Whenever I think about advocating, I think about the HG adult I knew who rejected school, hung out with the bad kids, experimented in various substances, married badly, went from one abusive relationship to the next, worked terrible jobs due to being in crisis mode and a lack of understanding of her true abilities, and died at a fairly young age due to complications brought on from alcoholism.
And then I think about the other gifted adults I've met who were on that same trajectory, except they ended up in the military for one reason or another, and these straight-D students were tested and found to be high-achieving, they just hadn't seen any valid reason to show it in school, because school was stupid and boring.
For my DD, these are the alternatives to advocating for an appropriate education. I could see that future ahead of her the moment I found out she was pretending not to know things in kindergarten... at her teacher's orders, it turned out.
