We did math acceleration starting in elementary school (2nd grade) for our twins, now 16yo and rising juniors in our neighborhood public high school.
DD was for many years more lukewarm to math than DS. I believe this was in part a social consideration similar to that discussed in posts above, which seem to impact girls differently from boys. DD had this party line of "I don't like math," but her actions suggested otherwise (for example: reading on her own, many times over, all of the volumes of the Murderous Math series). DD has always tested a bit higher than DS and we parents were firm about staying with the accelerated math as it was the "appropriate level" for her. Through middle school, DD was very writing/art focused, but continued to perform well while progressing through the math curriculum.
In the last 1-2 years, however, a metamorphosis has occurred, and she is now eager to pursue a science career and is enthusiastic about the math involved. She just completed Calc BC, and is eager for more math. Both kids will take math next year at the nearby uni as they have exhausted the hs offerings.
AND, because of receiving hs credits for having taken Alg. and Geometry in middle school, she is considering graduation a year early as she can satisfy the remaining graduation requirements in the coming academic year. She will be applying to colleges this fall and will decide on whether to do her senior yr in hs after seeing which colleges admit her.
Bottom line: we really didn't take our kid's opinion into consideration in pursuing math acceleration in elementary school and 8-9 years later we are satisfied with the outcome.
