This reminded me of a concept I came across today called "Zone of Proximal Development" by Vygotsky. [...]
Is this proximal development the root of the problem? Are parents of GT kids particularly good at working with their kids at the child's proximal development level and schools particularly bad at it? Do schools pitch at any child's proximal development level or are they in fact pitching work at the average child's independent work level?
Very interesting. I think you are onto something as I think the classroom environment more or less forces teachers to set work (at least individual work - group work can sometimes get round the problem, if there can be appropriate groups) on which each child can be almost independent. Although I'm sure almost all teachers know about Vygotsky's ZPD (I'd be shocked if there were any teaching qualification in which this was not taught) if there is only one teacher, the amount of individualised support s/he can practically offer to any one child is small. Something I do a lot with my DS (by accident, as it fits with the going to school by bus, but I like it) is sitting together while he works on a maths problem, e.g. in Alcumus or whatever. With me there to help if and when he gets stuck, he can do a *lot* more than he could do unaided, and yes, I think this is extremely rich learning time. The trick, of course, is to be there to help but not to help too much; I have had to learn to be comfortable with staying silent when he doesn't immediately know how to tackle something.
A trap to be aware of: when you talk to teachers about what your child can do, and you're drawing on what you've seen your child do in such a supported setting, it's easy to give a misleading impression. Even if you aren't actually called on to offer much real help, the mere fact of help being available, IME, can let your child tackle things that would seem insurmountable without it. If things you have said they can do then do seem insurmountable to them when the teacher asks them to do them independently, you may have a problem... I'm currently hoping that I've offered a suitable mix of detail and vagueness to have avoided giving DS's current teacher such a misleading impression!
