4 ms·

I was forced to not skip grades, and it took me years to catch up socially afterwards, because everyone was so hostile and school was such an oppressive, totali

I was forced to not skip grades, and it took me years to catch up socially afterwards, because everyone was so hostile and school was such an oppressive, totalitarian environment that it made me unable to trust anyone.

dang 6y ago
I hear you. That's why I added the grass-is-greener skepticism. It may just be that it sucks either way—or that we simply needed different things. It's important not to overgeneralize from personal experiences with this stuff. When I look back on it, I think what I needed most was for some teacher, mentor, or older/wiser person to spend time with me. That's what would have made the biggest difference. But I was completely isolated.
- Xelbair 6y ago
  Then maybe instead of accelerating children down the same horrible route.. we could create separate tracks? I know that 'negative' (special needs) tracks are basically a disaster, but maybe positive (group gifted children together) one would work?
pistachiopro 6y ago
Looking back at my regular American public high school, I'm really impressed how they handled students who didn't fit the standard pace. One thing, they were very flexible about credit replacements, so if you didn't want to take an English class, you could work on the literary magazine, or you could replace social studies with working on the newspaper. Furthermore, the librarian "taught" a few periods a day where small groups of students could just quietly independently study a subject of their own choosing. Now that I think about it, there was also an option for students to take half their classes at the local community college, which a couple dozen people did. This way, even though we had a wide range of academic abilities amongst the students, we all got to move through school as a cohort, and no one had to truncate their adolescence just to avoid going insane with boredom.

dang 6y ago

I hear you. That's why I added the grass-is-greener skepticism. It may just be that it sucks either way—or that we simply needed different things. It's important not to overgeneralize from personal experiences with this stuff. When I look back on it, I think what I needed most was for some teacher, mentor, or older/wiser person to spend time with me. That's what would have made the biggest difference. But I was completely isolated.

Xelbair 6y ago
Then maybe instead of accelerating children down the same horrible route.. we could create separate tracks? I know that 'negative' (special needs) tracks are basically a disaster, but maybe positive (group gifted children together) one would work?

pistachiopro 6y ago

Looking back at my regular American public high school, I'm really impressed how they handled students who didn't fit the standard pace. One thing, they were very flexible about credit replacements, so if you didn't want to take an English class, you could work on the literary magazine, or you could replace social studies with working on the newspaper. Furthermore, the librarian "taught" a few periods a day where small groups of students could just quietly independently study a subject of their own choosing. Now that I think about it, there was also an option for students to take half their classes at the local community college, which a couple dozen people did. This way, even though we had a wide range of academic abilities amongst the students, we all got to move through school as a cohort, and no one had to truncate their adolescence just to avoid going insane with boredom.