…incredibly curious and capable of interacting with ideas and concepts at a level that frequently surprises adults. He can easily get absorbed looking at a tiny patch of urban garden, wondering about how the individual rocks, insects, and plants have all created a tiny ecosystem. When we take hikes, these quickly turn into mushroom hunts. He regularly gets lost in books about black holes, astronomy, cryptography or deep sea fish. He is kind and has a good sense of humor — he’s developed a particular fondness for The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes.
He also has anxiety and ADHD – primarily manifested in a difficulty to get him to rejoin a group plan once he’s become focused on his own activity or area of exploration. In a traditional classroom, this doesn’t align well with a teacher trying to support 15-20 students. Unfortunately, he spent the first several years in school bored, trying to pay attention to schoolwork that didn't interest or challenge him. He became very comfortable not doing work he didn’t find engaging. For example, on many assignments (math, vocabulary, reading comprehension, etc.), he could get 100% correct, so he might do a few problems (or perhaps just read them) and then decide that he’d rather read a book or learn about something else.
