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what's the answer?
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<p>The answer is that some bright learners are turned off by their school lessons. One literary expression of that idea is the autobiographical sketch by Albert Einstein he wrote for a book about his views on philosophy of science, which my dad has owned since before I was born. Other</a> writings of similar purport are frequent enough that I have to believe that this is a genuine concern, even among learners who are not as smart as Einstein. That varies from school to school, of course, and what you call an "academic slacker" who has strong test scores and low grades might be well advised to find a new school. Here in Minnesota, a late governor who lived in Europe between gubernatorial terms strongly pushed a statewide plan of open enrollment in public schools and also a statewide plan for dual-credit enrollment in state colleges or universities for eleventh and twelfth grade. I have read that his son is very smart--he graduated from Stanford Law School--and perhaps the late governor's compassion for highly able learners came from personal experience. </p>
<p>In any event, if a learner finds that high school is easy and boring, it is expedient for the learner to </p>
<p>a) find a better high school, if at all possible, </p>
<p>b) become absorbed in challenging extracurricular activities, in any case, </p>
<p>c) DOCUMENT what the learner does in free time to seek intellectual challenge (which can include taking AP tests, etc), </p>
<p>and </p>
<p>d) consider which colleges have a track record of looking beyond high school grades at other evidence of strong potential for thriving in college. </p>
<p>It is very inexpedient to have the "academic slacker" profile of high test scores with low high school grades, so it is generally to the learner's advantage to devote enough time to schoolwork to get decent grades. But what I do in the first instance as a parent is make sure my children have sound instruction in a challenging curriculum.</p>