Paula wrote:
Anyway, it's a life skill to deal with boredom productively. Who
hasn't had to sit quietly and at least seemingly attentively in
numerous boring meetings?

It is a life skill, but it isn't something that kids should be expected
to practice for hours every day. I don't send my kids to school to
learn how to pretend they're paying attention when they're really not.


I get that there isn't enough funding to help everyone, but there are
things that can be done or allowed that don't cost anything, and yet
are still not available to most gifted kids.

Grade or subject acceleration (grade skipping or going to another
classroom for a particular subject) are free.

Allowing a child to read quietly during lessons he has mastered is
free. If that is distracting to other students, let him go to the
library to read!

There are numerous ideas for gifted education in the book "Teaching
Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom" by Susan Winebrenner that require
a little of a teacher's time, but no additional funding.

Kids can be allowed to do alternate work (not more, but more
appropriate) that might be provided by their parents if the teachers
don't have the time to find appropriate work to provide. Again this is
free.

Using gifted kids as tutors for other kids needs to be approached
carefully, IMO. It risks making the child seem even more different to
his/her peers, and sets them apart in a way that becomes socially
uncomfortable. Some experience teaching is probably good for many
kids, but again, it shouldn't be the only thing they do all day.

Schools who refuse to give advanced kids any special treatment are
doing them a huge disservice. It is unreasonable to send a child to
school for 7 hours per day year after year and have them not learn
anything other than how to be bored without showing it. If we turn
these kids off of learning at a young age, I'd argue that we have also
done society a disservice.

--Robyn