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I think the classroom teacher has difficulty understanding the traits that reflect the greatest paradox. Under the Possible Classroom Behavior category, she mentions that while students may appear off task, they may simply be processing differently or that the questions the student asks may be out in left field. Under the category labeled Abstract & Complex, she mentions that while these students can think at a high level, they may still need to be taught study skills and test taking skills. Additionally, the category labeled Asynchronous Development points out that while students can have very adult-like conversations, they can still react at their chronological age. Many times a regular classroom teacher is not able to make sense out of the paradox and may have a difficult time honoring the GT label. It is important that classroom teachers understand the "other" traits that make up the Gifted and Talented student and help students to work through these other hurdles that may keep them from reaching their full potential.

There are many "other" traits of the gifted student that many educators do not understand, and thus may impact their success in their classroom. Many have the misconception that our gifted learners have all the tools they need to be successful, but in fact, they do need additional support. Some students will struggle once they hit high school or even college because they have never had to learn study skills or time management skills. For some of these students this can cause them to underachieve once they are challenged because they do not have the tools to meet the challenge. This was something that we would often see with our students who came into our self-contained gifted program in 3rd grade. Parents would often question whether the student should be in the program because they were seeing their student "struggling" a little bit with the higher-level and more abstract assignments and tasks expected of them. This was something new for them as they had been accustomed to 3 or 4 years of no homework or more knowledge or comprehension level tasks. We assured them that yes, indeed, they were in the right place. I would often have students return to see me saying that the years in our program really prepared them for their higher level courses in high school. The asynchronous development is also an interesting trait of our students. In the years I taught in our self-contained program, there were definitely those students who were so bright, that even in a classroom with other gifted 5th graders, they often would prefer the conversation and interaction of the teachers throughout the day. Many times you would forget that you were only talking to a 10 or 11 year old child, but then would be reminded once you saw them interacting with their peers at recess time.