<p>It’s a shame that his English teacher didn’t ask him to write what he was doing as a process analysis or game narrative instead of getting angry with him. That could have served his needs and the teacher’s at the same time.</p>
<p>That would have been wonderful, ctymomteacher. I can’t really blame the teacher for being upset that my son wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in class, though. There’s a situation in another class that is worrying me at the moment. One day last week my son came home from school extremely upset, to the point that he couldn’t even tell me what happened for more than a day. He had questioned something his social studies teacher had said, based on what my son thought about the probable range of cannonballs under the prevailing conditions. Apparently the teacher didn’t want to discuss the point that my son brought up, and dismissed his comments. When my son persisted, he said, “Not everything is a math equation, ___!” The other kids laughed, and my son felt humiliated. The teacher complained about this incident to the “gifted” counsellor, who has been working with my son since 2nd grade. From his point of view, my son was “disruptive”, and he was angry at being challenged. I’ve never heard the word “disruptive” applied to him before (at least not since the very early grades, when he was a behavior problem), and it was a shock. Teachers usually describe him as “polite”, “well-mannered”, “adorable”, and “a pleasure to have in class”. Now two teachers have become angry at him in the last month.</p>
<p>That’s an awful feeling, and I can sympathize based on personal experience as well as from being a teacher of these kids. My own son went through much of secondary school irritating teachers who didn’t care for his interests that often lay outside of the rather narrow parameters of what they had written in their lesson plans for the week, nor did they care for the fact that he engaged in educational pursuits outside of the local school system. It’s a hard thing when your child suffers because a teacher cannot be happy for him that he sees beyond the box and finds joy in that. I am sorry. It’s just not enough to say “Wait for this to pass.”</p>
<p>Thanks for the sympathy and understanding. There are actually three teachers who are becoming major problems. He’s about to be released from his science class, at our request. He’ll test out of the remainder of the material and do an independent study of robotics under the direction of one of the HS teachers. His other teachers are enthusiastic about him. His math teacher (a “super-accelerated” 8th grade class) has said that she’d be willing to teach him anytime, any subject. His math class is the only one that is grouped by ability. His other classes are heterogeneous, and include very low-ability kids, and kids who are (truly) disruptive.</p>
<p>Interesting. They sound more and more alike. Robotics was one of my son’s major interests. (I’m sure you are aware that there are summer camps for robotics as well.) Does your county or school have a robotics team? Perhaps he could direct his energies there. The competitions are something else!</p>
<p>I’ll have to see whether there is a team around here. The school definitely doesn’t have one; the district has only about 120 students/grade. I’m sure he’d enjoy a competition tremendously. Thanks for the suggestion!</p>