I am sure many of you have had to deal with this before and there are probably as many responses/approaches as there are values/beliefs/priorities/etc. I am not angry or looking to vent but really want to consider this situation carefully by examining different viewpoints.
DS mentioned to me earlier this week that his classmates are treating him like a wizard/whiz even though he does not consider himself one. He is puzzled that they are so willing to just take his word for it when it is partly a matter of interpretation. The problem is that about half of the GT kids in his 5th grade reading/lanaguage arts group are struggling with this quarter's literature selection. Our district literally just finished creating the new curriculum in the last couple of months due to adoption of Common Core. The lexile level is probably no more than 7-8th grade but the abundant archaic and technical vocabulary and satire increase the difficulty considerably.
I am sure that DS is perceived as intelligent as he gets straight A's but then so does DD, who is actually more popular/approachable but does not get all these requests for help. I suspect it may partly be due to the fact that he finishes early and that recently his teacher asked him to help another student (a good friend of his) after he completed his analysis/work since he gets done so fast. I think his classmates also ask DS because they are afraid to ask the teacher for fear that they may be removed from the GT/advanced group. A letter from the teacher attaching a chapter of the selecdtion came home a week or two ago letting the parents know that some of the students were frustrated with the difficulty but afraid to tell the teacher and urging the parents to work with their kids on the reading selection and to reassure them that they won't be reassigned based on some initial difficulties.
I am not sure how I want to respond. I do want DS to lend a helping hand based on both altruistic and selfish reasons. It is important that he understands the concepts of community and charity towards others. Furthermore, the teacher also indicated in her letter that she would have to make changes if the text continues to be way too difficult. I am not sure what that means but it would be a big let-down for DS if the curriculum gets watered down just when he is finally presented with something that wasn't super easy for him. The teacher had previously pointed out at PT conference that this reading selection was the first time that she saw DS paused and re-read for comprehension. So from a selfish perspective, if helping some of his classmates will ensure DS gets work close to his level, I don't think I want to discourage him from doing so. At the same time, I may want to advise DS as to reasonable limits, but I am not sure what they should be. His classmates are catching him after he already completed his work so it isn't really hurting him per se.
Last edited by Quantum2003; 11/27/13 09:28 AM.
