Fcps Options to step down from accelerated math track

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry I don't have a suggestion, but thanks for sharing your experience and your child's earlier stats. I have a rising 7th grader who qualifies for Alg 1 honors and this is exactly what I gave been concerned about. I'm not pushing him to take Alg. He doesn't want to take it yet, and we are going to respect that and request Math 7 honors. I think he could handle alg 1 hon and geom hons...but I worry about putting him on a track that has him taking AP calc BC when he is just barely 16 yrs old. That's when he may be over accellerated.

Fwiw, I've heard several math teacher in ms/hs say that they see the wheels fall off in hs for a lot of kids who take Alg 1 hons in 7th. Not all. But they advise caution. We are taking that advice.

My DS is in 7th grade and is currently taking Math 7 Honors. He could have taken Algebra 1 Honors, but his 6th grade teacher advised against it and I’m glad we followed her advice. Math 7 is still a rigorous course and will give a good foundation for Algebra 1 in 8th grade. A good grasp of Algebra is important for higher level math classes and you have to consider your child’s maturity and interest in the subject. My DS doesn’t love math, so I’m glad we didn’t push to accelerate.

[Anonymous]

^PP here, and I'm sorry if things came across as harsh. To me, over-acceleration means that the kid lacks the foundations and isn't strong enough in math. It doesn't mean that the kid is being lazy and refusing to do the work, even though the kid is fully capable of pulling an A.

It's a good life lesson for OP's kid that there will be many classes in high school and college that the kid isn't passionate about. But, that doesn't mean the kid can get lazy, refuse to do work, and get poor grades. I honestly have no idea how I'd handle having to fight with a 10th grader over homework every night. I can't even imagine that scenario.

[Anonymous]

I would suggest you look into the requirements for some of the colleges you may consider "decent". We found for DC who is also non-STEM kid that many LACs, and also W&M, strongly encouraged a math sequence that ended in at least Calculus. The best part is that he took Calc AB, got a B+, and likely did well enough on the AP exam (based on practice exams and class final that was an old AP exam) to never have to take a math class in his college humanities major.

[Anonymous]

Counselor and math teacher pressured us to move DC ahead to a faster paced class. Pressured us greatly. Said it was evident from his work the previous year to which I replied, "If that was the case, you should have given him a better grade."