DD is in 7th grade taking algebra in a gt middle school program. DD took about a month to find her rhythm in middle school. She thought that the pace of Algebra was good but a little slow. I spoke with her teacher at parent/teacher conferences. The teacher said that she would lose too many students if she went any faster. She said that if DD came and told her when DD had already covered material or needed a challenge, she would try to find different material. Great, huh?

Fast forward a few weeks, DD is bringing home perfect scores on everything in Algebra. Quite frankly, perfect scores make me uncomfortable for several reasons -- lack of challenge, perfectionism, building resilience, etc. When I asked DD if she had spoken to the teacher about getting more challenging work, she replied that she had not. She said that the material that they are covering is new to her, so she doesn't feel like she can skip it. She just gets it on the first pass and doesn't need to spend as much time on it.

I asked DD if she wants to do math online instead of in class. She said "No, I like the lectures and the classroom interaction." She also enjoys the social aspect of working on/helping her friends with math homework. She said that there are things that challenge her in class, that she is learning stuff and that it is a lot better than elementary school. BTW, DD is not interested in working on her own on Aleks (or an equivalent) outside of class. She did this last year and found that it made class work redundant.

DD and her teacher seem ok with the status quo. Should I let this go until DD is discontent? My mom gut is telling me that this isn't healthy in the long run. Thoughts?

I'd work with the teacher to see about giving her slightly harder problems when it comes time to hand out work. Maybe have it part of the same lesson, but more complicated, if that makes sense. I know math tends to focus on a single thing at a time, and the problems will be relatively simple, save for the one topic they are working on. I don't know how hard that would be for the teacher though.

Is math the only class that's like this? If so, I would stay in touch with the teacher, but I wouldn't worry too much about pushing her right at the moment. Things may change as the year goes on.

Maybe I'll send an email to the teacher and ask her if she has any further thoughts on this since we spoke at conferences. I got the impression that she would be willing to try to differentiate but that she wanted DD to advocate for it herself.


DD has straight As but math is the only place where she hasn't missed a single point in weeks. I also hate that they have online access to every entry into the grade books and are told by their teachers to check their grades regularly. It's a perfectionism nightmare. DD probably would be a good candidate for a skip but she is not interested for social reasons.

Bah... I'd probably push for the teacher to do some differentiation, regardless of your DD requesting it. If she's prone to perfectionism you don't want to make it worse.

Is there an Olympiad team or similar math competition through the skill? Perhaps some more interesting problems on the side from a competitive context would help her decide if she wants to dive deeper and strengthen the utility of her algebra skills.

As far as I can tell, we don't have a Math Olympiad team or an equivalent at our middle or high school. I like the idea. I just don't know that I am up to the challenge of creating something like this at our school.

Thanks kcab. I will check them out.

Lone voice of dissent here: she's happy, the school is happy, she's getting new material that she's mastering and then reinforcing...I honestly don't see a problem. I'd let her use this as an opportunity to learn self-determination, and to decide for herself when she needs more to do.

I agree with Eldertree.

DeeDee

Can you encourage her to get onto AoPS Alcumus for challenge problems? I think it's free and you don't have to be taking a course (I could be wrong.) My son is taking pre-algebra through AoPS and it's the first time he's been remotely challenged as well. It's made him dramatically happier about school even though he can only solve about half of the challenge problems.

While I like the idea of letting things ride as long as she seems happy about it all, I think that you've nailed why I'd be a little concerned under these circumstances.

This is the exact cocktail that has led to so many adolescent problems with my own DD-- the anxiety, the perfectionism, the task-avoidance, the disordered eating and sleeping...

when she's good, she's very, very good. And when she's bad, she can look like a candidate for inpatient psychiatric care.

Definitely do NOT allow a child with perfectionistic tendencies-- particularly a girl-- to go down that road of never having authentic challenges. If it's only math, then that might be one thing, but if it is more global, I would be looking for ways to engineer more challenge into things. Maybe not with any placement changes... since as you note, socially, things seem great; but perhaps with afterschooling or extracurriculars.

Thanks for the feedback. I did email the teacher. She thanked me for my "diplomatic" email - I was going for persuasive but can live with diplomatic. I asked for some more challenging problems that fit the curriculum (or to use eduspeak, "to go deeper") and that DD be seated with other kids with similar ability. Unless DD is working with friends, she is not a good mentor with other kids. For example, the teacher put with an eighth grade boy who does okay on homework but who can't perform on the test. The teacher was hoping that working with this kid would "cement" things for DD. DD just keeps her head down doing her own work and ignoring him.

The teacher said that they have an odd schedule this week and that she would try to address some of my concerns after Thanksgiving break. She also recommended something called math circles as an extracurricular option. I only found one in the area which is about 45 minutes away and meets on a sporadic basis on Saturdays -- not a great fit for us with various kids skiing and playing soccer on Saturdays depending upon the time of year.

DD still hasn't missed a point. I'm concerned because it is turning into a weird matter of pride for her.

Well, yeah. We all post from our own opinions and experiences of what works. With any of my three girls, asking for more challenges would have been an exercise in either "Mom, I'm handling it" (first two) or sitting back and allowing Mom to do everything and never engaging in self determination (the current teen). I tend to shy away from absolutes for that reason. Most of the things I said "never" about with the first completely don't apply to numbers three and four.