Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments New school not allowing subject acceleration

It was not our experience that our son was docked points but it was a year plus process to get things sorted. The school kept suggesting alternatives which we would try and agree to meet again in a few months. Ultimately we had a teacher that said she could not challenge him and helped advocate. Also, once they realized we were not trying to get him to skip a grade they seemed to relax.

We were very willing to have them test him as they pleased and said if he did not demonstrate mastery then we agreed he should not be accelerated. He was several years ahead of the school program so it was not an issue.

They would often suggest he help teach other kids and we refused to let this happen on a regular basis. Good luck!!

It was obvious to us that brick and mortar school would move too slowly and too shallowly to keep our daughter challenged so we went the AoPS route for Maths after school. We started with the PreAlgebra and have just finished their PreCalc.

She will take stats and compSci APs to keep her Math skills in use while still in HIgh School after she has done calc BC next school year. She is 13, almost 14.

Were I in your shoes I would just ignore what is being offered at school for maths - too much aggravation for too little return - AoPS has kept us within the parameters of sanity.

Mind if I steal your line and use it later??? I couldn't have said it better ...

If their answer truly is that they will do nothing to support his needs, then I'd enroll him in a Beast/AoPS course, explain the situation to him, and ask him to just put up with it.

Fighting the school, telling them he's not going to participate, etc., likely does not lead to a good outcome - short or long term.

This is exactly what we did 5 years ago (pre Beast Academy).

Even acceleration using regular school maths would not have helped because that curriculum is more of an industrial ‘production line’ approach which appears designed to (or is certainly taught this way) to cater to an averagely able and motivated student.

Doesn’t sound as though such an approach would be optimal for your child either. For our DD it was tough at first because girls appear to be under far more pressure to conform and dumb down. She adjusted quickly though once we got underway.

Same here, we went into AoPS pre-algebra in 4th. The school said they would accommodate but it never panned out. Just a few here smarty pants do these work sheets type of things. We also had a high school student tutor a night or two a week to help. In 5th we switched to a private school.

Being ahead of the curve has its problems too unless you surround yourself with others who are ahead also. JMO. I say that because we did a lot of competition math.

That's a great passive response and easy to take that attitude, the problem is, it doesn't take into consideration what WON'T happen if one does't fight the school or refuse to participate.

What won't happen is nothing will change, not for your child and not for the next child who's needs are ignored. At some point, it takes a few people putting their foot down and looking schools eye to eye in order for things to change, otherwise, the school simply goes on not putting any extra effort in to accommodate any advanced needs. That seems like a pretty crappy long term outcome to me.

The school trying to prove the kid doesn't need the acceleration is a real risk and can be very damaging - going through the motions at school and doing AOPS at home often causes less damage. In an ideal world this would not be so but we don't live in an ideal world.

Agreed, we don't live in an ideal world, for that, we have to keep on working toward it by not just letting schools slide on not providing for the needs of our children.