It is exactly because performance is what counts, not potential, that many parents of GT kids (or nonGT kids, too, for that matter) try to optimize their kids' learning environment so that kids have the opportunity to realize their full potential--transforming it into high performance. School tests as I see it, especially at lower grades, depend less on intellectual abilities but more on being patient and thorough. I do think a huge number of kids, not just GT kids, are under-challenged in our schools. And kids who are used to not being stimulated--their minds always working way below capacity--do develop bad working habits.
I think it's incredibly important to make sure that kids have good work habits, but good work habits will be useful only when people do MEANINGFUL WORK. So I don't agree with the attitude prevalent among many schools and teachers that kids should receive challenging work ONLY WHEN they can do perfectly on the unchallenging work. I think kids should receive challenging work, and then be required to do well. And in an ideal world (in my ideal world at least), GT or not should not even be an issue, every kid should be challenged according to their individual abilities and every kid should be required to do well.
