<p>So, I read a lot that some kids that are gifted have a hard time sitting still in class, get bored, may be off task, etc. But they’re smart kids and just don’t enjoy sitting in class with students who are not as smart as they are.</p>
<p>But, we all know from experience there are some regular kids who simply misbehave. Don’t follow rules, don’t respect others, and are difficult to share a class with. They’re not gifted, just disobedient.</p>
<p>What’s the difference, and how does one differentiate the two behaviors?</p>
<p>I see a clear difference between having a hard time sitting still in class or getting bored/distracted (for whatever reason), and not following rules or disrespecting others (for whatever reason). Giftedness is no excuse for outright classroom misbehavior, and it’s no guarantee against it, either.</p>
<p>Over half of the over 30 gifted kids in my elementary school class several years ago had IEPs, many of which were for ADD/ADHD. The noise level in that class was unbelievable.</p>
<p>E4L - Your question is poorly structured, if for no other reason that it assumes responders have had direct experience with both “badly behaved gifted kids” and “normal badly behaved kids.” Good luck finding those particular hen’s teeth.</p>
<p>As others have stated, bad behavior is bad behavior … whether the kid is gifted or not. (If you’re still not convinced, replace “has hard time sitting still in class” with “pees self in class.”)</p>
<p>Always suspicious of things that start out “So, I read a lot …” I think you’d find a higher proportion of gifted kids are NOT behavior problems. I read a lot that gifted kids are often perfectionists who are so eager to please they attempt to behave perfectly.</p>
<p>E4L… my gifted son was a real challenge in school, but his giftedness was obvious to every teacher he had. He was the kid who said “okay, I get that, but what about this, and this and this?” and never ever did the homework while acing the tests… In short, he made mockery of the entire teaching style of the day, which assumes that those who “work hard” (do the homework, do the assignments, etc.) are those that do the best. His teachers had no idea what to do with a kid who grasped the basic idea–and ALL ITS IMPLICATIONS–in the first few seconds of a class–and then tuned out (took out paper and started doodling or drawing or reading a book or something else entirely) because it was boring. </p>
<p>Once he got into gifted classes and his learning was appropriately accelerated, most of his behavior “issues” vanished.</p>
<p>I think kids in both categories are badly behaved. The point in identifying the presence of giftedness, I think, is to make it clearer what strategies to use to correct the behavior. An average kid with bad manners may just need a swift kick in the pants to kick it into gear. That swift kick might work temporarily with the gifted kid, but then the problems keep coming back and nobody can figure out why… because gifted bad mannered kid needs the swift kick in the pants AND to be more challenged.</p>
<p>Of course, the average bad mannered kid can have continuous and difficult to solve problems, too, but I think when giftedness is a factor you are never going to get anywhere until you address that AND the behavior issue itself. Sometimes finding a way to challenge that kid more is enough to make the behavior problems go away-- that doesn’t have to mean the bad behavior is excused.</p>
<p>So, what happens in a class of gifted kids with the range of IQs of the children ranging between 132 and 170?</p>
<p>Do the kids with 160 to 170 IQs get special privileges? Are the higher IQ kids allowed to be disruptive in class? After all, it is very annoying to be in a class with a bunch of dummies.</p>
<p>My son who is probably gifted, though we never had him diagnosed as such, had no problem sitting still in class. In fact, he was, and still is, remarkably able to sit still and concentrate for extended periods of time. However, he had a big problem in grade school with rote memorization and busy work. His third grade teacher (at a Catholic school, no less) told me during a conference, “He has balls,” because he would level his gaze at her when she asked him to do something that he felt was “a waste of time.” Actually, the term “waste of time” was a catch all in my house for work that S felt was pointless. With lots of patience and consistent effort, I did steer S towards a balance of schoolwork plus his own work - while still fulfilling the requirements of those in charge. He was never disruptive or disrespectful, in fact, I’d say that he was thought to be quiet and unassuming by most. However, S was not well liked by many of his teachers, especially in grade school. He was the kid who would point out that the science teacher was using the wrong formula, or tell the English teacher that she made a grammatical error. As he advanced through high school, he did encounter several teachers who respected him and appreciated that he was his own person - never a “pleaser,” - someone who was not interesting in filling someone else’s expectations. He graduated as valedictorian of his HS class and is headed to Harvard, so I guess most would consider his a good outcome.</p>
<p>*
So, I read a lot that some kids that are gifted have a hard time sitting still in class, get bored, may be off task, etc. But they’re smart kids and just don’t enjoy sitting in class with students who are not as smart as they are.*</p>
<p>Never heard of this.
While some highly gifted students have various learning &/or behavior difficulties which may present as restlessness, it isn’t indicative of intelligence.
Where are you reading this?</p>
<p>I admit that my older daughter taught herself to read at three, and I did ask the kindergarten teacher at the local school, how teaching the alphabet, working on reading and so on was structured, in hopes that it was flexible enough so that D could do something else, not just sit there and wait or be used as a teacher helper.
Unfortunately the class was 28 kids, one teacher, and everyone did the same thing at the same time.</p>
<p>I went through a lot of school being bored to death, which has nothing to do with the competencies of my classmates, and more about the way the material was presented. I don’t like lecture, I need hands on.</p>
<p>Dstark, an ideal school environment would allow kids to accelerate as needed in the subjects as they are ready to do so. I am not a fan of having my kids (or anyone else’s kids) waste time waiting for the class to catch up on something that the kid already knows and understands. For example, D2’s high school has no differentiation in English classes (no honors, no AP, etc. – everyone takes the same class). The class spent an entire class period during the 2nd quarter of 11th grade defining what a noun was. Typical for the rest of the year, too. D2 (800 CR, 800 WR, 800 Sat II Lit) was miserable. She did not act out, but I am not sure I would have blamed her for doing so. </p>
<p>No one is saying they should be allowed to act out. But they also should not have to sit and WAIT (which I think gifted kids do an awful lot of) all the time for everyone else to catch up to where they are. You would be bored (and maybe misbehave), too, if it was a chronic situation for you. This doesn’t just happen every once in a while for a kid with a 160-170 IQ – it is a constant state.</p>