Re:How fast should you accelerate your kid in math?
by BeFlatXIII on Sunday July 30, 2023 @10:39AM
(#36931589)
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Re:How fast should you accelerate your kid in math?
by mabbo on Sunday July 30, 2023 @08:32PM
(#36937582)
A few reasons. First and foremost: I had lost all will to work hard at all. Between mental health struggles and video game addiction as a means to cope with it, I just wasn't mentally up to the effort needed. I put in the bare minimum and got by because I was clever.
The second reason was that if I had graduated on time, it was a bad year to do it. The province was phasing out 'grade 13', called OAC[0], which had existed for decades as an optional pre-university year for students in high school. It was the last year it existed, so there would be almost twice as many students vying for places in post-secondary schools. Why compete when I could be lazy and have an easier time?
I ran into trouble with this as a kid. They put me ahead a grade in math in grade 2 because I could handle it and the class was a 2/3 split (half grade 2s, half 3s), so I just did math with the grade 3s. This worked going forward as there were 3/4 and 4/5 split classes at the school too.
But then after a couple years, I was reaching the point where the school only went to grade 5 and the teachers didn't even have books for grade 6s.
So they skipped me entirely ahead a grade. Into a new school (since the previous school only went to 5). With none of my friends.
My other subjects suffered because I was only really good at math. My social life died- kids are assholes at that age and pull each other down. And my mental health was pretty messed up for a long time. I wound up taking an extra year of high school just so I wouldn't be in college at 17.