Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Acceleration in high school

In fortunate cases, even an at-grade classroom is just a holding tank, but the learning is quite unfettered. Teacher and administrator attitude is everything. And if parents can be supportive allies to teachers, and do some heavy lifting at home to support special requests, I’ve found the response to acceleration can be quite enthusiastic.

The criteria I formerly used to pick schools for my DS have evolved quite a bit. In order of importance now are:

1. Flexibility
2. Openness to new ideas
3. Humility

Yes, I love it! <3

Where is Trig in this equation?

Chapter 4 and 5 of Precalculus, apparently, though intro to trig functions is also in Geometry.

Two week update. A student from DS's Algebra II class claims that the teacher is announcing to his former class that he has gone from being the smartest kid in Alg II to the smartest kid in Precalc. DS and I both hope and pray that the student (whom I think is the known hyperbolic type) is exaggerating. Nonetheless, the math teacher has urged DS to apply for USAMTS. DS is skeptical, and very worried that he is hearing about this only 3 days before the fisrt deadline, but he is also irresistibly drawn to puzzling through the problems, so we will see if he decides to make a stab at it.

At the same time, he is actively seeking out answers and support at school when he has issues with his homework (I couldn't refresh myself on synthetic division fast enough to help guide him through an exercise that was getting an unexpected answer, so he opted to ask for help at school -- and came back having clarified and solidified the concept!) THIS above all is the outcome I'd have hoped from this shift.

I'm feeling more zen again. We'll cross future math and other subject acceleration bridges when we come to them. For now, I love seeing this kid mature. Surprises at every step.

Enjoying puzzling pretty much describes an ideal math experience, IMO. Sounds like the teacher is an enthusiastic evangelist for your DS, but might want to tone it down a hair. Altogether, it’s not a bad problem to have. Thanks for the update and best wishes.

Happy to hear this! I would agree that the growth in active learner behaviors is the best thing about it.

And yup, there's a fine line between a great teacher advocate and maybe a little too much positive attention! But better this extreme than the other, right?

Yes, I still don't entirely know what to think of this teacher. Our first interaction with him was when he tried to form an AMC team virtually last year, and my kids dabbled but ultimately stopped attending his meetings. But I am pretty sure the Alg II student is making things up about the teacher promoting DS behind his back. I do feel from the USAMTS suggestion that the teacher really appreciates and wants to encourage my kid, and I'm grateful, but a little overwhelmed that he's putting so much on him! Still, my DS doesn't seem too stressed by the expectations. He rolled his eyes at the USAMTS but can't seem to stop working on it. Still, he's only solved 1.5 or 2 problems so far out of 5, so it's doubtful he'll get enough correct answers in the next 24-ish hours to rank well. But if he gets another set of problems in the next round and enjoys those too, it'll be worth it.

All I know is that I'm seeing the kid I knew back in fourth grade, curious and intuitive and willing to use all the resources at his disposal, even if it means admitting he didn't get it on the first try, and I like it.

...doing math for the joy of it!