Why do so many people equate being "bored in class" with being gifted/advanced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of people on here that claim their kids are gifted or "need" to be in AAP because they are bored in class, regardless of testing scores, reading level or other objective measures.

I don't really get it. Yes, I know that a lot of advanced kids do get bored by slower-paced instruction and repetition. I also know a lot of really advanced/gifted kids that do NOT get bored in class - they just dig into whatever they are learning and find ways to enjoy it, even if it is below their level. Conversely, I've known many kids who are academically average (or even below average) who do get bored ... because they don't enjoy the material, it's not interesting to them - not necessarily because it's "too easy".

Among the groups of kids I know - the ones that are the most academically advanced are the ones that are LEAST likely to get bored. They are love learning, and know how to challenge themselves. Say they have a worksheet of basic math facts, something they already know cold. Instead of saying "I already know this, I'm bored", they will make a game out of it - look for new patterns, see if they can finish it faster than they did last time, something like that. They are intrinsically self-motivated. The kids who simply don't enjoy math are the ones who will take that worksheet and say "this is boring".

I'm not saying that bright kids won't ever get bored, I know that some of them can and will. I just don't get the correlation that any bored kid "must" be academically gifted, or (s)he wouldn't be bored. Am I totally missing something here?

I don't think a lot of the discussion on this board about this topic really is about people thinking that if a child is bored it must be that they are advanced. I think a lot of times it's just people rebutting assertions that gifted children are NEVER bored, and that if the child is bored he must not be gifted. I recently posted on another thread regarding this topic, and maybe my posts could have come across as supporting the OP who mentioned her child was bored. I didn't think the child belonged in AAP based on the scores, but I also didn't agree with posters who started generalizing about gifted kids never being bored, and that basically any child who gets bored could possibly be gifted because they "know gifted." I find that absurd.

Yes this, exactly. I don't know anyone, gifted or not who didn't get bored in school. Some people seem to have an idealized view of what a gifted child is like. They aren't perfect and come with many different types of personalities.

Some people also think that their children's misbehavior in school is as a result of being bored and unchallenged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm old. When I was in school and finished early I either read a book I had brought from home or wrote in my journal. My friends and I would write plays that the teacher would allow us to perform. If I was interested in studying something new, I requested permission to the library.

I think one issue today is many students expect the teacher to tell them what to do. In class, enrichment has to be provided by the teacher-- students are not creative enough to come up with ideas on their own.

This is what I remember as well and I guess at 46, I'm old too. I was a fairly average/above avg. student and still remember exactly who the truly gifted kids were in class. Not because they had been identified as such, but because they were always head and shoulders above everyone else, intellectually. They were the ones with their noses in books at any available moment, never disrupting class because they were "bored".

My older kids, who were never in GT (at the time, it was still GT), were and are some of the brightest and most interesting people I know. Most of what they learned at that age came from their own curiosity - reading voraciously after school and consuming as much information as possible. I can honestly say that their deep knowledge base didn't come from school instruction at all, but from their own motivation to learn anything they could get their hands on. And as bright as they were/are, they weren't considered "gifted" by testing standards. Looking at some of the kids these days who are in AAP boggles my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dumb kids check out and feel bored too. Their parents would rather think their kids are gifted. No rocket science here.

+1

But OP, you are wrong that gifted kids just "dig in" and therefore aren't bored. I was profoundly gifted (4 SDs above average IQ) and would understand concepts immediately and get through the practice materials much faster than other students. The repetition and lengthly time needed by my classmates to finish practice work was dreadful for me. I was much happier when I got to do extra work (back in my day, we called gifted classes "enrichment" and I got to take the extra work to my regular classroom so I had something to do when I finished my normal coursework). It wasn't as much of a big deal in high school, since many courses at that level become naturally stratified (e.g., AP calculus or AP chemistry), and in my HS, I could take courses from the local university for course credit once I turned 15.

I do think, though, that some boredom is healthy -- it encourages kids to daydream, gives them time to think, allows them to relax and refocus. But a truly gifted kid will have the grades and scores (and formal assessment from a psychologist) to show that they are bored because they need more challenging work.

True - but the vast majority of kids in AAP are not as you've described. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dumb kids check out and feel bored too. Their parents would rather think their kids are gifted. No rocket science here.

It's easier to excuse your child if they're bored by saying they're gifted. If they were truly gifted they would find a way to make learning not boring for them.

A 7-year-old who finishes an entire book during silent reading time (instead of just the chapter the class is working on) can't "find a way to make learning not boring" without getting in trouble with the teacher. Have you ever been in that situation? I have, and it stinks.

Which teacher would say that you can't read another book if you finish your current book? My gifted students tend to have their noses in a book when they're finished early, or they add extra detail or layers to their work. I did have one gifted student who absolutely hated to read (or to do just about any "work"). His test scores got him into the program though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of people on here that claim their kids are gifted or "need" to be in AAP because they are bored in class, regardless of testing scores, reading level or other objective measures.

I don't really get it. Yes, I know that a lot of advanced kids do get bored by slower-paced instruction and repetition. I also know a lot of really advanced/gifted kids that do NOT get bored in class - they just dig into whatever they are learning and find ways to enjoy it, even if it is below their level. Conversely, I've known many kids who are academically average (or even below average) who do get bored ... because they don't enjoy the material, it's not interesting to them - not necessarily because it's "too easy".

Among the groups of kids I know - the ones that are the most academically advanced are the ones that are LEAST likely to get bored. They are love learning, and know how to challenge themselves. Say they have a worksheet of basic math facts, something they already know cold. Instead of saying "I already know this, I'm bored", they will make a game out of it - look for new patterns, see if they can finish it faster than they did last time, something like that. They are intrinsically self-motivated. The kids who simply don't enjoy math are the ones who will take that worksheet and say "this is boring".

I'm not saying that bright kids won't ever get bored, I know that some of them can and will. I just don't get the correlation that any bored kid "must" be academically gifted, or (s)he wouldn't be bored. Am I totally missing something here?

I don't think a lot of the discussion on this board about this topic really is about people thinking that if a child is bored it must be that they are advanced. I think a lot of times it's just people rebutting assertions that gifted children are NEVER bored, and that if the child is bored he must not be gifted. I recently posted on another thread regarding this topic, and maybe my posts could have come across as supporting the OP who mentioned her child was bored. I didn't think the child belonged in AAP based on the scores, but I also didn't agree with posters who started generalizing about gifted kids never being bored, and that basically any child who gets bored could possibly be gifted because they "know gifted." I find that absurd.

Yes this, exactly. I don't know anyone, gifted or not who didn't get bored in school. Some people seem to have an idealized view of what a gifted child is like. They aren't perfect and come with many different types of personalities.

Some people also think that their children's misbehavior in school is as a result of being bored and unchallenged.

Yep, and some of them may be right, while others would misbehave regardless. The world is not black and white.

[Anonymous]

There is a gifted kid in my child's class who is obviously ADHD and also defiant/poorly behaved in general. He is probably not really challenged in school, but his behavioral problems are not a result of that. I volunteered at an after school extra curricular activity and he was a nightmare there as well.

[Anonymous]

My DS in AAP is finished with his work way before many of the other kids. He is expected to sit quietly. Bored out of his mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS in AAP is finished with his work way before many of the other kids. He is expected to sit quietly. Bored out of his mind.

Perhaps you should look into private schools. Or homeschool. Or just send him to school with a book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dumb kids check out and feel bored too. Their parents would rather think their kids are gifted. No rocket science here.

+1

But OP, you are wrong that gifted kids just "dig in" and therefore aren't bored. I was profoundly gifted (4 SDs above average IQ) and would understand concepts immediately and get through the practice materials much faster than other students. The repetition and lengthly time needed by my classmates to finish practice work was dreadful for me. I was much happier when I got to do extra work (back in my day, we called gifted classes "enrichment" and I got to take the extra work to my regular classroom so I had something to do when I finished my normal coursework). It wasn't as much of a big deal in high school, since many courses at that level become naturally stratified (e.g., AP calculus or AP chemistry), and in my HS, I could take courses from the local university for course credit once I turned 15.

I do think, though, that some boredom is healthy -- it encourages kids to daydream, gives them time to think, allows them to relax and refocus. But a truly gifted kid will have the grades and scores (and formal assessment from a psychologist) to show that they are bored because they need more challenging work.

My ds is profoundly gifted and has never once complained of being bored. He actually loves finishing his work quickly and having extra time to work on or learn what he wants to learn. He once finished a writing assignment in first grade and used his extra time to rewrite it in morse code. He always seems to find a way to make something challenging.

[Anonymous]

I was bored at work yesterday. I doodled some pictures of my living room furniture arrangement options, flipped through some pictures on my phone and edited one to black and white, and adjusted my feet in my shoes.

Then I got back to work.
It happens

[Anonymous]

I think it's more about personalities and environment than whether a kid is gifted or not. Some people naturally need outside stimulation or environments to be "just right" others can be inside their own heads.

Some teachers, though, don't allow kids who are done with the work or who may be bored during instructional time to do their own thing. If a kid has to sit there and listen to the same thing being reviewed again and again and isn't allowed a notebook to doodle or write in or another book to read, then I could see how it would be a challenge for some kids to contain themselves.

Other kids are more physical, energetic and if bored would want to do something that lets them move their bodies or move objects around.

I would say it is a good skill to develop to be able to be in one's own head, occupying oneself, even while withstanding boredom and unable to do what one really wants, but this is a pretty high-level skill (not necessarily linked to intelligence or giftedness) that many adults don't even have.

Some of the comments here really reflect a strong bias toward a certain kind of learner/person, or lack of understanding about people in general.

[Anonymous]

My 7 yo DS has never been bored in his life. He is always doing something, even if it's something that might be driving me crazy! At school he does his work, and then he flips his paper over and draws or writes stories. Does school challenge him? No. But it will eventually. Until then, I'm perfectly happy to let him use his very active imagination to keep himself busy.

[Anonymous]

Some people also think that their children's misbehavior in school is as a result of being bored and unchallenged.

Some people also blame their children's misbehavior in school is as a result of being bored and unchallenged.
Fixed that for you.

Also, I taught in a system that had no special classes for GT. The kids who "finished first" (and they were not always the brightest, by the way) were always free to do something else: read, additional work, learning games, etc. Sometimes, the brightest kids didn't finish work quickly because they were daydreaming. Sure, occasionally, bright kids might have to sit through some repetition--but, isn't that also a life skill? I usually tried to pull the kids that needed repetition into a small group--but sometimes, that doesn't work. Have you never had to sit through a boring explanation?

And, do you really think that all the kids in AAP are on the same level? Do you not know that some of them are smarter than the others?

My mother had a saying: "Only boring people get bored."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS in AAP is finished with his work way before many of the other kids. He is expected to sit quietly. Bored out of his mind.

Perhaps you should look into private schools. Or homeschool. Or just send him to school with a book.

+1

[Anonymous]

My two cents is that kids these days are more on-demand because they are otherwise constantly stimulated, so boredom is more commonplace today amongst all students, gifted or not. I'm in my mid-forties, and back when I was growing up in the "GT" program, kids would just read a book or enjoy the downtime after finishing an assignment or test early to draw, read, work on enrichment materials, or simply look around the classroom. Nowadays, kids feel bored when they have a few minutes of unstructured free time in class.

I agree with OP that boredom doesn't necessarily equate to gifted, though I do think that some gifted kids (especially PG ones) are truly bored at school. There's only so many books you can bring to school with you each day, and after a while a kid gets tired of reading for a few minutes at a time while waiting for other kids to finish a paper. Younger DC says it's extremely annoying to read 10 pages of a book at a time interspersed throughout the day. Not everyone likes to draw, and there's only so many creative things a kid can think up on the back of a math worksheet in 5 minutes.