This article and the preceding posts sums up the exact thinking from my son's first grade teacher, except I actually backed it up with an IQ test and an achievement test. He's highly gifted in the >99.9% IQ with a 99% achievement test score and yet I get pushback with similar reasoning.
Things I hear from her "once kids learn to read they all even out"; "truly gifted kids don't fit in"; "he doesn't already know x " (and will proceed to tell me how he doesn't answer every question she asks him correctly). She's apparently taught really gifted kids before and they would truly cry when they were bored. My son just complains at home.
I don't doubt that she has taught other gifted kids, but my son doesn't apparently fit the bill. He isn't particularly precocious in academics, but he's happy, we'll-adjusted and very social. He's very creative which helps him entertain himself and his humor gains him friends. He learns new things very quickly and has a superb memory. His handwriting just doesn't match up to the rest of him.
It is just this mindset of teachers of 'gifted or not' that underestimates kids. Honestly, who cares if they are/aren't gifted. If they are advanced in a subject or two for their age, give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Helping them continue on a higher trajectory is more helpful than questioning how long that higher trajectory will last. If they have been 'hothoused' by their parents, then that is just helping them achieve outside the normal education setting. There is nothing wrong with that. If a kid has an interest and the parents are involved, it's bound to happen. It's a beautiful thing. High-achiever kids just might help spur some ambition and healthy competitiveness in gifted kids who fail to find a challenge and lose interest. Parents can self-identify their gifted kids until testing gives them an definitive answer. We don't know for sure until then. It's just a shame it doesn't happen until 3rd grade.If the test shows it though, it's a travesty to doubt or ignore it.
(Caveat - my son is newly identified through private testing and he's only 6, so I can imagine this discussion will grow more tiresome over the next couple of years.)
