Mecreature, thanks for sharing. When my son was in the 3rd grade finishing up an outside of school pre-alg class (focused on the algebra part) we were told he was ready for full algebra. He was outscoring all the 6-7th graders. As I was preparing to deal with his regular school on advanced placement, our life circumstances caused him to go 4-5 weeks with no math.
When we got back to the books, he remembered nothing. Could not even divide fractions (forgot the flip). I thought he was being stubborn. When I calmed down, started to think about the previous 3 years. Yes, he did all the work leading up to pre-alg, but he had only done no more than a hundred of each problem type. In some cases, maybe as few as 20. He just did not have the repetitions to sustain him over the gap.
I immediately, put him on a slower train. Spent a year making him redo the whole 5th & 6th grade classes (CTY). Glad we did. Realized that 6th grade is the math of normal life, and probably 40-50% of all achievement tests through H.S. Now, going to the 5th grade at school, he is back up to algebra (CTY). At school, he is at grade level and repeating and reinforcing the work he studied in advance. Because, he spends only minutes on school math homework, he has extra time for exploration. Also, he is killing all standard testing.
I plan to keep advanced math outside of school, until the 7th grade. I want the repetitons. Then, we will decide whether to put him on the algebra track at school, meaning that he will be repeating alg, geom, and probably alg 2, or advanced placement that will be a lot easier in middle school.
To some it all up, the professor has a point.
While the professor has a point for some kids, there are other gifted kids for whom the repetition is just not necessary (my ds is one of them). I suspect it's not necessarily repetition as much as being developmentally ready (and taught in a way) that a student understands the concepts.
I'm not an uber-accelerate-early parent, but there are benefits for accelerating in math if your child is capable and interested. In our district the primary benefit is access to upper level science courses.
Re the OP, I don't know anything about the math tracks in other school districts, but in our area, once you are in high school (as opposed to high school courses being taught in the middle school to honors level students), the math courses are not tracked, and course content is the same across courses for algebra/geometry/alg II and beyond. Students take them in whatever grade they are tracked into them, but they are with a wide range of ability students (although lower ability students don't typically reach the higher level courses).
polarbear
