Is there such a thing as too much acceleration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was talking with a friend who also has a kid in 9th. DS is taking Calc AB and her kid is in Geometry. She said that too much acceleration is a bad thing, and that we should be careful because it can make kids seem like overachievers and/or gunners. At first I thought it's just jealousy and that she is mad my kid is so advanced, but then I thought there may be some truth to what she is saying. It seems these days, colleges aren't looking for excellence so much as quirkiness and that kids who do well in subjects like math, aren't valued at all. It doesn't help that we're Asian. Anyway. I'm wondering what other people think.

PS. My younger child is in 7th and is not on an accelerated track. Both kids are happy and love school.

Unless you want to go to MIT, so what?

For most top colleges, Calculus AB/BC by 12th grade works.

Most high schools don't even offer Calculus.

What year are you in? Most high schools in poor neighborhoods have calculus now.

About 50% of high schools offer calculus. As of ~2016, I think it was 38% of Black and Latino-dominant (>75%) schools. I’d guess that rural schools also fare poorly. I’m not aware of any DMV high schools not offering Calculus.

[Anonymous]

No, if he loves it. People try to justify their choices or kids needs by putting down others. My sophmore is taking Calculus BC.

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting question. To me, I think it makes sense to follow the child's ability and interest. (BS in Engineering, so I have that perspective, but I am not an educator or versed in child development, so many grains of salt). I do see the argument of moving too quickly such that by the time college rolls around, should STEM be of interest, they may end up taking some classes again and not really be 'advantaged'. However, if they are truly immersed in math and reinforcing their learning in other ways, I would think it would be fine.

Been quite a while for me, but my recollection in my undergrad days was there was a constant reinforcement of mathematical ideas in the applied sense throughout the curriculum, so you couldn't help but develop a strong grounding in the material which helps it stick. Thus, I could see how Calc too early and not reinforced could become a 'shallow' skill by matriculation to a college curriculum. But, I dont think that is a given

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is taking Calc AB as a freshman, he may run out of classes available at his high school, and then what? Are you going to have him enroll in the local community college, some of which have terrible schedules and/or teaching? Or take an online class? If he is advanced in other subjects as well, I would recommend that he apply for college as a junior and not a senior and basically go to college 1 year early.

This is the issue we are running into. Don't apply to colleges as a jr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was talking with a friend who also has a kid in 9th. DS is taking Calc AB and her kid is in Geometry. She said that too much acceleration is a bad thing, and that we should be careful because it can make kids seem like overachievers and/or gunners. At first I thought it's just jealousy and that she is mad my kid is so advanced, but then I thought there may be some truth to what she is saying. It seems these days, colleges aren't looking for excellence so much as quirkiness and that kids who do well in subjects like math, aren't valued at all. It doesn't help that we're Asian. Anyway. I'm wondering what other people think.

PS. My younger child is in 7th and is not on an accelerated track. Both kids are happy and love school.

Unless you want to go to MIT, so what?

For most top colleges, Calculus AB/BC by 12th grade works.

Most high schools don't even offer Calculus.

What year are you in? Most high schools in poor neighborhoods have calculus now.

About 50% of high schools offer calculus. As of ~2016, I think it was 38% of Black and Latino-dominant (>75%) schools. I’d guess that rural schools also fare poorly. I’m not aware of any DMV high schools not offering Calculus.

Yes,
https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/the-decline-in-high-school-calculus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is taking Calc AB as a freshman, he may run out of classes available at his high school, and then what? Are you going to have him enroll in the local community college, some of which have terrible schedules and/or teaching? Or take an online class? If he is advanced in other subjects as well, I would recommend that he apply for college as a junior and not a senior and basically go to college 1 year early.

They can't apply as a junior because they will not have fulfilled all the other requirements for a high school degree. And good colleges demand four years of science, english, foreign language, and so on. Generally, students - particular STEM students - should seek to reach the highest level math class available at their high school in senior year. No one thinks commuting to community college or taking virtual classes makes much sense for high school students. The problem is there is so much variability in what higher classes are offered depending on the school or the district. But if the max available is Multivariable, STEM students should shoot for that senior year. If it's BC, then they should aim for that. Humanities students can get by with AB. And the rural, inner city, and private school students going to schools that don't offer Calculus at all should beg their parents to move to a district that does because otherwise they are screwed when it comes to applying to good colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your child a math prodigy? If yes, and you have other evidence for it, it will help your admission. If not, I would say that calculus AB in 9th grade is too much acceleration resulting in superficial grasp of the material.

I'm not sure what "evidence" you mean- DS doesn't do math competitions because it's not his thing. but he does many problems a day for fun. he likes experimenting with topics outside of class. also, he has an A in class and aces every test, so I think he has a prety strong grasp of the material.

this means nothing, sorry.
do you have any math background? it's hard for parents with no background to judge how good their kid is in math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was talking with a friend who also has a kid in 9th. DS is taking Calc AB and her kid is in Geometry. She said that too much acceleration is a bad thing, and that we should be careful because it can make kids seem like overachievers and/or gunners. At first I thought it's just jealousy and that she is mad my kid is so advanced, but then I thought there may be some truth to what she is saying. It seems these days, colleges aren't looking for excellence so much as quirkiness and that kids who do well in subjects like math, aren't valued at all. It doesn't help that we're Asian. Anyway. I'm wondering what other people think.

PS. My younger child is in 7th and is not on an accelerated track. Both kids are happy and love school.

Unless you want to go to MIT, so what?

For most top colleges, Calculus AB/BC by 12th grade works.

Most high schools don't even offer Calculus.

What year are you in? Most high schools in poor neighborhoods have calculus now.

About 50% of high schools offer calculus. As of ~2016, I think it was 38% of Black and Latino-dominant (>75%) schools. I’d guess that rural schools also fare poorly. I’m not aware of any DMV high schools not offering Calculus.

+1

People need to get out of their bubbles.

#clueless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a bad thing if you run out of math classes. Is that going to happen? Are there Montgomery College advanced math classes your kid can dual enroll into later in HS?

This is a very important question and the main reason why accelerating too fast is a problem -- student literally run out of math classes to take, and then they end up dropping math and not taking it ever again. Heard this from the math chair at a private school -- kids who accelerate too fast end up not pursuing math related fields.


It's much better to take math every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, if he loves it. People try to justify their choices or kids needs by putting down others. My sophmore is taking Calculus BC.

Does this sounds sensible to you? No one feels like putting down others children.

[Anonymous]

No problem as long as he is capable of excelling at in these courses at such a young age. Just make sure to round out his extracurriculars with something not mathy so he stands out in some way.

[Anonymous]

Advanced is fine, but your high school needs to have resources. Ours did calc bc in freshman year, but he never missed a year of math, and took MVC, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations afterward. He’s now at Harvard and isn’t even the most ahead in his friend group.

[Anonymous]

What kind of high schools are people going to with all these math courses? DD goes to a top high school and it just has 1 post AP math course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess my main question is, what math is your kid going to take for the next three years? I guess BC, then ... what else?

You'll want to have a plan for him taking DE classes or something else.

Your friend was a little rude -- it's not hurting anyone that he's two or three years ahead in math.

NP, but he doesn’t necessarily need to keep taking math every year. He already has enough math credits to graduate HS. He could take BC in 10th, MV in 11th, and maybe a second AP science classes as a senior, or AP computer science or something else.

[Anonymous]

Most students can't handle Calc BC. This is a fact. For those that can and do well in it as a freshman, sorry, but that will help the applicant. It certainly won't hurt.

A lot of the snide comments about acceleration are from parents of students who struggle at math and can't grasp the concept that there are exceptional students out there.