Parents of AAP kids: is your kid an actual genius or works hard?

[Anonymous]

Truly “profoundly gifted” (as the term is defined) are not satisfied/challenged with AAP curriculum. These kids are truly rare.

[Anonymous]

Depends on what your definition of “actual genius” is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what your definition of “actual genius” is.

Not OP, but I thought there was a pretty standard definition based on IQ.

[Anonymous]

One of each, so far. One pushes herself, always challenging herself. Next one very bright but does not push himself so much, unless he has to. We shall see with the others.

[Anonymous]

I don't think he's a genius, but he's extremely bright and picks things up immediately. I teach high school math and in 4th grade he is able to do much of my algebra 2 work with just a few minutes of instruction.

He's definitely not a super hard worker the way you'd define it. He has massive anxiety and perfectionism so he often avoids assignments that don't have single right answers. (e.g. he writes great research papers but avoids all creative writing assignments, LOVES math, hates discussing book themes and character traits. Had an assignment in 3rd grade to write a newspaper article with a "catchy title" and couldn't even start it because the title was so stressful).

He's going to be a happy little computer programmer one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think he's a genius, but he's extremely bright and picks things up immediately. I teach high school math and in 4th grade he is able to do much of my algebra 2 work with just a few minutes of instruction.

He's definitely not a super hard worker the way you'd define it. He has massive anxiety and perfectionism so he often avoids assignments that don't have single right answers. (e.g. he writes great research papers but avoids all creative writing assignments, LOVES math, hates discussing book themes and character traits. Had an assignment in 3rd grade to write a newspaper article with a "catchy title" and couldn't even start it because the title was so stressful).

He's going to be a happy little computer programmer one day.

I sure hope so, but you should work with him on the avoiding things that don't have a single right answer. Most modern programming paradigms and languages don't provide single right answers either (though many programmers are adamant about which among the options is the "best")
-computer programmer

[Anonymous]

My take is that hard work alone isn’t sufficient. A hard-working but average IQ (85-115) student probably isn’t going to thrive in AAP, it’s not the right environment for them. A “smart” (say 125-140 IQ ballpark) and reasonably hard working student will do just fine and this profile constitutes the significant majority of kids in AAP. The 140+ IQ kids will be fine and don’t have to work as hard, but may still be motivated to put in a decent effort, whereas they’d probably languish and be quite bored and disengaged due to insufficient challenge in a GenEd class where a teacher is trying to meet their unique needs along with her advanced, above-average, on grade level, and 1-2 remedial cohorts all within the same classroom. In an AAP class, the teacher is only having to differentiate amongst her “varying degrees of advanced” cohorts, which is much more realistic and attainable and appropriate for the kids in her class.

But there are a ton of kids on the bubble who would probably do just about equally fine being amongst the most advanced cohort in GenEd as they would being amongst the least advanced cohort in AAP. And it’s a mix of innate smarts, home support / early childhood efforts, and their motivation. There’s not a sharp line to be drawn for these kids as to who should be in AAP and who shouldn’t, but they have to draw a line somewhere and it’s inevitably going to be a bit of a blurry one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think he's a genius, but he's extremely bright and picks things up immediately. I teach high school math and in 4th grade he is able to do much of my algebra 2 work with just a few minutes of instruction.

He's definitely not a super hard worker the way you'd define it. He has massive anxiety and perfectionism so he often avoids assignments that don't have single right answers. (e.g. he writes great research papers but avoids all creative writing assignments, LOVES math, hates discussing book themes and character traits. Had an assignment in 3rd grade to write a newspaper article with a "catchy title" and couldn't even start it because the title was so stressful).

He's going to be a happy little computer programmer one day.

My brightest kid is the same (massive anxiety and perfectionism). I think she's used to getting everything right with no effort in gen ed and gets thrown off when she has to work at something or very upset when she makes a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think he's a genius, but he's extremely bright and picks things up immediately. I teach high school math and in 4th grade he is able to do much of my algebra 2 work with just a few minutes of instruction.

He's definitely not a super hard worker the way you'd define it. He has massive anxiety and perfectionism so he often avoids assignments that don't have single right answers. (e.g. he writes great research papers but avoids all creative writing assignments, LOVES math, hates discussing book themes and character traits. Had an assignment in 3rd grade to write a newspaper article with a "catchy title" and couldn't even start it because the title was so stressful).

He's going to be a happy little computer programmer one day.

My brightest kid is the same (massive anxiety and perfectionism). I think she's used to getting everything right with no effort in gen ed and gets thrown off when she has to work at something or very upset when she makes a mistake.

In 3rd grade AAP both my older kids had a teacher who was incredibly used to this behavior from new-to-AAP students and really great with getting them to start moving past their perfectionism. It was really nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of each, so far. One pushes herself, always challenging herself. Next one very bright but does not push himself so much, unless he has to. We shall see with the others.

Can you give an example of the former pushing herself when she didn't have to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think he's a genius, but he's extremely bright and picks things up immediately. I teach high school math and in 4th grade he is able to do much of my algebra 2 work with just a few minutes of instruction.

He's definitely not a super hard worker the way you'd define it. He has massive anxiety and perfectionism so he often avoids assignments that don't have single right answers. (e.g. he writes great research papers but avoids all creative writing assignments, LOVES math, hates discussing book themes and character traits. Had an assignment in 3rd grade to write a newspaper article with a "catchy title" and couldn't even start it because the title was so stressful).

He's going to be a happy little computer programmer one day.

Programming is extremely open ended, too. "I want a website where I can do X Y and Z. Make it sleek like website A but not to try-hard like website B."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My take is that hard work alone isn’t sufficient. A hard-working but average IQ (85-115) student probably isn’t going to thrive in AAP, it’s not the right environment for them. A “smart” (say 125-140 IQ ballpark) and reasonably hard working student will do just fine and this profile constitutes the significant majority of kids in AAP. The 140+ IQ kids will be fine and don’t have to work as hard, but may still be motivated to put in a decent effort, whereas they’d probably languish and be quite bored and disengaged due to insufficient challenge in a GenEd class where a teacher is trying to meet their unique needs along with her advanced, above-average, on grade level, and 1-2 remedial cohorts all within the same classroom. In an AAP class, the teacher is only having to differentiate amongst her “varying degrees of advanced” cohorts, which is much more realistic and attainable and appropriate for the kids in her class.

But there are a ton of kids on the bubble who would probably do just about equally fine being amongst the most advanced cohort in GenEd as they would being amongst the least advanced cohort in AAP. And it’s a mix of innate smarts, home support / early childhood efforts, and their motivation. There’s not a sharp line to be drawn for these kids as to who should be in AAP and who shouldn’t, but they have to draw a line somewhere and it’s inevitably going to be a bit of a blurry one.

Due to issues including ADHD, anxiety and ASD/Aspie, my kids have had lots of tests including IQ tests and your breakdown is very accurate IME. My smart 125-ish DC is doing fine in AAP, works at it and is successful. My 145-ish DC didn't work at all in AAP but did stay engaged and learned, especially in 5th and 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

One was very bright the other was a level or two above that but I wouldn’t call them a prodigy. Both work hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what your definition of “actual genius” is.

Not OP, but I thought there was a pretty standard definition based on IQ.

There's a bell curve for shades of "giftedness" . But it's just named made up for percentile numbers. Genius isn't a discrete trait like having a 3rd arm.

[Anonymous]

There are very few kids who are young Sheldon level. Maybe 1-2 kids in an entire school and AAP isn't going to be challenging enough for them.