S1 came home from the first day of kindergarten and announced that no one in his class could read (he taught himself at 4). I told him that’s why kids went to school—to learn to read. He thought about that and replied, then why am I there? I already know how to read.
D1, on a standardized test In 4th grade, had the prompt: describe a problem and how you solved it. She answered I have no problems. She scored a zero. The funny thing was she never had problems because she just took care of business and said that’s how she dealt with life. And it was true.
D2 in Montessori kindergarten solved one random simple addition problem out of 20. When I asked why she didn’t do any more, she said she didn’t like any of the others so she stopped. Same thing when she started piano at 8. After 3 months, the teacher asked to stop lessons because D was unwilling to work through the beginning books and only played songs she liked. She was and is a non-believer in busy work. If she knows something, she won’t repeat it. Irritated her teachers, but if they quizzed her, she proved her knowledge.