Reply to Why is Math the Super Accelerated Subject?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Reading and writing at a sophisticated level requires life experience that children haven't lived long enough to attain.[/quote]

Wrong.  Many children are exceptionally bright and sophisticated in their reading comprehension and are absolutely ready to engage with more sophisticated material.  Some kids excel early in math... others excel early in language arts.  [/quote]

My kids are like this, precocious early readers with spongelike brains, and you are still wrong. To truly comprehend books that include topics like romantic relationships, parental angst, teenage hormones, rape, mental illness, war, jobs stress, or whose drama is based on societal unwritten rules a kid wouldn't know about, etc., all with subtle clues you "get" because you know about it already, literary references to other books they haven't had time in life to read yet, etc., you have to have lived longer than 13 years.

Books are given age ranges, not because they are 'difficult' or 'easy' to read, but because they are gauged to the life experience of the reader; some things being explained more or less explicitly as the the child grows into the topic. For every book there is a time.[/quote]

Who said that acceleration in humanities means that the kids have to “truly comprehend”? I do think you are underselling the kids’ ability to engage with literature and history on a deep level - but more importantly, the humanities also involve learning SKILLS and accumulating knowledge. Spelling, grammar, research methods, writing style, historical facts - all content and skills that many kids could be much more accelerated in learning. Just because your 13 year old is not weeping over Shakespeare doesn’t mean they should not receive rigorous humanities instruction. Moreover how do you think kids are going to build a body of knowledge of literature if you limit them to dumbed down “age appropriate” books? [b]At 14 - 16[/b] I was reading TS Elliot, Robert Heinlein, Dostoyevsky, Willa Cather, some for school and some on my own. Teens are totally ready to handle serious themes and drama. [/quote]

So, older than 13, as I said.[/quote]

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