On a whim I decided to test my soon-to-be first grader to see if he understood basic algebra. I first asked him “If something minus 4 equals 5, what is something?” He took a couple of seconds and responded “9″. I asked a few more, including “Something minus 2 plus 3 equals 5″. It took a while, but he gave the correct answer of 4.
He is not even in first grade yet and understands multiplication (proficient in 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 9s, and 10s) and basic algebra. I am genuinely concerned that keeping him in Nashville public schools will hinder his education. When I mentioned this to my dad he told me that his first calculus class was in 7th grade.
Part of the problem is “special needs” education and No Child Left Behind. Special needs education is funded by the federal government, but they do not consider advanced learners as having a special need. Tennessee schools do define advanced learners as having a special need, which makes it an unfunded mandate. By lowering the bar there will be more students who are above the curriculum. This will result in bored kids and more behavioral problems. That is going to be bad for everyone.
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You need to speak to my wife. Email me and I’ll get you her contact info. She spent the last 12 months pushing like crazy and finally got the Davidson County School System to admit that they were not meeting our son’s needs (he’s “gifted” as well as ADHD) in the regular classroom environment, so she got them to agree to an IEP. It took an unreal amount of effort but due to the fact that she’s getting a Doctorate in Education she knew the right terms to use to get them to admit that they needed to do more.
An IEP is not just for special needs at the bottom of the scale, it turns out it’s avaialble for “special needs” at the top of the scale too.
So, if we calculate the rate at which my (never exceptional) math muscles atrophy and compare it to my brilliant nephew’s exponential math improvement, he will be more knowledgeable than me by the time he completes the second grade…
I’m not an expert on K-12 education (my masters and post-graduate work are in higher ed), but I am the daughter of two teachers.
Like most things in K-12, and maybe education in general, it’s a pendulum that tends to swing to one extreme or the other. The advantage of separating out special needs kids is that they can get exactly what they need. The disadvantage is that they aren’t exposed to something more challenging, so they don’t grow as much as they could. The same is true with gifted kids: they are either stifled or they don’t learn what it’s like to work with those who aren’t also gifted.
I see the pros and cons to both sides of the issue. I wish I had not had to “waste” time in class being bored. At the same time, any of us can learn from anyone. (…and some of the most touching experiences in my life come from those who aren’t defined as “gifted”…) There is value in learning to work with the same variety of people you will encounter in life and in the workforce. There is value in learning to respect and value all humans as individuals.
In a world of transcripts and admissions essays and grade points, how do we strive that balance?
I wish I knew.
(The same dichotomy holds true for the Phonics vs. Sight methods for teaching reading to first and second graders.)
I actually turned down an IEP for my soon-to-be first grader with the reserved right to request one later if I feel that he is disengaging or needs something other than the Encore program. Luckily he goes to a great school.
However, it is not just about “wasting time”. It does a real disservice to “gifted” kids to act as if their needs are being met even if they are not learning just because they are proficient at the level defined by the curriculum. My needs were not met by the public school system. I disengaged in 3rd grade and eventually dropped out of high school. Once I was out of the educational system and was able to put myself in challenging environments then I was able to excel.
Part of what really scares me about the Algebra issue in MNPS is that I disengaged when my teacher was no longer able to communicate mathematical concepts to me. I seem understand math in a different way from many other people. Relationships of numbers are intuitive to me but when I tried to explain how I understood concepts the teacher wanted to argue with me about it, even though I got the right answers.
In my first Algebra class I was accused of cheating on a test by a teacher because I did a problem in my head. She called me in front of the class and tried to embarrass me and called me a cheat. When I denied cheating she wrote a problem on the board and challenged me to answer it in my head. I completed the problem and wrote my answer on the board. She told me my answer was wrong even though she had not yet solved the problem. When she realized that my answer was correct she sent me to the principal’s office for disrupting class.
I don’t want my kids to have the same struggles I had. I disengaged and got in lots of trouble. Kids handle boredom in different ways and I have to assume if my son understands math the same way I do then it is possible he may also handle boredom the same way I did.
You can bet your ass that if he starts to disengage that I will be in the schools with IEPs and lawyers if necessary.
“Fair” is not making sure that every kid has the same, “fair” is making sure that every kid has what they need; some kids need Algebra in the 7th grade.
I largely agree with you and had similar experiences while growing up. My parents opted to have me skip grades, which had repercussions on my socialization, not a strategy I’d personally recommend. Were I to have school-age children, I’d be looking hard at Montessori schools.
All that being said, I can’t necessarily disagree with requiring four years of math in high school, or from moving the focus away from algebra and calculus as the end goals. I think educating students in statistics and general mathematical literacy is more important than endless exercises in factoring polynomial expressions.