<p>I know I got bored in school when I could read books and other kids struggled on phonetics. When your mind is unoccupied with the task at hand, it tends to wander.</p>
<p>I don’t think gifted kids are any worse than regular though. And what is gifted anyways, according to your definition? I know many normal kids are placed in gifted classes, because the parents are sure their kid is special</p>
<p>*
Just curious…does the OP think he has a gifted kid or a naughty kid?</p>
<p>You know…even very smart kids can be naughty too.*</p>
<p>Yes, those are the kids who construct a trebuchet to hurl flaming pumpkins at Halloween.
:eek:</p>
<p>Just to provide some more context - dstark, a kid with a 160 IQ occurs in 1 in every 11,307 people. A 170 IQ is 1 in 164,571. Most teachers never encounter a kid with a 160, let alone a 170 or higher IQ. We don’t have classrooms full of kids in that range chafing for more work – but when we do have one, it seems much more productive for everyone involved to feed that intellect with high level/faster paced work if possible.</p>
<p>But iq is also not fixed, it changes and test scores may indicates an iq of 160+, but then the lack of paying attention to pertinent details may interfere with output.</p>
<p>Someone who perhaps doesn’t make the intuitive connections that the first student makes, but is a hard worker and sticks through the boring parts may do better academically, especially in these days of having to not only get the math problem correct, but more important is to show how you did it.
Which my D, who did problems in her head, had difficulty with.</p>
<p>Sure, I am just getting at the OP and dstark’s comments about why a kid with a higher iq MAY have boredom issues in the classroom.</p>
<p>Sorry but being bored does not give
a kid the license to misbehave. Yes…it is good to keep students learning with things that are challenging but for the times when that isn’t happening…being naughty should not be a choice or an excuse.</p>
<p>Not all really high IQ kids act out when bored. Many just quietly read, draw, write, day-dream. I got disgusted with my younger D’s district when they refused to admit her to the GT program because she "didn’t have any problems in the regular curriculum ". yeah , 6 years later:
National merit scholar, lots of state wide creative and musical awards, …</p>
<p>And as a teacher, bad behavior runs the entire spectrum of academic ability. It’s an equal opportunity problem that we face every day.
Each circumstance needs its own solution.</p>
<p>Being bored does not give a kid license to to misbehave, but we have to define misbehave. If a kid is off task, and staring out the window, some teachers call that misbehaving. Some teachers have trouble with students who can’t sit still. The solution is not to get angry wit the kids, but to understand why they can’t sit still, and deal with the problem.</p>
<p>I’ve had a variety of accusations thrown at my kids over the years, and have misproven most. One accused my oldest D of trying to garner attention by claiming she had visited just about every place the class discussed during the first 2 weeks of school. Problem was, she HAD in fact visited every place she claimed, because we value travel rather than trinkets (no game consoles, no big-screen TV, etc), but lived in a community where most kids had never traveled more than an hour from home. She was trying to participate, and inject her thoughts about these places, and the teacher though she was being disruptive.</p>
<p>^^^^
I agree. I see 650 kids a week. Bad behavior does not discriminate nor does polite, well mannered behavior.</p>
<p>Was my kid misbehaving when he read a 400 page book in a week under the table? He had enough of an ear on the class that he had no problem giving correct responses in class. </p>
<p>Little kids don’t always know what to do when they are bored.</p>
<p>Rude kids are rude kids whether they are gifted or not. Being bored is not an excuse for acting up and disrespecting others.</p>
<p>You are correct, megpmom. But many kids with ADD or ADHD also lack impulse control. The difference there is the parent, in my opinion. </p>
<p>Situation #1: Student with ADHD and impulse control problems. Student says whatever pops into their head, regardless of the appropriatness, and is often seen doing something odd. He is very inquizitive. In second grade, he was caught in the bathroom throwing wet papertowels at the ceiling. When asked why, he said “I was trying to see exactly how much water they needed to stick to the ceiling”. It never occured to him that it was messy, and as soon as it did, he immediately offered to clean it up. He was very upset that he was in trouble, and did not want anyone to be mad at him. But his actions were not meant to intentionally hurt or irritate anyone. </p>
<p>In the classroom, the child works hard, is easily distracted, and becomes frustrated if his answers are wrong. His homework is always done because his parents look over his shoulder and help him work through his frustration. </p>
<p>Parents are apologetic and accept responsiblity for their childs actions. They work with the teachers and school to formulate a plan, continue the work with the child at home. They spend significant time, and money because they seek out additional help to improve not only the classroom environment, but the childs self esteem and improve the outlook for his future. </p>
<p>Despite all of the work the parents are doing, they receive rude comments from faculty and staff about the child, and from parents of other children. The child is excluded from out of school social activities because of his behavior, which is counter productive to improving his behavior. </p>
<p>Situation #2: Parents drop their student off at school. They may or may not have bothered to give prescribed medication to the student. For that matter, they may refuse to even acknowledge that there is a problem or accept any responsbility for helping their student. Calls from school go unreturned, and when the teachers or principal do contact the parents, they make it clear that the student is the schools problem between 7-3, and they are not going to be bothered. </p>
<p>This kid is caught smearing mud on the bathroom walls in second grade. When caught in the act, and asked about it, he shrugged his shoulders and refused to clean it up. He said he did not care that someone had to clean it up, that it was “their job”. His parents agreed with him. </p>
<p>In the classroom, this child refuses to do the work, causes distractions, and often draws on his papers. He never completes homework, and his parents do not think an elementary school student should have homework, so they do not assure it is done. </p>
<p>Parents and teachers talk about this student too, and group him in with student #1 as “alike”. He too is excluded from outside social activites, but his parents don’t care, since they think it is better for the child to run amok in the neighborhood during his free time anyway. </p>
<p>You see, megpmom, I am the parent of child #1. Child #2 lives next door to us. </p>
<p>My husband and I worked our butts off to improve our child’s behavior and impulse control. His frustration would cause him to actually growl at teachers. The best thing we ever did was start him on medication for his ADD. It decreased his frustration, and it allowed us, and the interested teachers, to work with him. But we did not depend on the medication. We did not give him medication on the weekend unless he was involved in an academic program. Or when he was going to a social event that we could not attend with him. We did that so we could teach him self control without medications, but he would have the support when he needed it, or when were not there. </p>
<p>It was hard work, on all of our parts. But very worth it. </p>
<p>I guess my point is that it is easy to say "Rude kids are rude kids whether they are gifted or not. Being bored is not an excuse for acting up and disrespecting others. " And I agree. But please consider that some of the kids out there want to be well behaved, it just takes time for them to learn it. And it takes some understanding from the community.</p>
<p>^ In my view, both kid #1 and kid #2 are acting out of line, and being gifted doesn’t provide an excuse for a kid to throw wet paper towels against the ceiling to test out an impromptu science experiment.</p>
<p>However, if some do excuse this behavior as being ok, I think the challenge is how to define what the difference is between the two, as both sets of parents likely have a neat explanation as to why the kids behave the way they do, while both sets of behavior are socially unacceptable.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Without condoning the behavior (but with the bias of having thrown cooked spaghetti up onto the ceiling in the past because it was funny to see it stick there) here’s what I see as the difference between the two, at least as reported in the post:</p>
<p>Child 1’s response to being caught throwing the paper towels up on the ceiling: " It never occured to him that it was messy, and as soon as it did, he immediately offered to clean it up. He was very upset that he was in trouble, and did not want anyone to be mad at him. "</p>
<p>Child 2’s response to being caught smearing mud in the bathroom: "he shrugged his shoulders and refused to clean it up. He said he did not care that someone had to clean it up, that it was “their job”. His parents agreed with him. "</p>
<p>E4L- did you even read the scenerios? And the reactions of the kids/parents?</p>
<p>obviously not.</p>
<p>Thank you slitheytove, </p>
<p>and the other big difference, the parents of kid#1 worked diligently to try and train/correct behavior, Kid#2- the parents could care less and did not see an issue with the behavior.</p>
<p>You’re welcome.</p>
<p>I do give parents slack when you can see them trying, even if it’s not making any difference. When a kid is screaming on a plane and the parents are trying their damndest to comfort the poor thing and apologizing to all and sundry, that’s entirely different than the screaming kid whose parents put in earbuds and tune it out.</p>
<p>Children aren’t born knowing what is socially acceptable. Adults have to teach them. In scenario 1, parents are teaching socially acceptable behavior. In scenario 2, they aren’t. Some children have it easier than others, because socially acceptable behavior is more natural to them. They never wonder exactly how much water they (paper towels) needed to stick to the ceiling They never wonder what is in that pencil sharpener attached to the wall. They never decide to test whether electricity really does live in the walls. They never wonder if fingers really are just as easy to cut as paper. If you can think up, in advance, all the things that may occur to some children (who will never misbehave if they understand it really is misbehavior) and forbid those behaviors - good luck! And other children are just going to go on experimenting with their environment, regardless how many times you warn them about the dangers, until they reach the age of reason - which will vary.</p>
<p>I see a huge difference in behavior which is disruptive and behavior which is mean. However, I truly believe some people are just born nicer than others. Some children may have to be “taught” to be as nice as we would wish them to be. That is why it seems pointless to me to treat child rearing as a one-size-fits- all endeavor.</p>
<p>Hey vlines! I had kid #1 too. OP, he is not “gifted”, but he is 19 now, and I suspect the difference between him and kid 2 (not sure about your very broad categories) is how things look now.</p>