Originally Posted by ultramarina
Yes, I was trying to point out that this could be possible...also, if another child in the family has extreme math talent, or you do yourself, it's all too easy to consider another child with quite a bit of talent not "mathy." And as bluemagic points out, the long game is hard to see sometimes. This is part of why I feel uncertain about my DD. I may be underestimating her or not seeing the long game. Also, she has been at school with some 99.9 kids for sure.

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I have to sit down and explain deeper connections and sometimes even basic principles to her

Perhaps this is the fault of teaching.

Point taken. I don't mean that DD has no math ability as she should be in the top 1%-2% (by grades & standardized test scores) in her class of almost 400 6th graders, only that she is not at the extreme right in ability or passion. DD has enough ability to do whatever she chooses but her chances of achieving the extraordinary is less likely to lie in the math area as in some other domains.

I do hesitate to blame bad teaching in general. It really isn't always the teacher's fault. Sometimes the kid just doesn't get it right away or doesn't bother to think about it and make connections. If a bunch of other kids understands and assimilates the material, then the teacher likely did a decent job. Perhaps it is the cautionary effects of having had twins who were in the same classes throughout elementary and still share some classes and/or teachers in middle school: Sometimes I would have had a complete misunderstanding of a particular teacher if I only had one kid or the other in the class. For example, I might have thought a particular teacher almost never gave homework (DS) or gave way too much homework (DD) at times. DS can squeeze in a ton of work in a short amount of time and does whereas DD sometimes re-does classwork and produces a way more elaborate job than the homework the teacher actually assigned.

Last edited by Quantum2003; 06/09/15 10:54 AM.