Intellect or Age Peer?

[sleepy]

schweppes:

But if the teen is not interested in furthering studies, then go out to the workforce?

:?

How about some backpacking? Spend an entire year travelling :imcool:

Perhaps even 谈谈恋爱? No one is going to complain about affecting studies

[schweppes]

sleepy:

schweppes:

But if the teen is not interested in furthering studies, then go out to the workforce?

:?

How about some backpacking? Spend an entire year travelling :imcool:

:hi5: that'll be so cool

sleepy:

Perhaps even 谈谈恋爱? No one is going to complain about affecting studies

:faint:
:rotflmao: :rotflmao:

[buds]

Accelerated education would support only half of the child as the child has yet to develop the gradual maturity into adulthood and hence will always be looked upon differently by peers of greater age, wouldn’t it?

[2ppaamm]

schweppes:

I'm curious, for these exceptionally gifted kids who embark on an acceleration program, after moving on to Uni and graduating with a basic degree, perhaps before 18yo? What happens next? Move on to higher education like PhD and embark on an academic/ research career?


But if the teen is not interested in furthering studies, then go out to the workforce?

:?

There are very few folks who finish their first degree by 18, normally at about 20. Research has shown that most early entrants normally complete some kind of post grad.

You raised a very interesting question. Entering the workforce younger. One of the reasons I do advocate early entrants is because I believe people should go out to work earlier, and not wait till they're 24 or 26. The earlier you start work, the earlier you find the right career, marry younger, and it also makes sense financially. People used to enter the workforce at 16 or 18, it is getting older these days. I cannot imagine the kind of financial obligations with much less time to pay off.

[buds]

schweppes:

I'm curious, for these exceptionally gifted kids who embark on an acceleration program, after moving on to Uni and graduating with a basic degree, perhaps before 18yo? What happens next? Move on to higher education like PhD and embark on an academic/ research career?


But if the teen is not interested in furthering studies, then go out to the workforce?

:?

Workforce? :?

:idea: Possible to be youngest professor or also perhaps an own boss?

[2ppaamm]

sleepy:

schweppes:

But if the teen is not interested in furthering studies, then go out to the workforce?

:?

How about some backpacking? Spend an entire year travelling :imcool:

Perhaps even 谈谈恋爱? No one is going to complain about affecting studies

Actually, I think this will be great. Imagine a world where everyone finishes his studies at 18 (like it used to be), get married at 20 (like it used to be) and then have babies at 21 or 22. Wow! I can be grandma in a few years! Then, I'll talk about my grandchildren in KSP. :imcool:

Imagine the load off the parents' back. As it is, I'm just wondering how tough it must be for parents to fund children's education till they are 25/26! Going at this kind of rate, I'll be way into my 60s when my #5 graduates. How can?

[2ppaamm]

buds:

schweppes:

I'm curious, for these exceptionally gifted kids who embark on an acceleration program, after moving on to Uni and graduating with a basic degree, perhaps before 18yo? What happens next? Move on to higher education like PhD and embark on an academic/ research career?


But if the teen is not interested in furthering studies, then go out to the workforce?

:?

Workforce? :?

:idea: Possible to be youngest professor or also perhaps an own boss?

Actually, I hope my #5 will become his own boss. Not sure if he'll go to university early or not, or whether he can even make it. But he asked me, so I suggested he start a business, because I thought he can sell ice to eskimo kind. He is now ferociously writing and drawing materials to put on his new website he said he will create together with his brother #4. Haha... for that, both went to read up on HTML (don't know can master or not leh) . How I wish that kind of enthusiasm never dies.

[2ppaamm]

buds:

Accelerated education would support only half of the child as the child has yet to develop the gradual maturity into adulthood and hence will always be looked upon differently by peers of greater age, wouldn't it?

Actually, my kids don't have problem with that. The older intellectual peers are always kind and giving, roping them in for all sorts of social activities, selecting him for final year projects etc, no problems. But what I found quite worrisome is the attitude of age peers, especially the brighter age peers.

When his age peers call him a genius, he will tell people that his course is for the not so intelligent. He wants to blend in and be accepted by his age peers. As he matures, I find that this is getting less so, but I took time to monitor and counsel. The girls don't seem to have this problem though, I told them to keep their age secrets, and they pass off as 17/18 year olds somehow. :evil: In any case, even in the local unis, there are matured students, who would be double some fresh high school students, anyway. The age gap in the university is always quite big.

[Chenonceau]

2ppaamm:

My youngest boy brought home his Maths homework today from school. He is P3, learning subtraction of two 3-digit numbers. There were 3 pages of homework on this topic! He doggedly finished the three pages, checked dutifully and kept the work in his bag.


The funny thing is, this is the first time he did not complain about Math school work, perhaps one month back in the Singapore system is all it takes to recondition him. He already knew how to add two 3-digit numbers two years ago. I thought to myself, could he have done something better in that 30 minutes?

What could I have done?
1. Played monopoly and taught him how to invest through games
2. Beat a cake and put it in the oven to bake
3. Read newspapers together
4. Taught him arithmetic progression

I'm not sure where your kids are intellectually in P3. But chances are, even if he/she is not already adding two 3-digit numbers, it does not take him/her three pages to learn. Some may take just one, some two, many will take 1 page and only a handful require all three pages. But the public education system will always sink to the lowest denominator, and cater for the 50th to 25th percentile.

So, imagine how many kids are bored in the classroom. I am not talking about the profoundly gifted (one in a million), exceptionally gifted (one in 100K), moderately gifted or gifted (one in a hundred). I am talking about the top 10% to 25% of our children. Many are bored.

I believe children should be allowed to learn at their own pace, to have an education system that caters to their abilities. They should be spending time pursuing what they love, not spending the whole year brushing up their exam taking skills.

Stuff from 1 to 4 above are stuff I do with him for fun, not to accelerate him but because he enjoys and I enjoy. And he learns stuff not learnt in school, not tested but important. He learns to form an opinion. He learns to disagree without feeling threatened. He learns wisdom is not his monopoly nor mine. He learns to integrate differing perspectives. He learns to cook. I never considered this acceleration but if this is acceleration, then I already do this and have been doing it all along. We did a lot for Science 'cos he loved it and it made him happy. Today we reap the benefits because the skills he learnt that I had no idea were important in school, are now important in school. The system has accelerated itself. I wish it hadn't. It was so much nicer to learn for the sake of learning. But well... All I want is better textbooks and other materials for teachers to teach with, I ain't gonna push to take away PSLE..........

[Chenonceau]

2ppaamm:

Chenonceau:

Hard for me to answer this 'cos I dun think my kids pull naturally ahead of their peers. If they showed me that they did and really wanted to, then I would accelerate them. But they didn't and only cope with the current system because I hothouse DS in P5 and P6.

Contrary to what you think, I believe your kids are ahead of their peers. From your sharing, I think they are probably more matured and more stable than most kids, and certainly have good EQs.

If you didn't have to handle PSLE, you'll never have to hot house. If you don't have to hot house, I believe they would have progressed to much higher level work by now, and happily so.

Let's say a child does not have to do PSLE, his time is released from all these work. This time is used to pursue his high school studies. Every 3 hours x 12 weeks, he earns a credit in high school (about Sec 1 or Sec 2 level), after 25 of these, he goes to the university. His self-esteem increases, his time in school shortens, he has time to make more friends, for sports, for music, for mummy. Does this make sense?

Not really. I don't quite understand you. I am interested but not understanding. Emotional development isn't academic? If I accelerate academically, it would be at the expense of the deliberate emotional developmental plan, no? I confess your thinking is still locked to me.

What high school studies?

If we did not have PSLE, we would probably be accelerating in areas that have nothing to do with school. He has eclectic interests. Friends who know him, gave him for X'mas Gavin Menzies book entitled 1421 The Year China Discovered the World. He found it fascinating and had fun discussing it. Another time, he developed an inexplicable interest in Democracy as a construct. He borrowed a thick book. He read it. He tried to make me read it too! Another time, he expounded on his version of Malthusian theory. If I did not know who Malthus was, I would've been quite lost in his discussion.

But all this stuff has zilch to do with what he learns in school... And tested. We do this when we have time. I am not sure but in such areas, he is probably ahead of his peers... But does this count as acceleration? I'm not sure.

He does get bored in school. The learning is often uni-dimensional. Teachers teach on thing at a time. This bores the brain. Nothing like the multi dimensional learning you get with Stellar. Most schools aren't there yet. We do multi dimensional learning at home in spare time. That's why I am upset he has no time. There is stuff I wanna teach him that isn't tested to round off the lopsided education he gets in school. But because the system has accelerated it's demands, we have no time. Is this what you are trying to tell me?

If I tried to accelerate him upwards through the system, we would have even less time because it would be more of the same thing, no?