Overall, I'd say that being exposed to material that isn't all a cake walk for her and having friends who are better than her in some areas has significantly decreased her expectation of herself that she should be the best at everything with no work.
MWM4 - I predict that you will be doing some 'catch up reading' on this forum sometime soon. try searching the terms: Perfectionism, Immature, Emotional, Intense.
Also try and see if you can find Dottie's son's story - it started with a Math skip, but....
Children can not be expected to deal gracefully with their weaknesses unless they get lots of opportunities to encounter them. Art class just isn't enough. Most kids encounter their weakness many times per hour, and come to the conclusion that they are developing creatures and that that is ok.
Last time I explained to DS that I didn't expect him to understand why I was disiplining him, and that I believed he would understand when he was a little older, he responded: "Well you don't have to insult me!"
As much as I've tried, he is only just starting, at age 14, to understand that he doesn't know everything, and shouldn't expect himself to.
So yes, there are many stories here of kids for whom perfectionistic behaviors are the #1 sign that the adults MUST up the ante in the academic challenge department. Based on the emotions piece, I'm thinking that if the principle offers a full skip, take it.
Most likely the principle will want to offer a 'test run' of any intervention you try - so you can try for 6 weeks and then evaluate how your individual flesh and blood child is doing with whatever intervention they try.
Smiles,
Grinity
