Friday, January 23, 2009

Did you ever deal with this?

What do I do?

Even though we paid an expert with a phd to assess him; even though we had a tutor who was a high school principal and Kaz was able to run rings around him---my husband does not believe that Kaz is smart enough to do harder work.

He says that people just aren't able to pluck things from the sky, that they have to be taught it over time.

My reply is that we paid for him to be taught. And he was. He learns very very fast. He is different.

So we have the perfect storm. A genetically gifted child with a naturally inborn talent who was a completely privileged child, nurtured and taught and given every advantage from birth, (ok, I DID drop him on his head once or twice like I said) and no one around him believes that he is capable of more than any other 12 year old boy.

Except me.

I can't let him down, but I don't know how to convince my husband otherwise. Mr.C. is naturally brilliant at writing but doesn't believe the same can exist in math. Because he thinks math is a slowly learned concrete exercise. For him and others perhaps. Not for me and not for Kaz.

We suck at some things, like following directions, but abstract geometry is nadda problem.

His life would be easier if he was the Slumdog Millionaire, honestly!

Any suggestions? Ideas? Help?

8 comments:

  1. 2 ideas.

    Let Mr.Cotta try to teach him things he thinks will be beyond his grasp and see how it goes?

    Sign the child up to take the SAT (I did in 7th grade). Costs some money but would definitely prove your point.

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  2. are you trying to get him put ahead in math?
    Mr C doesn't have to be onboard with that. Or do you just want him to reconise his son's brilliance because that is a whole other project I personally would not bother with. I am having to teach a man that girls are different. I just cannot work too hard at it, he'll never get it.

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  3. Lisa, I am trying to get him put ahead in math, but Mr.C. thinks that is bizarre, like he'll fail because he isn't old enough. Meanwhile, someone tell me what IQ and knowledge have to do with age.

    Rachel, the SAT isn't a bad idea, but he wrote the SSAT to get into the school and scored as high as a Grade 12 did and my husband was not convinced. But the SAT might convince him.

    Unfortunately, Kaz already knows more math than Mr.C. A lot more. So he will be unable to teach him anything.

    but the SAT is worth looking into.

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  4. Yep, standardized testing may be convincing. There are programs out there for the precocious, and frequently they will contact you if your child does above average for his age on standardized testing. But you can seek them out too.

    Have Kaz teach Mr. C. something...have him do your taxes! Or budget for the renovation!

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  5. Kaz could probably get a lot of more stretching maths stuff online couldn't he? Must be stuff out there for home schooled kids. Or in a talented kids program - maths being one of those areas where some people just get it and others don't as opposed to humanities where I am with Mr Cotta. How about the maths Olympiads? There was a fascinating documentary about the UK team a few months ago. They were school ag being trained by professors at Cambridge. I would caution though against him being taught with kids too far out of his peer group - emotionally that doesn't seem to work too well for the benefit of the clever young kid.

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  6. Standardized testing is a great idea. But if you still can't convince Mr. C. to put Kaz ahead in math at school, then I would make it an extra-cirricular activity. They have math camps in the summer, and I bet you could find him a weekly tutor for this "hobby."

    Good luck!

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  7. Just a dumb suggestion off the top of my head, what does your husband think of movies like 'Good will hunting', 'A beautiful mind', 'Rainman'? All fairytales? Unless I'm mistaken these are (dramatized) stories based on real life experiences. More or less. They are about natural math talents, right?

    Perhaps you could get your hands on the BBC documentary series Child Genius? I think there's at least one math prodigy in there.

    I'm sure you're already way beyond this stage in the discussion, but it was say this or lurk.

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  8. I would work on a compromise, like, "We let Kaz try the harder work for a month, if he can do it, then he stays doing it, if after that time it proves too hard, then he goes back to the usual" that way it gives Kaz the chance to show everyone what he is capable of.

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