...The whole concept of "acceleration" depends on acceptance of the premise that school should be organized around social education and not around intellectual education....
Let's start from the premise that kids will get along socially when they are around people who are intellectually their equals, and see what happens.
To get back to your original question, I believe that there is a common misperception that children who are intellectually advanced are socially delayed or at least not socially advanced. There seems to be the perception that kids of the same age are all at the same point in terms of social development (or the advanced ones are socially slower) therefore it is unwise to put intellectually advanced kids with older kids b/c they will suffer socially.
A Nation Deceived seems to have discredited this notion, but anecdotal individual experiences of some educators hold more weight in their decisions than research (at least in our experience). We have, of course, had some experiences with wonderful educators who do not subscribe to the socially delayed bright kid concept, though.
