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Willa
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| Posted: Jan 14 2009 at 12:26pm | IP Logged
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I am not in this situation right now precisely, but it occurred to me while I was vacuuming this morning and I thought I'd ask -- hoping to hear a range of opinions.
If you have a child who is above grade level, what do you think comes next?
Would you keep him on a track at his own pace, so for example starting him on 4th grade type work even if he was only in 2nd grade?
Or would you focus on "deepening" the experience -- for example, just maintaining in subjects where he is ahead, and spending the hours more on neat, slower-paced stuff?
Just to give an example,when I first started homeschooling my oldest in 3rd grade, we were in a state that required yearly proctored standardized tests. He scored in the top couple of percentiles and the proctor, calling with his results, recommended that we basically unschool -- just follow his interests and not worry much about curriculum.
(I didn't do this, by the way, because I had no clue HOW and I still find myself having trouble with "following interests").
When people complain about how "easy" Mother of Divine Grace is in the earlier grades, Laura Berquist usually says that this is appropriate for the early years and that if a child is exceptionally bright (already reading and adding in Kindergarten, say) that the mother should focus on enriching the curriculum, exploring interests, rather than pushing ahead to the next level.
On the other hand, there are people who go ahead and advance their kids -- the one that comes to mind is Joyce Swann, whose kids got Master's degrees by the time they were 18.
So what do you think? enriched or accelerated? a bit of both?
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Mackfam
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This is such an excellent question and one I will be following closely. I am in this situation with my oldest dd and am pondering the consequences of an early graduation for a young lady versus just spending extra time immersing in the domestic arts and other academic pursuits during this time in her life.
I'm so interested in hearing opinions on this subject.
Thank you for starting this thread, Willa.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Betsy
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I don't have much time to write...
But, my experience is that the acceleration usually only occurs in one subject. For instance, if a child was gifted in math, they would probably be right on for reading AND might even be lacking in another area...such as maturity or social/verbal skills.
So, I would probably let the child advance as necessary in their strong subject, but keep them grade level in other things.
In my husbands situation. He graduated from HS when he was 17 as valedictorian. When he graduated from college at 21 he didn't even remotely feel capable of going out into the working world. He felt he needed to go to grad-school to kind of finish maturing.
Betsy
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Elizabeth
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Betsy wrote:
In my husbands situation. He graduated from HS when he was 17 as valedictorian. When he graduated from college at 21 he didn't even remotely feel capable of going out into the working world. He felt he needed to go to grad-school to kind of finish maturing.
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This was my experience and the irony is that I went to grad school to study gifted education. The short answer, i think, to the question of "acceleration or enrichment" is both. Particularly in a home setting, you can tailor the education to maintain interest and challenge. I wouldn't hesitate to let him work ahead. You follow his lead, allowing him to move ahead if he wants to (this is often the case with kids who are mathematically gifted) and to follow his own interests. With gifted children, it doesn't take long before they far outrun their parents in the content area. This is where the unschooling idea comes in: you are mentor and not necessarily teacher because he's learning things you don't know.
I'm quite certain I'm not offering you any new insight, Willa. I think you've done this kind of thing all along, whether the child in question is developmentally delayed or gifted.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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folklaur
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Willa wrote:
So what do you think? enriched or accelerated? a bit of both? |
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Enriched. I wholeheartedly, and completely, and totally say enriched (of course, I think in practice it will play out as "a bit of both" - because, like in the case of my ds10, who loves-loves-loves everything Science, you get into deeper concepts simply by enriching, if that makes sense.)
But, especially now having one in college and looking back, I think "enriched" is the way to go.
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joann10
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I am also in favor of enrichment.
A few of mine could have easily finish high school early, but they were in NO way mature enough to head off to college or out into the work world-(where some of my "enriched" learners headed.
My daughter has spent this extra time learning the domestic arts and the art of cake decorating(which I have shared on my blog) and my son was able to emerge himself into his interests-theology and self teaching himself the chef trade-which he has become very accomplished at...
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crusermom
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I agree with doing both. Some areas, like math, are easy to accelerate - you don't want to force a kid to do math that he finds simple. That is boring. Science - as mentioned above - enrichment and projects and rabbit trails. I agree that it is usually not a good idea to accelerate them too far ahead. My son is gifted in math, but really needs to beef up his life skills. He passed me years ago in Math, but that is ok. I have lots to teach him about running the washing machine and making toast. I should have started early. Mr. Gifted is headed off to college next year and I am afraid to tell him that I am not going with him. On the early college, I too went to college early and don't think it was a particularly good thing.
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hylabrook1
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I would agree with Elizabeth -- it's a good idea to both enrich and accelerate. The two caveats I would add are these: (1) Children can go through seasons in their need to have either enrichment or acceleration. A child might race ahead for 6 months or a year, and then slow it all down, in the end coming out much closer to age-predicted grade level (if you are measuring in terms of grade level). (2) Be aware that intellectual maturity and emotional maturity are not necessarily on the same track. Often the expectations of how long someone can sit to complete a lesson are out of sync. An 11 year old can only put in as much time as the 6th-grader he is emotionally, even if he needs to work at a 9th grade level in order to avoid boredom.
Peace,
Nancy
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Connections
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I believe that you can only enrich so much without acceleration naturally resulting. Since most skill area "grade level expectations" build upon one another, it seems to me that by enriching you are also accomplishing acceleration. I think the key lies in what you focus on. Is it simply a matter of obtaining new knowledge/skills and moving on or is there value in making connections, asking questions, seeking answers and digging deeper? What if the student seems miserable? Do you continue moving ahead or do you allow time to ponder and grow?
I value enrichment with a focus on the needs of the individual student. Some students will seek out breadth of information/experience while others will immerse themselves in projects, subject areas, etc. (depth). Acceleration is often a part of providing/facilitating the correct challenge.
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julia s.
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If it matters I believe even Susan Wise Bauer of The Well Trained Mind said that most kids aren't mature enough when they enter college and could use extra time.
Although intellectually there is a lot to be said for the stimulation of accelerated learning that simple enrichment might not feed.
I think it depends on how profound their intellectual appetites are and this may simply outweigh other considerations. (Sorry I'm eating while writing and it's heavily influencing my metaphor choice)
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stacykay
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I have been pondering this for the past week. I am so glad you brought this up, Willa.
My 7yo ds is flying in math. His other subjects are either grade level, or maybe a little above. Maturity is ... where a 7yo boy typically falls. He has been bored to tears with math, and I finally just put away the "too easy" Saxon worksheets this past week. I am working on ways to enrich his learning in math, as we can't accelerate due to his very 7yo reading level. He is finally happy! I was worried that I might have squelched his enthusiasm, as it took me so long to figure this out, but he is happy.
I guess as he gets older, I guess the accelerated learning will come in as he advances in his other subjects.
And adding to what others were mentioning about college, we have friends who were at first thrilled their dd was so bright, and advanced her gradewise (they use Seton.) Well, she graduated at 16, and then they looked at each other and at their very young and naive dd, and said, "oh no!"  She is currently in a community college.
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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Shari in NY
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Willa,
I love that you have these thoughts while vacuuming! Me, too. And sometimes in the shower...
I think enrichment is the way to go. It is unusual for a child to be advanced in all subjects and the great thing about homeschooling is the time to persue what you are intersted in. Here it was photography for one child, piano for another and the perfectly balanced stick sword for a third! (He just made the Dean's list fro Electrical Engineering! I am so proud!!) The longer they have to mature before college the better. I once asked one of my daughters what I could have done to help prepare her better for college (the social aspects mostly) and she replied, "There was NOTHING you could have done to prepare me for THIS!" So, please, don't send them any sooner than you have too!
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Leonie
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The only subject we do is maths  - and my current homeschooling kids are all above "grade level". I just let them move through the material at their own pace and try to set goals about doing maths a couple of times a week, finishing the programme by a do-able date or where they might be Next March...I find life ie pretty enriching and so for maths extras, for everything else, we just live and learn. And unschool, with a bit of French and Latin thrown in. 
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Willa
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| Posted: Jan 16 2009 at 9:54am | IP Logged
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That is a good point coming out of the conversation: that enriched and acceleration aren't two separate things; if you enrich, you end up advancing as well.
Elizabeth wrote:
This is where the unschooling idea comes in: you are mentor and not necessarily teacher because he's learning things you don't know.
I'm quite certain I'm not offering you any new insight, Willa. I think you've done this kind of thing all along, whether the child in question is developmentally delayed or gifted. |
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True that we've done what seemed best all along; still, the conversation is helpful because I was trying to think of what was behind our normal homeschooling tendency to balance the child's needs out with the standard curriculum.
Interesting about developmental delays -- I was just thinking recently that by enriching Aidan's curriculum rather than focusing on standard therapeutic drills, I've helped him advance. At least I usually think so -- I see how he's learning and how excited he is about learning. It's only when we meet with the school for IEPs and I see what we haven't covered, that I feel unsure of what we're doing.
That brings up something to do with the relation between enrichment and advancement. With enrichment, you have a chance to plant seeds or start something that the child will take up seriously on his own. Advancement -- I suppose it is like Nancy said and a temporary surge in a subject is very often only that, a surge, though some kids consistently stay ahead of grade level in some subjects. But it's important not to try to force the child to stay on a "track" if his initial acceleration slows down.
About college -- I SO agree that waiting can be a good thing. My husband was reading about a book called Outliers -- on the question of why some people "reach their potential" and others don't. One of the points brought up was that most of the star hockey players were born during a certain time of the year. It turns out that they were the ones that barely made the cut-off. A child born on January 1 will be the oldest on his team and supposedly this comes with all sorts of competitive advantages -- size, development, maturity -- that gets them better coaching, more playing time etc.
I don't think this translates directly into homeschooling and the decision about WHEN to go to college; all the same it does seem to point out some advantages to waiting until a certain maturity level before advancing.
Not that kids have to stay in dumbed-down math texts when they're ready for more -- just that waiting for solid readiness can be a good thing. ... or so it seems. IT would be interesting to hear a different opinion though if anyone has had a different experience!
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Willa
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Rachel May
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Willa wrote:
| When people complain about how "easy" Mother of Divine Grace is in the earlier grades, Laura Berquist usually says that this is appropriate for the early years and that if a child is exceptionally bright (already reading and adding in Kindergarten, say) that the mother should focus on enriching the curriculum, exploring interests, rather than pushing ahead to the next level. |
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One thing Laura told my SIL is that you don't want to move ahead to work that is beyond the child's "stage". So while my 9yo nephew was in the grammatical stage instead of moving him into rhetorical stage work, they just gave him more books to read. My boys are the same age and one grade behind him and have read some of the same books, but not as many.
I can see so much of a difference in what my oldest could do last year vs this year--how they think about things seems different--that this approach makes sense. If how they think is changing, we can advance more easily than if they just happen to be good at a specific skill like reading.
I don't know if I'm expressing myself well and I have less experience than most since my oldest are still young, but this has been something I've puzzled over and played a big part in my decision to enroll in MODG.
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Mackfam
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I understood you, Rachel. And it was very helpful for me.
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Jen Mackintosh
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: Accelerated or Enriched?
