So many of these stories, and that thread, are horrifying.
In my credential program they practically laughed at us if we asked about gifted eduction. "Ha! You wish! You don't need to worry about that, you'll be teaching troubled kids and struggling to connect with them etc etc." Of course I ended up teaching nearly all honors/AP and definitely had genius students I (as a newish teacher) struggled to challenge. It would have been nice not to go in with only my own memories of feeling under-challenged in school to guide me.
I recall asking for Les Miserables at the school library and being informed it was not a children's book. The first week of junior high I marched into the library, checked it out, and read it easily. It stretched me in some ways (old-fashioned quirks), but it wasn't difficult vocabulary or content.
There are several kids in DD's second grade class reading Potter now. Some parents will have them stop after a few (which I tried, but DD was desperate! And wasn't disturbed at all. She's stone cold. She loved them! But I guess she gets it's fiction. And she certainly "comprehended" them!)
