I know that I said that I was going to take a break for a while, but since Paolo decided to leave a comment, and because I am killing time before class, I thought that I would take the time to respond to this comment with an entry.
First off, I would like to thank him for alerting me to that entry. I know that I have some typos, but this entry was full of typos and technically crappy writing. (I won't comment on its quality.) I can't believe that I was responsible for that, especially in the entry where I mention that I might have been considered gifted once. I have gone back and fixed most or all of those mistakes, though.
Secondly, typing in English with a French keyboard sucks.
I will try to make this a little more general than a direct response to Paolo. I can't say that I like the term "gifted". It seems to set expectations that the child will be the next Da Vinci, which the child may or may not want. It also makes the child assume that he really can be as arrogant as they want to be. All the parents and teachers are pretty much saying this anyway. It's a term that is used too freely to describe any child with a slightly elevated interest and/or aptitude in something. That said, I'll just call these kids AA kids, for "above average", since that's what most people are really talking about. I was above average in school. She is gifted. See the difference?
Report card day was one of my favourite days in the year. It was like getting really good candy. It felt like a birthday. Report cards were handed out in big yellow folders with the official marks recorded on special paper on the inside. I loved seeing all those A's down the paper. You could say that I got off on it. What satisfaction! You couldn't pay me enough to trade such a feeling with anyone for anything.
I had a good friend, Lyle, who struggled to maintain a very median average. His parents, well, his mother, used to make damn sure he did he homework. I'm sure that I was used as an example of what to be more than once in that house. One day in Grade 5 while I was walking home from school with my good friend, Lyle, he asked me in a sort of philosophical voice how I "did it". I immediately knew what he was talking about, but I had hardly any reply. All I could think of to say was that I listen, read, and do the work. I just did it. By then I was beginning to understand in more than a theoretical way that "just doing the work" was not that simple for most people. I used to look forward to high school when things would get a little more challenging in school. Just do the work.
The problem with just doing the work for AA kids is much different from that faced by the BA kids. I truly expected things, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that everything in life should be so easy. When I was eight, I figured that I would have an 8-figure annual salary (and I thought that I was being modest, I mean, who makes hundreds of millions a year?), four kids (one is lonely, two and three are common, and five is just too much). I thought that I would have all this by the age of twenty-five. People that didn't have this just didn't feel like doing these utterly simple tasks such as learning how to spell the word "particular", or understand that Brockville is in Ontario which is in Canada. This is really simple shit.
Christ, what a letdown life has been since then, eh?
All kids have needs. The needs that AA kids have can often make life just as difficult as those of average kids, or BA kids. It's not about some kid who needs "more praise for actually getting their lessons". It's more about being able to be in an environment where children can actually be taught to their level. It sounds petty to people that had it tough in school, or as adults, but constantly having to "dumb it down" for everyone else gets on your nerves. It drives you crazy. And too often, it eventually can lead you to believe that things just are so mediocre, that you have little choice but to be mediocre in order to fit in, or be alone. In any case, relating to others can become quite challenging. I sympathize with those that had problems because they weren't getting their lessons, and all the issues from both kids and adults because of it. But there truly is another story to be told here.
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