<p>I don’t see that people are expecting gifted kids to “get a pass”, but the truth is, much homework is boring, repetitive busy work. There is absolutely no reason for a student to do 50 problems, when he understands the concept in 10. The other 40 problems are simply a waste of time.</p>
<p>To the OP, retention is quite out of fashion, except after Kindergarten, or when transitioning from public to private school for a chronologically young student (in 6th or 9th grade). Other than that, the research on retention doesn’t seem to indicate that it is really beneficial for most kids.</p>