<p>My profoundly gifted son just finished his freshman year at his #1 choice school, but he never would have made it there if we (the parents) had not been firm with him about his obligations with schoolwork. Sure, he was happy to spend 9 hours on a math problem, but did not “have time” for the English paper. He had the added lesson of the brilliant math student two years ahead of him that did not get into any of his top choice colleges because of his terrible grades in English.</p>
<p>Just because they are brilliant does not mean that they don’t have the same immaturity issues as other children do. They can be lazy, disorganized and procrastinate, especially doing tasks that are not their “passion”. But it will hurt them in college and in life, if they are not expected to work hard even when they don’t feel like it.</p>
<p>We motivated our son with the vision of college life, where he would have challenging classes and wonderful peers. It has all come true for him and he, as an earlier poster reported, told me recently,“It was all worth it!”</p>