Comments on: “Let me show you a BETTER way.”

By: Ariana

Ariana — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:46:23 +0000

Rivka’s idea is brilliant. I was thinking too of having a certain time set aside for him to come up with, test, and refine his ideas. New ideas could be put in place once he’s shown mastery of the old/slow/boring way of doing things and shown that his new/awesome/brilliant way is viable.

I know I came up with a “better way” for doing math when I was in the 3rd grade. I think it was for subtraction. It seemed to work and my teacher was actually pretty cool with it but I think my mom was afraid of it so she told me to do it the “normal” way. Now I don’t remember my brilliant idea anymore. That’s my way of suggesting that you and/or Captain Science keep a notebook recording all these ideas.

By: Weekly Reviewins: Week 23 » Smrt Lernins

Weekly Reviewins: Week 23 » Smrt Lernins — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:33:28 +0000

[...] each time. Earlier in the week, it was because he was trying to solve the problems using his “better way” of doing math. Today’s problem just seemed to be that he remembered how he worked the [...]

By: Rivka

Rivka — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:18:19 +0000

Oh good. I hope he’s receptive to the idea. I’m a researcher by training and profession, so I’ve spent the last 15+ years in an environment in which the natural follow-up to “that’s an interesting idea” is “…how could you test it?” In that environment, there’s no sting to it at all.

I guess the only thing I would add is to be careful to also suggest it in situations in which his tests will probably support his idea, or he’ll figure out pretty quickly that “how could you test it” is a code word for “your idea sucks.”

By: Daisy

Daisy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:11:58 +0000

Agreeing Rivka, That is awesome stuff!

By: Smrt Mama

Smrt Mama — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:22:17 +0000

That’s a helpful and potentially very productive suggestion! See, that’s why I blog, so that others can solve my problems for me. I think this is a good plan.

By: Rivka

Rivka — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:34:48 +0000

I wonder… would it help to de-personalize the situation by encouraging him to invent systems for testing his new ideas? Maybe tie it into the scientific method, or reading biographies of inventors, or finding an engineer for him to talk to, or something.

It sounds like he gets very upset about someone else judging his invented methods, because he has so much invested in them. If he could be helped to think of it as a three-step process – first you come up with an idea, then you test it, and THEN you use it – and he gets to be in charge of all three parts, it might lessen the sting of being wrong.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:42:39 +0000

I had a discussion about this with a friend’s child who is the gifted program in a local school system. He told me that his mom had held him back from entering it for a year because he wasn’t ready. I asked him how he felt about it. He said he was okay with it because he got to relax more until third grade.

(His parents were also gifted kids.)

We talked about being gifted isn’t something that makes you special or you earned – it’s just something you were born with. It’s all about what you do with it. While I hope my kids are super-geniuses (who doesn’t?), I want them to be capable and hard workers. However, they’ll have to overcome my deep love of slacking.