Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion APS article on math ed: A Math Paradox

I just read this thread with great interest. I have a technical/math background as well and am homeschooling an up and coming 3rd grader. I have a BS in math, took grad level math, and have never had a graphing calculator! I guess that would make me mostly in the anti-calculator camp.

I do think the article has some valid points for the ND child. Of course, YMMV when you're dealing with a HG+ child. I do think in the average classroom pre-algebra operations should be quite automatic by the time you're getting to algebra and that conceptual understanding should be there.

We are using Singapore at home. We'll come to the end of the elementary Singapore series this year some time and then we'll have some tough decisions to make! I have been introducing pieces of algebra as we go along, but am really dragging my feet getting to "real" algebra. I guess it's the traditional math student in me that wants him to have the very solid math grounding before we get there.

Also, sign me up to teach math in a few years! I would love it. I love math too.

This is why many rigorous math programs now require a year of Logic or its equivalent before starting Real Analysis. There is not a lot of difference between reading proofs and reading essays. At least, if the essays are logically written. This is why I believe that high verbal ability lends itself well to math achievement.

I really like this! It'd be great to have the option to compress the elementary math and then use that time to expand time spent on things like geometry, problem solving, and logic.

Inky, that's to a great extent why we're homeschooling. I still feel like we're wandering in the dark sometimes, but for my deep-but-not-fast kid, doing harder math and doing it for longer makes sense.

Anyone have a way to do that within a bricks-and-mortar school? I'm curious about other solutions that use a similar approach.

Austin - I read the very same thing on another website re: high verbal ability and math achievement. Because my son had always seem mathy (although not to the level of many here), I had expected his PRI to be greater than VCI on WISCIV. His VCI blew his PRI out of the water. He grasps algebraic concepts easily and makes those leaps of thought which makes me go "hhhmmm." But give him a page of computation and he's under the table. ha ha ha. It took reading "Math Talent" to get over my thoughts that math-talented kids are fast at computation, can hold a ton of numbers in their head...I know they often are but they don't have to be.

Dazey

Finding a good teacher. My dd9 has been very fortunate this year to get a teacher who gets her and LOGs. A couple of weeks into the school year he noticed that her rate of learning was faster than that of the other kids in his class (7/8th graders). He decided that she could cover the whole years' material in a couple of months, so he is letting her go "as fast as she wants but as slow as she needs" (meaning she doesn't have to slow down to wait for the other students but if she has problem with a concept she can take all the time she needs). He decided that bumping her another year would not solve the problem as she would be in the same situation in a couple of months. Instead, he is giving her and another kid individualized work within the classroom. He is allowing them to go deeper into the subject and spending a lot of time on problem solving. My dd has been accelerated in math since 1sth grade (3 years so far), but she always had to stick with the class until now, which meant a lot of waiting (although she had a great 2nd great teacher who was wonderful about teaching them advanced concepts). Now for the first time, she is allowed to go at her own pace. This year she is really enjoying math. Her school teaches up to calculus AB in middle school, so we may have some of the same problems Ania is having, but we will have to cross that bridge when we get there. With any luck we will find a HS that offers advanced math work (Exeter seems to be the favorite right now). I really don't want her to attend college courses until she is in college....

Bianca, funny you metioned Exeter Check my other posts.

kcab - my "not mathy" DD 12 (who is still the best student in her Algebra 1 class) is starting an AOPS class this week. I will let you know how it goes...keeping my fingers crossed...and I am very thankful for their very generous withdrawal policy

Hey... funny you BOTH mention Exeter!

I haven't (yet?) regretted the rush to Algebra, but then a) we're homeschooling, so logistics isn't a problem and b) once we got to algebra we had so much more we could "wallow" in that we haven't kept up the pace and I'm saving as much regular math as possible for as long as possible.

We generally alternate years between regular math courses and interesting side things (Algebra/ Statistics/ Geometry/ Number Theory? that's next year...) in an effort to keep from hitting every single topic on the standard scope and sequence before high school...... But one of my backup plans is boarding school. Exeter looks fascinating for many reasons... but especially that they seem to have a really high "ceiling" on their math possibilities.

Here are some ideas from Developing Math talent (Davidson recommends this book)

accelerate students who have mastered computation, Include open-ended problems and projects that challenge able students to keep their interest in the subject.

enrichment topics:
Fractals and chaos
the Pythagorean theorem and Triples
Fibonacci Numbers
Finite differences
Pascal's triangle
Golden triangles
magic Squares
Other numerical systems (Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan, Roman, ect.
Pi
Topology
Pendulum and other applied physical problems
Transformational geometry
Combinatorics
Graph theory
Computer programming and robotics, including Logo and Lego- logo

Hope this helps. I don't even know what most of this means but I have in mind to pace my DS by giving him some programming to do at school to replace some of the repetions in work he doesn't need. I'm hoping I can make this work.

Feeling dumb, but what's Exeter? Where is it?

If all of you are excited about it, it sounds like something good! I trust your judgement!

Thanks for the recs, CFK and onthegomom. We've already done several of the enrichment topics, but not most of them. And the book is new to me. Good stuff!