S/O What are the major parenting "you do what??" triggers

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:People who spend a lot of their spare time doing math enrichment and math summer school and then complain the school math curriculum is "too slow" or not advanced enough for their math genius. If they need all that extra tutoring and time, they aren't that advanced.

So I get that those parents are annoying when they complain, but math education in this country is really slow compared to some other countries. And it translates into U.S. kids not being able to fill the high demand for quantitative jobs. When we recruit for quant positions, 75% of the candidates that pass the initial HR screen did K-12 in a foreign country.

Some parents think that the public school math curriculum is just not age appropriate - they worry that they're wasting their kid's potential by not teaching them early. The only "solution" I really see if to have multiple tracks for math from early on (because some kids struggle with the pace of the school math curriculum) but there are definitely other concerns with that.

We aren't going to have multiple tracks here. The US educational system isn't going to please everyone. People have to take the good with the bad and adapt.

We already do - some kids take algebra 1 in 9th or even later, some in 8th, others in 7th, and a few in 6th or even earlier.
What these parents are really complaining about is that the higher tracks are only available to those with th right combination of luck (how acceleration-friendly is the school), savvy (do you know your school's unadvertised acceleration options), and of course, social capital (are you golfing buddies with the principal? Do you know how to ask for acceleration without making it seem like you're asking for acceleration). All of these are hallmarks of privilege, and none of them are germane to the issue of whether or not a student is qualified for these higher math tracks.

You're talking about upper levels. We aren't going to have multiple tracks starting at kindergarten to please the hyper acceleration desiring parents. And we shouldn't.

And which countries do?

I don't know which countries do, or if any might have it. But for example, in Russia and China, the math curriculum is just harder. I'm sure there's plenty of kids that struggle with that harder curriculum, and maybe it causes more school dropouts? I don't know. There are probably tradeoffs.