School Years and Ongoing Issues — 1

How Gifted Children Rarely Get What They Need From Their Schools

My child didn’t broadcast how much she knew, so most people at school thought she was just like the other children. She voiced her dissatisfaction with school by saying things at home like, “I don’t want to go to school today,” “It goes too slow,” and “There’s too much time waiting for everyone else to finish their work.” She thought that all of the work was pointless and spent much of her time daydreaming.

~ Mother of a Level Five girl

Many people assume that the smartest children are the best students in their class, but that assumption isn’t necessarily true. Regrettably, families often encounter rigidity when they first talk to the school about the possibility of making changes to accommodate the child’s advanced learning level. This post describes many ways that schools and the nation’s brightest children (and their families) clash with one another.

Gifted children have fairly universal, predictable problems in school, caused largely by the ways in which schools group children — by age rather than ability or level of performance — which makes school too slow and repetitive for those who are highly intelligent. The children’s level of giftedness contributes to their degree of social and emotional…