My son is 10 and in the firth grade. He is advanced in all subjects, but has a virtuoso ability in math. All of his teachers have found him to be exceptional. He has been in TAG since kindergarten, and just started participating in the MathCounts program, which is a math competiton usually for older children. He attends a public school that is quite good academically with many bright children. It's in a university neighborhood and well over 90 percent of the parents have college degrees--many including my wife and I with doctorates. My son is well-adjusted, enjoys sports, and goofing off playing XBOX and watching TV. He's well-liked by his classmates, etc. In other words, there are no apparent psychological issues.
We are not interesting in accelerating him by placing him in an older grade. With math, for example, 6th grade math would be no more of a challenge than 5th grade math.
In subjects like reading, writing, social sciences, and foreign languages we feel that he can to a great extent provide challenges for himself by, for example, reading more challenging books and writing more complex stories and essays.
Math seems to be the problem, and it's more of a problem because of his exceptional abilities. It's not just that he calculates quickly in his head--not only can he do three place multiplication in his head, he taught himself how to do it--but he has already thought up a couple of Number Theory theorems by himself. For example, if you square a number (7x7), and then multiply one number lower and one number higher (6x8), the product will always be one less that the square, 48 (7x7=49, 6x8=48).
My approach to his math education is two-fold. I would like to see him accelerated through the math curriculum. I recognize that there are topics in the standard curriculum he doesn't know simply because he doesn't hasn't been exposed to them, but I fully expect him to be able to complete the standard high school curriculum before he enters high school. Once he gets to high school, I don't see a problem, since there is a full complement of AP classes, indepdendent study, and the support of taking classes at the local colleges. In fact, the district is willing to allow him to take tests and receive credit in any subject in which he is competent before high school.
Separately, we would like him to be challenged with math problems that would allow him to use the level of abstraction of which he is capable.
We recently had a meeting with the school, and they were not willing to provide an accelerated program for him. We said, fine, we'll do it ourselves.
They did say that they would provide him with enrichment, and work to coordinate with what we are doing at home.
So we thought we had worked out a plan, not an ideal plan, but a plan nevertheless. Today, the school's curriculum coordinator called me and said his teacher felt that he was doing fine with the 5th grade curriculum, was not even the fastest student (whatever that means), and that she would not be providing any special enrichment for him.
I responded respectfully that I totally disagreed. I called the district math coordinator who said that the teacher had a responsibility to provide enrichment for all the advanced students, and that I should meet with her, which I'm planning to.
I'm actually quite angry about this teacher's mis-assessment of the situation. I don't think she will enjoy her meeting with me. I admit though that the math work he is doing in school is so laughably easy that I'm inclined to let him do it, continue with the program on my own, have him take the algebra final exam when he's ready (he's already finished most of an algebra text), and just hold the fort until high school.
Incidentally, I'm using the Singapore Math program at home. I like it because there's little practice and repetition. They introduce a new concept, and, boom, you're using it. It's the type of program where you can rapidly progress. We're starting at the 5th grade level--there are some foundational elements he neds to be exposed too--but I fully expect to be well into algebra and geometry by the summer.
I'd appreciate any thoughts about my approach, my plan, and how to deal with his teacher, who is the first not to recognize his ability.
Thanks.
