Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Gifted kids and maths in the NY Times

That's why many top universities do interviews as well as encourage visits to the campus. During my interviews, which were done by post-doc Alums, they asked me a lot of questions about math, science, physics, chemistry, and computers. I had to work out problems they posed.

I keep thinking of Ren's post about your work being about your values. Does it matter where you live, as long as you do what you like? How much of our choices are frivolous??

My only worry about that sort of early specialization is that I'm not sure I want to make those choices for my kids.

I always say that my elder child especially is *clearly* an engineer, but I also always say that if he wants to do something else entirely, I'm 100% behind him. I worry that focusing so young on math and science might steer him away from a career that might involve art or writing, too, areas of study he also enjoys deeply.

Still, the idea of that kind of school is pretty tempting... As long as we're at it, could the fantasy school we're creating here involve a great art and writing program, too?

Good point, Dottie!

In 4th grade, my son's school starts to separate out kids by math ability, thus changing rooms for math. They pre-test the kids at the beginning of the year, and after a few weeks the new math assignments begin. DS was put in the highest math grouping. But on the first day, the new math teacher started by telling the students how hard the math class was going to be. DH and I just cringed. Why not tell the students how exciting the year was going to be? Why not say that it is fun to be challenged and that they were going to do some amazing things in this class?

Now when DS rushes through an assignment because it is too simplistic, and hence gets a lousy grade on a homework assignment, he just shrugs his shoulders and says that it is because math is hard. <fume, fume, fume!!!>

I would happily move so that DS could be in a challenging school. In fact, DH and I had that discussion just last night.

I think this has been one of the most frustrating aspects of my advocacy for my kids. You would think that if a kid shows math ability (in a sea of low ability--or else, lack of interest), they would be encouraged to progress...but we have not seen that.

DS (now 10) knew multiplication tables before going to kindergarten. He progressed through 5th grade math before 2nd grade. I asked the district for a mentor when he was 6 and approached several teachers/professors...probably making an obnoxious mom impression...no one was interested. His teacher, accelerated math program, SCAT test, etc. said he was ready for algebra at age 7 (3rd). Teacher repeatedly told me she couldn't keep up with him in math, had run out of material. The district said they would not teach him algebra (even if I took him to the school every day) until he was in at least middle school, meaning he'd wait 3 years! I finally got it together and had him take AoPS course as a 5th grader (so he only waited 2 yrs). I just think it's so cruel to make them "wait".

Oh my - really? Can I roll it up and whack our adminstrators heads with a copy. I was just coming online to post the same article. The question is - how long do a relatively small group need to sound the alarm before something on large scale is changed. America will return to its agrarian roots and blue collar history if we don't wake up and smell our five dollar coffee being shipped out.

I feel very lucky that our state allows partial homeschooling. I take this matter into my own hands by taking DD8 out of school for the math hour and she works at math at her own level.

Specialization does not mean isolation, but specialization does mean excellence.

The specialization needs to be the hook that snags and then drags other areas into ones' interests. I can see Math -> History (via OOPARTS) -> Literature -> Writing or Writing -> Literature -> History -> Science -> Math.

Greek and Latin are pretty much de rigeur for learned types anyway. There is no way to escape history and literature when studying these.

In any case, teaching math without applications and usage in the past is pretty dry.

Edit: Writing a sonnet or hauiku is specialization, too.

Well, in practice, specialization usually means focusing hard on one subject (or two related ones, like science and math) to the exclusion or vast minimization of others. Especially for young kids who have a limited number of hours in the day for school, particularizing early usually means you have to give up time spent on some other area of study.

And I'm not sure what you're getting at with the poetry. Writing one sonnet is definitely NOT specialization. Doing nothing BUT writing sonnets is specialization. Big difference.