Every “underachiever” is good at and passionate about something. Sadly, despite a gifted underachiever’s interest and knowledge of game design, cloning or poetic expression, if these areas are not part of a child’s curriculum, they are often considered less important than the content of a math or science class.Without this intellectual dignity being afforded, grades lose their significance, be they “As” of “Fs”. If teachers don’t seem to care how high a child can jump, academically speaking, and focus instead on whether s/he can jump at all, the capable child often begins to feel that his or her intellect is being both denied and disrespected. Underachievement tends to be an issue of dignity not curriculum. If a gifted child is required to complete work that is tedious or repetitive, or loses credit for refusing to do homework that is pointless, s/he will begin to question the value of high grades.In either position, you tend to get a lot of attention from others-which is better than being in the middles and getting ignored. Hey, if you can’t be “first best”, you might strive to become “first worst”. However, for children and teens who do not get recognized for anything less than perfection, they may choose to underachieve to get themselves away from the pressure to always be #1. No one wants to be an underachiever. As human beings, we seem hard-wired to seek out pleasure, not pain-and being an underachiever is not a pleasant thing.Jim Delisle discusses these important considerations: Doing Poorly on Purpose: Underachievement and the Quest for Dignity >ĭr. Today we are revisiting a number of Davidson Gifted “Tips for Parents” articles related to that all-too-common phenomenon in the gifted world – underachievement.

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