I Should Be So Happy About This...

Well school can be tough if kids are picked on. Give him the tools to handle being picked. Since he is quite smart he should be able to be savy in some cool quick witty responses.
Teach him to use it to his avantage. I bet some of the those might decide on befriending him if they see he is not ruffled so easily.

All three of my children work above grade level with genius IQs. We homeschool, now, but when my oldest was in 2nd grade, we dealt with the same issues you are having now. Because she was coming home emotionally upset every day, I finally decided to take her to a counselor who specializes in self-esteem problems. I realized that we weren't going to change her personality or her intelligence, and, just like if she had a physical "abnormality" that made her feel like an outsider, we needed to get a handle on how to help her feel GOOD ABOUT HERSELF.

We discovered that we needed to get her teachers on board with not having her "help" other kids, as this alienated her from some of the students. Also, we started encouraging all kinds of playdates- even arranged a class trip to see a movie for her birthday. We had to help her seem more "normal", because she already had the stigma of being NOT. Honestly, we didn't have to try hard, at that age, kids move on pretty quickly, we just had to acknowledge that our daughter needed some help knowing how to relax and just BE.
In no way do I mean that your son should hide his talents or not be true to himself!!! My daughter's friends KNOW she's really smart. But just not flaunting it, learning to "fit in", and not pushing the maturity expectations because the intelligence is high, all helped her. My kids all have friends at different levels than they- some are brighter and "get it", others are just their pals, and my kids can and do just have a good time. It's important that your son learn to adapt/adjust when necessary, but he can still feel ok about who he IS.
Also, as they get older, you may find that many of the kids who don't understand him now will catch up in the next couple of years. He will likely find one or two kids on his real level, but he may need help with learning how to connect.
If you are changing schools, I suggest you have a talk with the new teacher, and make sure that she/he is aware of your concerns. It's important that she encourages your son, without making him "different" from the other kids. This is where a therapist might be a help, as some teachers don't know how to do that, either. Also, make "nerd", "geek", etc., off limits for now. We had to stop the obsessive worry about what other people might think, and I had to forbid my daughter from focusing on those negative-sounding words, since SHE thought they were bad. Again, a counselor helped us with this.

As I said, we homeschool now. It got to the point where my 2 oldest daughters were working at 3 grade levels above her own, and an advanced classroom situation wasn't working with age/maturity levels. But all of my kids are on Sports teams, take music and theater classes, and do Summer camp, etc. We still work the "self-esteem program" for all of them. They are happy, they like themselves, and are fun to be around.
Good luck!

Updated

Your son should never hate being smart.
For one thing, kids see themselves as either smart or dumb, athletic or clumsy, popular or outcasts.
The main thing or him to understand is that he is what he is and he should be proud of it.
I was tested fairly young and then sent to a special school for gifted children. Some of the kids in my neighborhood teased me because I no longer went to school with them anymore. Some even implied that I had to go to a "retarded" school. That wasn't the case, but it still hurt.
The good thing about the program I was placed into was that we were all gifted kids so we were like a band of brothers and sisters, so to speak.
We were just normal kids studying things that were advanced for our ages.
We still liked to play and do normal kid things. We weren't aliens or anything.
Kids don't always understand how these things work, but as long as your son knows that he is right where he belongs in terms of his abilities, that's all he needs to know. We can't compare ourselves to others. We are all different and that is a beautiful thing.
Being intelligent is not a curse by any means.
There will be kids who don't like rich kids, there will be kids who don't like poor kids, there will be kids who don't like what they don't understand because they're just kids.
Your son just needs to hold his head up high and always strive to do the best work he can do and enjoy the rewards of learning more and more.
He may grow up to be a scientist or an educator himself one day.
The world is open to him.
Being smart does not make you a nerd.
My friends and I called ourselves drens. It's nerd backwards.

Your son will be fine and he should never wish to be held back because he wants to make others happy.

There are lots of smart people in this world, and we need them!

Best wishes!

I liked your title, yes, it is so great to have a smart child but it comes with its challenges just like anything else. It is very common for smart kids to have the issues that your son is having. You don't say how hold he is, but check into gifted programs at his school or there are lots of outside programs. There is a wonderful web site that addresses many of the needs/concerns of raising gifted children: http://www.sengifted.org/. There also are many books on the gifted children that provide lots of suggestions for the situation that your son is facing.

Have you looked into a gifted school? We have a few around my neighborhood. If he went to one of those, he would be relatively on an even playing ground with others his age.

Other than that, just keep telling him that he is special and that what he has is a gift. It doesn't really matter what you do in school there is always something to be picked on about. Good luck!

I tested gifted at a pretty young age, and I hated being the smart kid. I know it sounds backwards and going against his true self, but I wouldn't let him be teacher's helper next year (unless he wants to). I stopped being helper, stopped going to the lower grade levels to tutor, and stopped answering so many questions in class. I also stopped using big words in my speech. I actually had a teacher question whether I wrote an essay once because it used "too many" big words that she didn't think I could possibly know. I just told her I don't talk like that out loud because no one knows what they mean. I didn't hate being smart so much as I hated being singled out and called teacher's pet.

Starting over at a new school will give him the chance to fit in better if he isn't being singled out immediately. I still excelled at my schoolwork, but no one really knew how good my grades were. Teachers in my school didn't post or call out scores, and that helped. Unfortunately until kids get older, they aren't learning to be competitive by having this kind of stuff happen, they are learning to hide it. You don't want him to start "dumbing down" his school work, so I would talk with the teacher to make sure that nothing is being down to outwardly recognize his grades or intelligence. The alternative is a kid who ends up like my cousin with failing grades because he didn't want to show how smart he is.

I never had to do anything like counselors or anything, but I think that sounds like a great idea if this continues next year. By high school I didn't care what people thought of my grades. Some kids called me a nerd, but by that point it wasn't grades that determined popularity. I think it is totally fine to help a kid "fit in" as much as possible while still encouraging them in the areas that they excel in.

I seriously suggest you look into private schools and possible even charter schools for gifted students. I dont think it is really gonna matter what you say to him the other kids see him as different because of his intelligence and will continue to make fun of him. If you can find a school that works specifically with students of higher intelligence this would be significantly lessened because they would be on his level.

Is he involved in any sports? Does he like to ride a bike or have a favorite cartoon?

Kids like to find things that are the same and cling to that. Just like adults. When a kid is smarter then they are, they can't relate to them, so they don't talk to them. However, if they were on a soccer or baseball team together, and had a connection outside of the classroom, then they could be friends.

My son is smart. He has his strong points in school and he has his weaknesses. Sometimes he'll bring home papers with every letter of the grading scale, sometimes he does better (we have a running joke about this). He has a friend in school that is just as smart and strong in the classroom. The boy is constantly correcting the other kids or pointing out stuff out.

My son has many friends outside of school. The other boy knows kids, but doesn't have many friends. They both play video games, which can be a friend builder, but if that is the only thing that joins them together, there isn't much to do once you play one level or talk about your highest score. The difference is that my son goes outside and plays - rides his bike, plays kickball, etc. The other boy does not. He gets off the bus and goes inside.

Maybe he could pick a sport and become a whiz at player stats. Kids would have fun trying to stump him.
M.

My heart pours out to your son, some kids can be very mean. My older two kids have been very smart, especially my son. I've move the two of them around so they've had to attend different schools. I'm thankful my kids weren't teased for being smart. Most of the schools they were at, it was more of a competition to be smartest one. I would encourage him to keep doing great as a student that there are so many opportunities out there. Most certainly be HAPPY that your son is so SMART!!! Hopefully this next school will be better for him. Just keep encouraging him to be so GREAT!