Social/emotional things that have affected our DS (placed 2 grades ahead in math, which is not enough):
--Expectations for organizational skills are much higher for the older kids; DS is truly expected to have those skills in place, even though he cannot possibly meet that expectation. That he does not have the note-taking skills and is still working on the skill of showing work for problems he does successfully in his head does affect his grade; this mystifies him.
--We have had several bouts of "circus kid"-- older kids coming up to him and asking him to show off by giving him some hard (to them) math problem to solve in his head. IMO this is not socially good for DS (or for the older kids). The math teacher is perhaps unaware that this kind of treatment is an issue.
--DS also finds it appealing to think about how "smart" he is (not something we emphasize at home). I do not really want his sense of his human value tied to his math skills. That the 8th graders are struggling when he is kind of bored is not helpful in this regard; but there are good reasons not to accelerate him further (to the point where the work would actually be difficult, assuming there is such a point). It would be much nicer if there were a gifted math section, but the school does not offer this.
All that said, it is still the least-worst placement we can find, and I'm not sorry we did it-- it just requires continued attention to the details. (No matter where he was, he would require this.)
DeeDee
