Keeping a child in school at a grade level that he's already mastered:
(1) may prevent the child from ever learn how to face difficult intellectual challenges, i.e., learn how to use his brain
(2) may be excruciatingly boring (like prison?)
(3) may kill the desire to learn
In other words, holding back a child who is capable may be worse than a complete waste of time, it's a waste of a mind. Why should all those hours and that beautiful brain be simply wasted?
The need for challenge is about preventing [potential life-long] underachievement. To quote one of my favorite passages from the GDC website:
When gifted children are not given opportunities to work at their own level and pace, they settle for less than their best. They learn to slide by without stretching themselves. Patterns of underachievement are subtle and cumulative; they become harder to overcome with each year. Students who attain A�s on their papers with no effort are not prepared to take more challenging classes in high school and college. When work is too easy, self-confidence to attempt difficult tasks is steadily eroded. A student who has the potential to win a scholarship to an Ivy League university settles for a B average at a state college.
(bold mine;
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/About_GDC/whytest.htm )
It is not necessarily true that once grown up, a person will do the same thing over and over again without intellectual stimulation. Or that a person uses only a small percentage of what they learned. That depends entirely on the career in question!!! There are quite a few intellectual careers. When I was a lawyer, nearly every day presented some amount of intellectual challenge, often a very significant amount. (And harking back to an older thread of yours, keep in mind that some of the more intellectually challenging careers pay very well.)
I feel it is my job as a parent to see to it that my children develop their brains to their fullest potential, at least until they're adults and can make their own decisions. I may not achieve my goal, but that's my goal, I'm going to try. That's my two cents
And now your turn - why should a child, who is more capable than others, be limited to learning only what "average" kids are capable of learning at a given point in time?
