So that their precocious child does not get bored in class, so that he does not face misunderstanding from his classmates, or even harassment, some parents turn to specialized schools where they can come to terms with their differences and flourish. An excerpt from “Special Envoy” of May 4, 2023.
Paco is 13 years old, and he is in second class. The young boy is not only endowed with a “high intellectual potential” (he was diagnosed with HPI), but also with a very precise vision of his future: he will make a career as a diplomat. With this conviction, he abandoned mathematics in favor of literary subjects, in which he excelled.
That day, he was summoned by the director of the private establishment (outside the contract) where he was educated. Pierre Schorter does not lecture him, but tries to convince him to overcome this rejection. Paco admits”a lack of motivation“, for he knows, he said, “that it’s not right [lui] serve to learn the trigonometric circle or the affine functions to be a diplomat“. Anyway, he adds, he does not understand “the importance that society gives to math today in National Education“.
A thesis that he will support and argue against a final year student, because after a year at Lycée Michelet in Nice – the first in France to have opened classes for these students like no other – Paco has regained confidence in him.
Classes with reduced numbers
These questions that agitate them, intellectually precocious children can live them serenely in this very protected environment, far from the “outside world, so much more aggressive and less understanding”, points to a young girl. In small classes, supervised by attentive teaching staff, they can progress at their own pace, without the risk of being sidelined by others.
“We have a certain number of children who arrive in great pain, explains the director. Often they can be harassed by their peers. They can also even be harassed unintentionally. When you have a child who always raises his hand and who is never questioned, because he is going to give the right answer, he knows, he has the impression that he does not exist, that he does not is not interesting, suddenly, he has a very low self-esteem, he has very little self-confidence, because socially, we send that back to him.
Here Paco found “people [qu’il comprend] and that [le] include”, A “united spirit” and great tolerance. Assuming his difference is now possible for him as for his comrades, thanks to the detection and better understanding of high intellectual potential. This nursery for intellectually precocious young people still has a drawback: its cost of 10,000 euros per year.
Excerpt from “HPI, business with high potential”, a report to see in “Special Envoy”, May 4, 2023.
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