Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Rapid Acceleration

Emm. Wren used the word "rapid," which is why I was asking what she meant, exactly.

To be more specific:

"Radical" in the way HK just defined it?

"Radical" in the way Bostonian just defined it?

"Rapid" as in, to learn two or more years worth of material in a single academic year (so 2nd and 3rd grade and maybe more done in one year), maybe even after a skip?

Etc?

Val

Isn't rapid used in the phrase rapid acceleration, used to describe acceleration. Acceleration means faster. So rapid acceleration means really, really fast.

Now, maybe I am too old and rapid is an old fashioned word and I should have used radical. Is anyone using uber?

So acceleration means faster. I shall be the one, THE ONE, to define what we mean here --- so 1-2 years. Does that work people?

Rapid acceleration means 3-5 years. And Radical acceleration means 6+ years ahead of schedule.

Mark, are you going to post these definitions somewhere so we don't anymore misunderstandings here?

I think any gifted kid can do acceleration. More highly gifted kids may need acceleration and rapid-radical acceleration in the math. How much more than 2-3 years ahead needs to be in language and literature, I do not know.

I know there are a lot of Shakespeare plays to read in high school. ---just joking.

Ren

No. Acceleration means going faster. Accelerate means faster. You got it all wrong. Can we just vote on this already?
I vote No on the definition of acceleration.
I vote Yes rapid acceleration is faster than fast.
I vote Yes radical is way faster than rapid.
I don't think this group will vote anybody THE ONE,
If you don't understand watch Pirates of the Carribean
reference The Pirate King.

I haven't watched either Pirates, but I would think that anyone talking about THE ONE got it from the Highlander. "There can be only one!" Loved that movie.

Is this the point where someone gets to be a Spanish Peacock??


My DH and DD are constantly trading Highlander insults. If it isn't Highlander, it's Monty Python. <sigh>

Well, I was inspired to dig around after Bostonian's post. It seems that most researchers with GT interests define "radical acceleration" as 3 or more years.

I've not heard the term "rapid" acceleration used before. I had heard "radical acceleration" used to describe a single gradeskip, however-- context, there, being that this was a regular educator without experience/interest in HG children.

It's just interesting to me how the term is a bit more slippery than I had thought.

But since learning makes me happy, I'm good. Ambiguity is fine. I'm just nosy.

Here's something interesting.

Radical Acceleration of Highly Gifted Chidlren, Gross and van Vliet, 2004

Lots of longitudinal anecdote included there.

(Just figured since I took us down that rabbit hole, I owed it to everyone to attempt to offer something ON-topic for a change. LOL)

What about Babylon 5?

Zathras (looking at Sinclair): "Is it The One?!?"

(He looks more carefully)

Zathras (dismissively): "Not The One."

(For those who never saw the show, The One was an important theme)

A bit more seriously . . . .

I find all these terms more fluid in real life than I imagined them to be on paper when my child was younger. If a child is radically accelerated in one subject and "rapid" in another, then what do you call it? What about the kid doing college level stuff at 12 who decides to do a regular high school in order to have more sports and the social aspects of high school? Is the child accelerated? What about the kid who is homeschooled and way, way above level in everything, but claims age-grade level in order to compete in a national spelling bee? Or science fair? Or mathcounts? And then does differential equations on the side in middle school without official credit?

I think really smart kids follow a variety of paths and predicting which path my child follows is difficult from month to month, let alone planning for college for a 6 yo. When my son was 6, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to work this in the future. Should I move for better schools? Should I let him skip grades? 1? 2? 5 grades? I'm still learning, but one thing I've really observed in the last several years it that what worked for other parents and families might not work for mine. The outcomes of kids in SET or the DA don't really help me. My kid will be like those children in some ways and vastly different in others. I know his situation best and have to make decision based on what I think about him and his needs, not what worked for others.

I remember worrying whether I would know if my child was sick at 2 years old and a pediatrician said, "trust me, you'll know." If you ever touch a child with a raging fever, you know. When they are burning you, you guess they are sick! Similarly, if your child can be happy with grade level or one skip and horizontal acceleration, you'll know in time. And if your child is miserable and demands radical and more radical, you'll know. If you are listening, your child will declare his/her needs.

Ok. I booted my inner kid out. Seriously I thiNk you're talking about that young kid from revenge of the nerds when you're saying radically early college conflicts against a kid's childhood. I said this when I was looking at the unschooling crowd, you seem to want a guaranteed kind of outcome, yet you want to do things your own way.
Which, it can be planned that way. Why not? People dedicate themselves to their family and the success of their children and more times than not it works out. I'm too generous with these opinions I like to state as facts with no sources to cite. Thanks for humoring me guys.
So why, if average intelligence people can dedicate themselves to success and follow the formula of kindy at five and college at eighteen, can't average and above average intelligent people...,
No, I see you weren't looking for hypothetical. Smart Boys by Barbra Kerr describes the statistics of middle aged men from a private PG school from the sixties or seventies. These men were comfortable corporate managers, not the world-changing global leaders everybody thought they would be. Several were on their 3rd marriage (often because they were too competitive in their relationships). I don't know if that's the kind of follow up you're looking for.?.

You are right La Texican, acceleration means going faster. I was using the educational context.

And people not mapping out the path for a 6 year old, don't live in NYC where it is such a pain in the butt. I was talking to mom of another 1st grader in DD's gymnastics class and we were discussing what to do about middle school and beyond and she is got a plan of moving to Vancouver (where she is from).

So I am not the only crazy one here, whether for gifted or not.

I also agree that what seems to work for other parents and kids in DA, probably wouldn't work for DD, just from what I read. They profiled a lot of good sit and do your science research kind of kids. Not DD. She loves science experiments but tedium and repitition isn't going to work for her and science research is a lot of that.

Have you found that your kids are a lot like you in nature or not? Is that a separate post?

Ren