FAMILY | on hold

twelve✔

"Good afternoon, Mr Kim," the teacher politely says to Taehyung as she enters his office, a plastic sleeve of a document in her possession.

"Afternoon, Miss De Silva," Taehyung says. "Please take a seat."

Miss De Silva sits down.

"You said you have a concern about Eunho Kim?" Taehyung says, getting straight to the point.

"Yes. I should have used a different word because it's not necessarily a concern, but I did want to speak to you about him," Miss De Silva says, and hands the plastic sleeve to Taehyung. "This is a summary of his progress report since he started. Please review it if you have the time."

Taehyung takes out the document and goes through it. He's confused at first but he eventually figures out what Miss De Silva is trying to say. It appears that Eunho is way ahead of his peers in the class work and he has even submitted a 750 word essay which isn't due until another two weeks. What makes it scarier is that it hasn't even been a week since Eunho started attending this school.

"I marked his essay because I had the time but I haven't made the mark visible to him yet. He scored 94% on it," Miss De Silva says, still blown away. "He's a very gifted student, Mr Kim. I know it's too soon to judge because today is his fourth day here but I know a gifted student when I see one. I kid you not he's the smartest student I have taught in my entire career."

Taehyung is very impressed to say the least. "How is he socially? Does he interact with his classmates?" he asks.

"His social skills are average. He's very quiet but he contributes to discussion when we do small group activities. He gives a lot of ideas and information but he never speaks in front of the class when the groups are sharing information."

Taehyung remembers that he used to be like that when he was a kid. He was extremely smart and he knew a lot but he was too nervous to share his knowledge with others because he hated public speaking or just speaking in front of the class. He always had his head down whenever the teacher was picking students to answer questions. That trick never worked, though. The teacher always called out his name because they knew he was avoiding them.

"I presume you'd like to suggest grade-skipping Eunho?" Taehyung says.

"Yes, Mr Kim. I know it's a big decision to make but that boy is very gifted. I would like to ask you if you can monitor his academic performance throughout this term," Miss De Silva says.

Taehyung hums and slides the document back into the plastic sleeve. "I've reviewed his previous academic records and I agree that he's a very gifted student. Grade-skipping him will keep him challenged but if we do that, then he'll be going into grade 10 which is our pre-VCE year. The work is more intense and the learning content is generally an extension of the grade 9 content. It would be best if he finishes grade 9 so that he knows the basics of the subjects he intends on pursuing next year. This is probably the best year for him to familiarise himself with jargon because this is like a foundation year," he says.

Miss De Silva nods, and Taehyung continues.

"We need to keep in mind that his older brother is in grade 10 as well. We don't want to cause any conflict between them by having them in the same classes. The last thing we need is friendly competition turning into something it shouldn't be," Taehyung says. "We have to speak with Jaemin to make sure he's okay with the idea of his younger brother taking classes at the same level as him."

These didn't occur to Miss De Silva earlier because she was so determined on convincing the principal to push Eunho up a grade. She feels like it's a waste of time and talent for a gifted student like Eunho to pursue an education that's below his knowledge. Education at Kim College is already advanced but Eunho's intelligence is just way up there.