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I was gong to write the same thing. And if I am recalling correctly, this is a private school. I can't imagine paying tuition for my child to be treated this way. Not that it'd be okay for this to happen at a public school at all but the fact that I'm paying $$$$$ in tuition would add an insult to injury.

Without going into details, I know someone who developed anxiety around age 6 because of a mean K teacher. 20+ years later, she/he is still on medications for anxiety and OCD. What I'm trying to say is that don't underestimate the damage a teacher can cause to sensitive, gifted children in early years.

We had a similar situation in 1st grade. The more I tried to communicate with the teacher, the more defensive she got. At first I was confused and dumbfounded at how and why I kept offending her. When I finally met with the principal she suggested a change of classroom (my son wasn't the first to have issues with the teacher) and there was an immediate and positive change. His second teacher did not challenge them as much academically and my DS is HG+, so we were worried he would be bored with the second teacher, but her more easygoing manner meant he could choose his own reading material (5th grade level in 1st grade) and that really made a huge difference for him.
We were all (DH and I, the principal and the new teacher)worried about anxiety at the time of the move, but it was really just a breath of fresh air for him.
In my long-winded way, I'm suggesting that you go with your gut and move him soon as is practical. Your situation reads like a clear case of "it's the teacher."

I have never been bored by something too hard. How would that work at six (I can imagine someone who has had many years of struggle having a problem).

Oh my! Just echoing the "toxic" comments. I have a child who was damaged by a toxic school situation in K. Over a year later and my highly verbal talkative DS is only beginning to tell me what happened to him. We are still dealing with crippling anxiety issues and PTSD like symptoms.

What your child shared may be only a part of what he is dealing with in under the authority of a teacher like that. We did move our DS mid-year in K and it was a very good choice to do so. I worried about how hard it would be to leave his good friends (and mine) as we had connected so well with those at the old school. We have never looked back.

I wanted to remark on the quote above. I had a similar situation in K last year and decided to stick it out because of how sensitive my DS was and how, in my mind, tearing him away from his comfort zone/much loved friends mid year might scar him emotionally. Fast forward to this year, I changed schools and I told him how I waited to move him to a different school and he tells me that I should have just pulled him out in K! He said that if he had known that he had an option to go to a "better" school, he would have asked for it himself. So, please ask your DS what his opinion is about changing schools.
Good luck.

Thanks for the input. This entire situation is unexpected and discouraging- especially as we tried to dodge some of these bullets by selecting a private school. So yes, private school can also be a mixed bag for kids.

The good news is that I have narrowed our new school choice down- the school that we are transferring DS to has Singapore math (I use some of the workbooks at home and like it), and is strong in both science and language arts. The school also has a plan for differentiated instruction and will assess my DS from the outset.

I appreciate the insights- I'm sad to hear that so many bright kids have had similar issues in early elementary school.

I've experienced this, too, though not in these same words. My DD was told to "use her giftedness" to "think deeper" about the subject/assignment/whatever.

Which is basically a way of putting the responsibility on the 6yo child, rather than on the adult educator, where it belongs.

This is another sign that your son's teacher has no idea what she's doing.