Teachers Condemn Parents Who Claim Their Kid Refuses to do Their Schoolwork Because They're Gifted: 'Your Child Still Has to do Work, Believe it or Not.'

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Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Jul 20, 2026 8:30 AM EDT
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    Cheezburger Image 10648464896
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)
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    Dear parents: your child isn’t “gifted” because they refuse to do any work. They just… refuse to do any work, so please emailing teachers asking for their input

    Your child still has to do work believe it or not. I got so tired of filling out questionnaires on suspected gifted.
    via u/Emergency-Pepper3537
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    No Karen, your child is not gifted. They're "gifted" in task avoidance and missing their assignments, if that's what you mean. But I'm
    via u/Emergency-Pepper3537
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    not going to waste my time bumping up the rigor just for skittle Tommy to ignore that work too.
    via u/Emergency-Pepper3537
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    Cheezburger Image 10648478976
    via Andrej Lišakov (Unsplash+)
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    BasketFormal6336 Hey Billy, I get you are gifted, and this stuff is probably super easy for you. Here is the thing, I need evidence that you know this stuff so that I can give you the more challenging things. Same message to parents.
    via u/BasketFormal6336
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    IllustriousCabinet11 This is the part that they don't get. I need proof in terms of work samples and class engagement. I had a student who was repeating the grade! I kept getting told how gifted he was. HE kept getting told the same thing, so he believed it. His parents came in for a conference where they said he was bored and needs to be in the accelerated class. I got frustrated and finally said. "I keep being told about how gifted your child is. The problem is that I have not witnessed it in
    via u/IllustriousCabinet11
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    thinking that my Gen Ed class is too high for him and he should be put in Basic Skills, where I do a lot more scaffolding. In fact, I've already spoken to the counselor and admin about it, and we're ready to do a schedule change." They asked for a teacher change, not a schedule change. Which, quite frankly, I hated for my colleague, but loved for me.
    via u/IllustriousCabinet11
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    Mundane-Waltz8844 D in that s ks. I lowkey feel bad for that kid. I feel like his parents were probably setting him up for a lot of failure and disappointment by just telling him he's gifted instead of pushing him to just actually do the work.
    via u/Mundane-Waltz8844
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    Purple-flying-dog Truly gifted kids will have evidence of it too, even if they don't do the classwork. My husband used to skip every homework assignment and still get A's on every test because he absorbs information like a d In sponge. His teachers could tell. He still got sh grades a lot though because homework counted towards that.
    via u/Purple-flying-dog
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    deuxcabanons When my oldest was in grade 1 I was proactive and fought to ensure that he was given opportunities for extra challenges even though there's no accommodation for gifted kids at that level. No testing yet, but he read the entire Wings of Fire novel series (not the graphic novels) at age 5. His teacher was surprised at my concern because he was consistently performing at or slightly below grade level. She said she couldn't justify giving him more difficult work until he demonstrated pr
    via u/deuxcabanons
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    When he started grade 2 I told him he was on his own for this sort of thing because he'd made me look like a neurotic idiot the year before. You want the teacher to know the work is too easy, show her by doing the d in work. Surprisingly, he listened to me for once and his school work underwent a massive jump in quality, lol.
    via u/deuxcabanons
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    Logical-Mobile-7643 Bored A lot of it is the constant overload of easily accessible short attention span entertainment.
    via u/Logical-Mobile-7643
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    Mundane-Waltz8844 Exactly! Kids need to learn how to live with boredom and other uncomfortable feelings. If they don't, then they'll have such a difficult time adjusting to adulthood.
    via u/Mundane-Waltz8844
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    Pond RaisedKlutz My principal also assumes nearly all extremely high behavioral students must be gifted too.
    via u/PondRaisedKlutz
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    eagledog Gifted at wasting the time of everyone else
    via u/eagledog
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    Sensitive-Good2448 I teach gifted - they are often the ones driving everyone crazy asking questions and researching on the side and going down rabbit holes and making weird connections - a lot of mine are *never* bored. They might be doing their own work, not yours, but are usually not bored.
    via u/Sensitive-Good2448
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    tasharanee Thank you. Most gifted students aren't bored. They're finding side quests to do after finishing required work.
    via u/tasharanee
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    bmvazquez My son was not finishing his work in elementary school and my father actually said, "Well, maybe he is bored because he is gifted." I'm a teacher, so I nearly fell out of my chair. I don't care if my kid is Einstein, he is gong to do his effing work!
    via u/bmvazquez
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    Artistic-Winter6304 My sister-in-law told my husband and me, both teachers, that the reason her son is a mediocre student is that no teacher has "ever made an effort to connect with him personally." In all his years of school. He'll be a senior in high school. I mean of COURSE it's the teachers' fault. Every single one of them is to blame...
    via u/Artistic-Winter6304

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homework school kids bad parenting teachers teacher parenting gifted
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