Interested

Sparky has been put on report. Form tutor report, so she has to see her tutor every break, lunch, and after school and show her comments and scores from every teacher she's had that day. It's humiliating, time-consuming and daft. She is on report for not listening  in class.

She is a gifted kid who is bored stiff by most of her lessons, which are very much teach-to-the-middle lessons designed for 11 year olds. The other lesson she did a question that almost exactly resembles a question that was on yesterday's AS level maths paper (for 17 year olds). She stares out of the window in class and doesn't engage unless it's difficult. She's not motivated by competition, rewards, shame or simply completion. Give her some questions that are too easy and she'll work at a snail's pace, no matter how fun the format or what incentives you provide. Give her something she can't do at first glance, and she'll worry away at the problem for hours or days. She is, in essence, an intrinsically motivated kid - a kid motivated by the honest-to-goodness content of our subjects. How fantastic. What a treat.

Only nobody else seems to think so. They complain about her lack of engagement and her laziness, and her refusal to conform. She doesn't always do all that well on tests, because she usually can't be bothered and she isn't motivated by getting a high score. I've heard her described on more than one occasion as 'that rather dim girl'. Now she's on report, designed for the naughtiest kids, to try and force her into some semblance of paying attention.

I give warning: I am getting this kid, this gifted, fantastic, insightful and intrinsically motivated kid, for maths. It's now her favourite subject. I think she's as gifted in the other areas, but they see her as lazy and a bit thick, and they don't engage her. The world could do with more brilliant female mathematicians.