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The proposed action here is to not separate "gifted" kids until grade 9. That seems pretty reasonable to me. I don't think this is about true prodigies (don't
by ahepp 5y ago
The proposed action here is to not separate "gifted" kids until grade 9. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
I don't think this is about true prodigies (don't they usually get picked up by universities?).
If you can separate students into winners and losers before grade 9, I think that's a strong indication that more resources need to be spent on the losers, not that we should be teaching the winners calculus before they reach HS (which I suspect is often more about the college admissions arms race than any love of learning or desire for knowledge)
- bodhiandphysics 5y agoThe issue isn’t prodigies! The issue is that students will no longer be able to take calculus in high school. And that’s a big problem since it slows down students abilities to take advanced math in college, at a time where the amount of math needed by technical professions is only growing!
- bodhiandphysics 5y agoPerhaps 1% of graduating seniors are ready to skip calculus upon entering college. But that’s an important 1%! It includes all professional mathematicians, statisticians, data scientists, and most high level engineers!
- ahepp 5y ago>students will no longer be able to take calculus in high school What leads you to this conclusion? You can still take calculus without being designated a gifted student before you enter HS. In fact, isn't 12th grade calculus the standard without any acceleration? It sounds like the report questions the rationale for targeting calculus, which seems like a healthy debate to me. Maybe some students would be better served by something else. However, I don't see anything to suggest that calculus is going anywhere.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> The issue is that students will no longer be able to take calculus in high school. False. The Framework has a common 9/10 base designed to meet the legal two-year mandate and then a wider variety of advanced options than are currently typically offered for 11/12 which include Calculus+Trig, Data Science, and others. The framework challenges the existing “every is trying to get to Calculus, the only difference is how quickly they skim everything else to get there” approach, not challenging the option for students to take Calculus in High School. (See Chapter 8 of the framework.)
- bodhiandphysics 5y agoReading chapter 8 of the framework, it does not seem that the curriculum described provides adequate preparation for technical courses at a college level. It lacks sufficient preparation in trigonometry (particularly identities) imaginary numbers, analytic geometry, nor does it provide adequate time for crucial techniques such as polynomial series in a 12th grade trig/calculus course.