calc BC in 8th grade at Takoma Park Middle?
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Anonymous
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How would that accelerated kid get four years of math in during HS itself??
I don't see much point unless the kid is planning to go to MIT at age 15. |
Anonymous
MC? |
Anonymous
Another Blair grad here and +100. The few that fell into this category were literally on the US Math Team, and, like 4 standard deviations from typical honors/ap smart. Its strange that so many on DCUM have kids in this category, or know of them. |
Anonymous
I suspect this kid went to Feynman for elementary. Profoundly gifted in math. Did amazing on National Math Exam for HS upperclassmen in 4th/5th grade. |
Anonymous
MIT rarely accepts students that young because they're not emotionally ready at that age. Source: My husband and I both went to MIT (at age 18) and they literally said that during orientation. I also remember that, when I was a freshman taking the first class in the electrical engineering/computer science major track, the professor projected a photo of a nude woman on the screen. I don't recall the exact reason, but it had something to do with teasing what could be found on the young Internet if you had coding skills back in 1997. Anyway, he got in trouble, not for the nudity itself (and no one in the administration at MIT cared about the few women in the class being offended in 1997), but because it was a freshman course, and there was one 17-year-old in the class who would not turn 18 for a few more weeks. He could not show nudity to a minor. Being that he was a famous and tenured professor, he was just given a light reprimand, and promised to not do it again. |
Anonymous
Yes, that is me. (Although I don't remember having mentioned my friend who solved the unsolvable problem before, but hey, it could've happened.) I had a snarky reply all ready, but I'll just respond like the nearly-reasonable human being that I am in real life. Your and the PP's response encapsulate everything I was pointing out in my prior comments about the prevailing mentality on this board. -No one could possibly know a person this brilliant. -If you do and you mention it, you are just bragging to brag. Or perhaps you are simply a sad sack with nothing else in life to be proud of. It could not possibly be that you are answering the question at hand-- literally "what kind of kid does this thing?"-- with actual examples of students who attended TPMS and Blair... and did that thing. -If you have not cured cancer-- or more to the point, did not attend HYP, and are not currently earning a 7-figure salary-- you are "admitting" (admitting) that your giftedness didn't "translate" into adulthood. How does giftedness properly translate into adulthood, I wonder? Only if it pays off in money or prestige, right? Preferably both. And that's a universal belief, is it? -If you write a sentence that includes the plural of the word "awardee," and the plural of the word "professor" ("who will probably be up for the Fields medal") you must literally be talking about more than one of each, rather than being colloquial and a bit slapdash. I admit it. I only personally knew one of each during my time at Blair. Maybe there are more-- probably more plain old, lowly math professors, anyway (a shame their giftedness didn't translate all that well into adulthood). But I didn't know them personally or haven't kept up with them. In any event, my apologies for being unclear. But more to the point... none of this is bragging. Maybe that's the only circumstance under which you would mention, it, but all I am attempting to do is defend the parents who, it is being implied, were or are pushing their children beyond their capabilities. And apparently only because they hope their kid's giftedness pays off in money or prestige, right? "Translates" properly into adulthood? That's the only reason for them to take advanced math so early-- or even allow it-- correct? Otherwise, kind of a waste, am I right? If it's not leading to wealth and status someday, what's the point? Oh, not that YOU believe that-- of course not-- but some of you seem awfully sure that everyone else does. For some reason. DCUM, once again, pretty nakedly betrays its lack of perspective-taking here. If your child is profoundly gifted in an area of strong interest, highly self-motivated and loves it nearly as much as they love anything... as long as you don't let it consume their lives, then maybe it's not so terrible to allow them to do it. In my experience, the only people who took calculus that early were that kind of child. Even the PP saying "I have a child who started Algebra in 6th. I think its absurdly early but child wanted to do it. No way I'd agree to allow for skipping pre-calculus or accelerate any more than they are"... Even that PP does not have the kind of child of whom I am speaking. And who cares? Almost no one does. Mediocre genius that I am, I took calculus no earlier than my junior year in high school. But PP with the very gifted 6th grade Algebra student misses my point, which is that the kids taking calculus before high school are (most likely!) not simply versions of her child who have just been pushed or allowed to push themselves even harder, to detrimental effect. The kids taking calculus before high school are (most likely!) entirely different kids. These assumptions about wildly competitive parents and suffering children say more about the speaker than the people about whom they're speaking. |
Anonymous
Exactly. A kid who is taking algebra in 6th grade is a very, very smart kid! A kid teaching themselves algebra for fun in kindergarten is not that same kid-- and is no more valuable than the first kid, by the way. Just different. |
Anonymous
Yes, I was going to say that this just doesn't sound like TPMS. Most kids do im in 6th, Alg 1 in 7th and Geom in 8th. Some are a year behind. A few came from schools that maybe didn't have a peer group or had adamant parents who pushed them ahead. The TP ESs won't do this, but some mcps ESs did. Those kids who are a year ahead bus to Blair to do either Pre Calc (which is a 3 semester course comprised of Alg 2 Trig and precalc. First 2 semesters are mostly Alg 2/ Trig) or Functions (this course condenses Alg2/Trig and precalc into pne year). Note I say condense, not skip. These courses (esp Functions) are more work than a regular math year. I suppose it's possible that a kid could be 2 years ahead through summer classes, but that would be very hard to accommodate, since TPMS coordinates with Blair, and the Analysis class is not set to work with that. (It's Analysis 1, not Calc BC, and it goes farther/deeper than BC). TPMS has emphasized depth and breadth of material rather than acceleration. For example, they will add a logic unit in Algebra. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
This isn’t true. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
They didn't. This is made up. |
Anonymous
Agree, there are a few amazing mathletes in the 8th grade at TPMS. A couple even takes Algebra 2, but DC who goes there and is on the math team and knows the top math students says he'd never heard anything like this. |
Anonymous
| As a 47 year old adult who struggled with math all her life and literally still counts on her fingers, this thread astounds me. I couldn’t even imagine! |
Anonymous
OP here. I guess the kid was lying. It was at an accepted students day at a private school. The kid was telling other kids that he was currently in Calc BC. Sounds like his math skills are better than his social skills. It makes sense that this isn't possible because there's no way that the private school could accommodate this. They max out at offering one year of math beyond Calculus--maybe they can eek out two (AP stats being one). Not four years. The majority of kids (80%?) will take Calculus senior year and others will max out at pre-calc. Math geniuses are not their their wheel house. |