Just had another of those "we don't believe in acceleration" conversations with a member of staff at a school DS8 may possibly go to when he's 13. (This one says with some justification "we believe we have the best maths department in the country". It has some disadvantages, but our not having thought about it was looking remiss.) I had asked for some practical information about the school and mentioned (really, to see what reaction we got if any) that we'd also need at some point to talk about what they do with children who arrive having completed the usual school maths syllabuses. Apparently there's an email in the system from the head of maths which I haven't seen yet. Maybe the email will be reasonable... but the version I was given in the phone call was not encouraging.
I mean, I know, I know, and come to that you all know I know, how important it is for children to work on hard problems and do enrichment and all that. But DS has 5.5 years to go at his current school, and the amount of maths in the school syllabuses that he doesn't know yet is usually taught in less than 2. How do they think I can prevent him learning 2 years' worth of maths in 5.5 years? When he was 2, I gave up the idea that I could prevent him from learning to read before he started school, because he was reading anyway. This feels just like that. It doesn't seem possible to do in a way that wouldn't involve depriving him.
So far this school year he has, in fact, learned almost no new material - at school they've been having him work on scholarship papers (including the ones from the school I was talking to), which are quite nice as they're based on elementary material (normally taught to children 13 and under), but have stretching questions. That's fine, very sensible, but he can't do it for 5 years, and he was already hankering after a good chunk of new stuff. So, given that he's on holiday this week, I offered him the ALEKS high school geometry course alongside all the lego, trains, playing outside, reading, piano practice etc. Having started it on Saturday, he'll pretty clearly finish it this weekend. So should I not have offered it? Maybe, but he's enjoyed it, and it's been useful to have it in the holiday mix - and supposing I hadn't, I can't really feel that saving that few hours' work for later would really have made all that much difference... but all there is to come in the school syllabuses would fit into perhaps 8 such weeks for him.
And breathe...
Last edited by ColinsMum; 02/16/12 04:31 PM. Reason: wouldn't do to have an apostrophe missing from one's rant
