Anyways, I was shocked when she said one day, "your son likes to show off, huh? Like he wants people to know how much he knows, and he thinks his opinions are so important." ??!!?
I'm trying to understand the thought process- parents with same age kids can't help doing a comparison. And when there's a big gap, they attribute it negatively to the other kid to preserve their own sense of well-being. How bizarre is that?
I've been on the receiving end of this type of reaction. It started when I was in first grade and continued through elementary school. I'd be debating Mickey vs. Donald or talking about some kid thing, and suddenly someone would get angry and say, "You think you're so big!" Also, this one girl always got annoyed with me about using "big words."
I was mystified. Thoroughly confused. I never understood what they were so wound up about or what "big words" they meant.
I do remember telling my first grade teacher that I was
ambidextrous. She related this to another teacher the next day, in front of the whole class, and the two of them laughed. At the time, I was mortified --- because I thought they didn't believe me. I thought they were being rude!
Finally, years later, I figured it out when someone at a college where I was teaching ---
a college! --- told me that I used a lot of "big words" when I was teaching, and that my students didn't always understand me. This was an advanced science class, not a remedial course!
Well, anyway, my best guess is that people get resentful because they don't understand. Maybe they think we or our kids are trying to deliberately confuse them or show off. They probably don't understand that for a young gifted kid, those "big words" are just, you know,
words.
Maybe it would help to try to explain it those terms ("He just seems to be good at learning
vocabulary words; I don't think he's even aware that he's using "big words"). I don't know.
This has been a late-night post from someone whose cat prefers running across the roof to coming in. Bad cat!
Val
