Reply to VA math changes - ways to speak out

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Honest question.  I'm very thankful my son is in 10th grade and this won't impact him and my youngest was moved to private after the public schools bungled the pandemic.

However my oldest is naturally gifted in math. He takes AP calc in 10th grade and finds it easy. His Q3 grade was a 99. His overall grade right now is a 98.

What happens to a kid like him who had his multiplication tables memorized by 2nd grade?

Does he just wither on a vine? If math were a sport he'd be an elite athlete. It would be like putting a teenager LeBron James on a rec team for basketball. [/quote]

On the flip side, how would his life meaningfully change if he didn’t take AP Calculus until 12th grade? 
[/quote]

I was that kid.  My school only offered AP calc for 12th grade and did not offer AP Physics, AP Chemistry, or any other AP Sciences.  If you're not challenged in school, you don't learn good study habits, you don't learn resilience in the face of failure, and you don't actually develop true confidence in your abilities.  That will catch up to you at some point.  For me, it was grad school, where my poor study habits, inability to handle being challenged, and ultimate case of imposter syndrome cost me a PhD.  Kids who were objectively less intelligent sailed through the program, because they learned all of these critical skills in their high school and college programs.

Also, the lack of challenge cost me a lot of opportunities compared to the kids who were in rigorous programs.  I didn't qualify for Mathcounts nationals in 8th grade because I was merely taking Algebra I, while most of the other kids in the top 10 in my state were doing Algebra II or at least Geometry.  I fell a little short of qualifying for USAMO, because again I was competing against a lot of kids who had more access to higher level math.  I got an honorable mention for USA Physics Olympiad, but I was competing with my half year of non-calc based Physics against kids in their 2nd year of AP physics.  All of these opportunities could have led to inclusion in some nice programs, extra scholarship money, and a huge confidence boost that I sorely needed.

Artificially holding back gifted kids does nothing whatsoever to help them and has a high potential of harming them.  [/quote]

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