I have to think that anyone who thinks kids can’t or don’t act or talk like this kid doesn’t spend very much time around kids. Children are totally capable of having their own opinions and using outsize vocabulary. Saying thinks like “a touch of malice in his voice” doesn’t sound surprising - it sounds like the kid is mimicking something he read in a book. It actually sounds too theatrical for him to have come up with that phrasing entirely on his own. And I remember saving up allowance money to donate to the World Wildlife Fund and Amnesty International when I was still in elementary school. Kids are not entirely self-absorbed.
I think the kid is just trying to jerk around the school. It’s a dumb action for a dumber reason. If the kid really wanted to push this, there’s much more effective and less disruptive ways.
As the mother of “gifted” ten and eleven year olds…no, he really doesn’t. Gifted kids often sound like him - and it can take a long time for them to figure out that they should “dumb down” their vocabularies to fit in.
QFT. I have a 7-year-old and 5-year-old that have vocabularies well beyond their years, and it sounds very socially inappropriate sometimes.
As for the kid, good for him. I have always thought that having to stand up and pledge allegiance to a flag in unison is pretty stupid in a country that is supposed to be all about freedom and personal responsibility. I share the reservations of other posters about the wisdom of having him do all of the media appearances, but at least it’s for a good cause.
This shouldn’t be disruptive at all. The teacher should be letting him sit. As to effective, it appears to be being VERY effective for this particular ten year old since he’s gotten national news coverage (and non-news coverage via the Stewart and Colbert). Of course, had the sub just let him sit LIKE SHE SHOULD HAVE, then it would be a quiet silent protest no one other than his class should hear about.
My daughter, at four, decided to become an ethical vegetarian. For two weeks I was the most hated mother at daycare as the entire preschool class refused to eat meat because they were hurting the cute little animals. It was a very effective way for her to educate her class regarding animal rights. (However, chicken nuggets did them in. Fickle four year olds. However, she still won’t eat “cute” animals - like bunnies or lamb or veal. And I know some adults who are “cute animal vegetarians” so, while I don’t think its philosophically consistent…) We are not vegetarians in our house - though knew quite a few. She did not get this from our steak eating bacon loving family.
Yeah, that lame-ass Gandhi guy was the same way.
Frankly, I suspect that THAT kid, with that vocabulary and that attitude and (IIRC) having skipped a grade isn’t going to be more or less ostracized in his own world than he was before he did this. And being a kid, he can be protected from the larger world pretty effectively. In the meantime, he is getting taken seriously, something that smart kids find unusual and frustrating because they often aren’t taken seriously. And his parents are allowing him to have an experience that is going to be enriching for years - in cementing his values and helping him be true to them.
This is likely to open more doors and leave more positive impressions on him than patting him on the head and saying “lets not make a big deal about this.”
Colbert showed the CNN clip, he didn’t have him on in person. He used it to mock CNN more than comment on the kid, he mocked the CNN guy for not knowing what a ‘gaywad’ was, IIRC.