This child needs to be reading the newspaper. It's inappropriate to have a child who is capable of doing Calculus still doing division. An extraordinarily high number of gifted students do poorly in school and even drop out because schools don't meet their intellectual needs. A 10 year old with a mental age of 16 doesn't fit in with other 10 year olds, nor with other 16 year olds. He needs another 10 year old with a mental age of 16.
Gifted kids do.
Because the Gifted usually rise to positions of great responsibility, even the most well-intentioned can create severe problems for our society if they are not emotionally healthy. Joseph Hazlewood, the captain of the Exxon Valdez, is an extraordinarily intelligent person and, when sober, a fine ship captain. Yet because of his alcohol problem, the ocean, shores, and wildlife around Prince William Sound in Alaska suffered irreparable damage in the worst ecological disaster of the century. As I reviewed what I had written, I realized this task was much more diffifult than I had ever imagined. Trying to come up with a rationale for services and programs for Gifted youngsters was like trying to come up with a rationale for cleaning up the oil spill, for preserving our wildlife, rainforests and ozone layer, for recycling, proper disposal of toxic waste, finding cures for cancer and AIDS, or avoiding nuclear war.