Conversation

Every day when I pick up Parker, I chat with a grand dad who picks up his two grand kids, one of whom is in Parker's class. He's a very nice guy and he has tried very hard to figure out who is Elizabeth and who is Miranda. He almost always gets it right.

So today he says to me, "So what are you gonna do about Parker?"

I respond "What about it him? Did something happen with him?"

He says, "No, I went on the field trip last week and talked with Parker a bit. I didn't know he was so advanced. Are you going to get him into a special program?"

Since most of the parents I hang out with at school know about him, I was a little surprised he didn't.

I told him our strategy which has been working thus far is to "ignore it completely."

He said, "Hmmm, not sure you'll be able to do that for too much longer. I mean, he isn't obnoxious or anything but when I asked him what the square root of 144 was at lunch (trying to think of something he couldn't possibly know) and he said, after about 2 seconds, 'um 12', I was shocked. He'll need to be challenged in some way."

I said, "Yeah, but he's really learned all this on his own so I think he'll just keep challenging himself."

He nodded and smiled and that was that. Until the parents at the next school start asking these questions.