Um, have you heard of a little place called the UK? Many, MANY students graduate at 17 and travel and volunteer for a year before starting University. |
This happened when I was in school. |
I heard in UK students do not actually graduate high school. |
I don't know if the UK holds a ceremony like we do in the US or calls it graduation but kids complete high school, or whatever they call high school in the UK. And I know my brother started K on time, was pulled out at the schools suggestion because he was not ready, started K a year later, and then was held back in 1rst because he was struggling. He had pretty serious LDs. So there are instances when kids can be 3 years older. Normally those are because of a serious learning issue and not being redshirted. I suppose a parent who starts their 4 year old early could find a red shirted kid or two who might be 3 years older. Stuff does happen but that would be exception and not the rule. |
I was in an AP class that had two students 3 years apart. Now this was 3 years could have been one was 19 yrs 1 day and the other was 16 years 364 days. |
Only on dcum is 2 years and 1 day apart equal to 3 years apart. |
Ask one student how old he is, he will say 16. Ask the other student, he will say 19. |
My kid skipped 2 grades in the 3rd grade and took Alg I in the 7th grade. |
Algebra 1 in 7th is the path for many kids in AAP or Advanced Math, it is only a years acceleration. |
True that this is the path for many AAP kids, but it is two years of acceleration. AAP math track accelerates one year in ES to take grade above SOLs in 5th and 6th. Then students that qualify can Algebra IH in 7th which is a high school credit-bearing course. A high school course in 7th grade is two grades accelerate over gen ed. |
This. Extremely common. And it is a 2 year skip. Taking a 9th grade class in 7th grade. |
So, I have a 7th grader in my A2H this year and he’s struggling. A lot. The kid is a numbers wiz, has fabulous logical sense, but his brain literally isn’t developed enough to handle the abstract concepts we are covering. He’s only 12. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere for him to go now—he’s on the super advanced track and there’s no way to slow it down.
This is the risk of super advancing :/ Obviously there are some kids who can do calculus at age 5, but for the average super smart kid, speeding ahead is a race to nowhere. |
I've had mostly the opposite experience. Almost all the 6th and 7th graders taking algebra 2 have done very well (significantly better on average than older students in the class). I've also found that kids with good number sense and a well developed feel for logical thinking have easily been able to grasp mathematical concepts. Algebra 2 concepts are not too particularly abstract. On the other hand, the kids who have done poorly were mainly 1) not willing to put effort to understand the material (i.e didn't regularly do the weekly assigned reading and homework), 2) did not care to ask for help and take advantage of coming a bit early before start of class or stay a few mins after to ask questions. |
I'm sorry that your kid is struggling, but your experience is far from universal. Both my 7th and 9th grader are taking pre calc this year. My 7th grader is an off the charts kid, but my 9th grader is your normal smart kid. She still has had zero problems with her level of acceleration. One of the issues is that math switches from following a lot of rote processes in pre-algebra and earlier to a lot of conceptual stuff in Algebra and later. Many kids appear to be very strong at math because they're good at following algorithms and have high executive function, but they don't necessarily understand what they're doing or why any of it works. |
What math sequence will they do after this? |