill set to understand that distinction posited by Val-- that changing the HOW of your thinking is just as important as changing the direction or intensity of it.

Ahh, but according to my son, he doesn't need to check them because he makes no mistakes! And apparently he doesn't remember what he needs to do in order to "check his work."

My wife & I discussed this today and figured that he'll have problems with anything computational, like Chemistry & Physics. For everything else, he gets to rely on his processing speed and freakish memory.

Perhaps the workload of AP courses will prove taxing, but probably more related to the volume rather than complexity.

I think this behavior is normal. My 12-year-old is only now beginning to get the idea about checking his work. I typically push him to check problems and his usual response is akin to what you wrote. But recently, he's actually checked them and found errors. He seems pleased when he finds the errors and even more pleased when we check what he did against an answer key and he gets, say, 100%. I can see he has a real sense of accomplishment.

I don't think he's going to suddenly check his work as a matter of course, but I think that he's finally on the path to that place.


I steer my son away from AP courses. Why take an AP course when you can just take an actual college course? Yes, I know why people take them, IMO, they aren't generally worth it.

*Sigh*
I had a nice meeting with the teacher in her classroom today while DS watched a ball game. She's been teaching in the district for a couple decades and is well-liked & respected by even the most demanding parents. She has a solid reputation for being a hard-nose and is known for high-expectations.

Her initial reaction to my questions -- after talking about DS coasting in all his other classes; getting a "misleading" A in her class and Algebra last year; etc. -- was that she can't spend too much time & energy with our DS because he seems to grasp all the concepts, while there are so many others that do not.

In reviewing the most recent test, she said that DS missed out on some half-credit because he didn't show all the required steps. She would definitely like to see him improve his organization in presenting solutions, etc., and promised to be more rigorous in her criticism.

I asked if she could correct his homework and she said that she has too many students and can't start down that road.

She closed with saying that DS really does a wonderful job and that he's a delight to have in her class.

Dandy

In our case, we aren't near any college campuses, so I look to AP as an opportunity to expose him to some of the rigor -- at least in comparison to the usual HS courses. There's no GATE program around these parts... and no Honors. So it's either CP, with little if any ability grouping, or AP.

I could have been clearer. There are a lot of online options that may make AP less relevant for kids on the far right of the bell curve.

This has been our exact experience, with a few exceptions.

I also agree that at about 12-13yo is when my DD began to be capable of actually "checking" her work using something besides a basic reality/sanity check.

The responses here have been great as always!

As DS starts 9th grade + Alg II in the fall, he's gonna be in a sink or swim situation and I'm really hoping to get him at least treading water before then.

To his credit, after a discussion last night, he acknowledged that his A/B in math the past couple years aren't a fair representation of his performance because of the giveaway homework portion of the grade that has been masking his underlying problem.

Another email from the teacher reiterated her confidence that the accuracy on tests and the neater work habits were issues related more to maturity than anything else and that they would likely resolve on their own in a few years. (!?!?!)

The challenge for us, of course, is that he'll be a junior in a few years, which might be cutting things a bit close.

I know (or at least think I know) that he can do the work now, but nothing his dear old ogre of a dad can say will help. I've already begun reaching out to other people within his school.

The suggestion I'm running with is to lock him in a smaller box at night and also require that he work out all missed problems on his test with me, step by grueling step. The teacher that suggested this said that he definitely missed a lot of the "process" drilling during the years he did on independent study. He said his pre-alg classes will often only get one or two problems per night, but that they must be 100% complete, showing every blessed step along the way.

I suspect that I can blather on all I want about "show your work" and "take your time" but that he'll be better served by actually going through the process. And then, suspects the teacher, DS will decide that it's better to take a little more time on the actual test, and NOT have to teach his ogre-dad Geometry at night.

Along these lines, I've always been explicit when defining "check your work." My definition has been drummed into my kids: "Yeah Mom, I know: it means REDO THE PROBLEM."

IMO, a better phrase would be "Redo your work and compare your answers."

"Check your work" implies that you should go through what you wrote. This is a great way to overlook your mistakes, because it encourages you to replay your original thought processes, and therefore miss your mistakes. Starting from scratch helps avoid that pit.

Starting from scratch and using a different method is good. But not if you've been stuck with 40 more or less identical problems.