"you’re in ninth grade and you’ve already taken nearly all the math classes your school offers"
I thought most high schools taught calculus. Both my and my wife's did. Why is this 15 year old going to a local community college or university for that?
(FWIW, I do realize that my high school was unusual, in that it also offered linear algebra, differential equations, and modern algebra. There were enough of us who had taken calculus and were interested in additional classes. It was a community college course taught at the high school by a high school teacher.)
"I met nearly all of them through activities or employment that selected for thinkers. In school, these activities were (and still are in most schools) extracurricular programs, not curricular ones."
Nope, don't recognize that in my experience. The class with the most "thinkers" was probably AP European History. I can't think of an extracurricular which matched it. (AP American History, AP English, and AP Calculus were pretty close.)
How much of this essay is the author's hypothesis, and how much of it is based on actual research?
This happened to me too (they offered calculus, but I was finished by 11th grade). They also ran out of science classes. But I couldn't graduate because for some unimaginable reason four years of high school "english" and "history" classes are required. So there I was, day almost empty, taking English 12, History 12, a required art class, and the language sequence (fourth-year Latin) that I'd wanted to take the year before, but couldn't because it wasn't offered at all.
In sum: as far as my experience goes, educational standards are set up specifically to frustrate and impede fast learners.
Ran out at which level? The author apparently went to a high school without calculus. I'm trying to get a feel for how common that is, especially since it looks like several times more schools offer calculus now than when the author went to school in the late 1980s.
I thought most high schools taught calculus. Both my and my wife's did. Why is this 15 year old going to a local community college or university for that?
http://www.maa.org/the-changing-face-of-calculus-first-semes... agrees, and points out that 3x more people take AP Calculus now than when I was in high school. Which is about the same time that the author went to school.
(FWIW, I do realize that my high school was unusual, in that it also offered linear algebra, differential equations, and modern algebra. There were enough of us who had taken calculus and were interested in additional classes. It was a community college course taught at the high school by a high school teacher.)
"I met nearly all of them through activities or employment that selected for thinkers. In school, these activities were (and still are in most schools) extracurricular programs, not curricular ones."
Nope, don't recognize that in my experience. The class with the most "thinkers" was probably AP European History. I can't think of an extracurricular which matched it. (AP American History, AP English, and AP Calculus were pretty close.)
How much of this essay is the author's hypothesis, and how much of it is based on actual research?