Reply to Math in HS: go down a level and take honors or stay ion track but regular class?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would absolutely redo geometry and do honors there. I don’t get this thing of kids trying to accelerate or stay accelerated unless they are super super strong math kids.

From a college perspective they directionally care about two thing - what was the grade and was it honors.

I made this call in high school years ago and redid geometry in 9th and my math grades were better than they would’ve been as was my happiness and sanity and I went to HYP so never was a problem.
. Now in my DCs class I see all these kids reaching to accelerate and some just got midterm assessments back with Ds and Cs. Why is that good for anyone.[/quote]

+1. Have never understood the parents pushing to have their kids in "advanced math" when the kid is struggling.  IMO, if a kid is above grade level or in honors, they should be able to get an A/A- fairly easily without tutoring, otherwise, they might be better served going back a level.  
In reality, you want your kid to understand math and actually like it, not hate it.  Even if they are a Humanities/Social science major, many jobs will still use it.  
Because a kid who struggles in math will grow to hate it, whereas one who actually learns at their level might grow to love it.

Just think, back 25-30 years ago, most kids did not even get to Calculus in HS, it was reserved for only a select few students. Yet, we still produced engineers and doctors and statisticians and CS majors.  Kids will be fine. 
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Because they were strong in it and not struggling when the acceleration started, and then things got harder in algebra I. There is no non-honors version to drop down to in middle school, and it doesn’t make sense to drop back to repeat a class you did well in, or to plan to repeat a class you are getting B’s in. That is our story. [/quote]

Understand there is nothing to drop back to in MS.  But if my kid was 1 or 2 grades ahead, and struggled to get even a B in Algebra 1, I'd have them stick with it, get them a tutor.  Then at the end of the year, I'd re-evaluate and decide if the foundation is strong enough to continue or should they retake Algebra 1 (hint: if they couldn't take the 2 semester exams and earn an B+ or better, I would have them repeat). I'd argue that yes it does make sense to retake Algebra 1 even if you got a B, if it was a struggle to get that B.  Kids that are 1-2 grades ahead should be able to get A/A- in the math classes.  If not, they should repeat or at least retake over the Summer before advancing IMO.

I had one 2 grades advanced kid, and they never had below a 99% in their math classes until they hit Calculus.  Even then it was a 96/97% in AP AB Calc. Had they struggled, I would have seriously made them retake in summer school or simply retake the next year.  The foundations for Algebra 1 & 2 are too important to gloss over. [/quote]

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