The world of education can be such a funny little world sometimes. For example, we have all this research (you can read more here, here, and here) suggesting that retention -having a child repeat a grade level due to poor performance- is associated with a host of negative outcomes. This is not new information, folks, and yet our schools retain kids all the time. At the same time, we have all this research suggesting that acceleration is not only beneficial for intellectually gifted children but is also cost effective and yet if the word acceleration is mentioned you are met with immediate backlash.
Academic acceleration: What’s the big deal with meeting kids where they are at??
Last year, I thought about acceleration all the time. Leo was in a half-day kindergarten program and it wasn’t working. I’ve mentioned before that I wish more people understood the asynchronous development aspect of giftedness. Last year, I had a child who was chronologically six-years-old, but he was- and continues to be- many ages at once. In kindergarten, Leo’s reading was at a 6th grade level, math was at a mid-3rd grade level, and his writing was at a mid-2nd grade level. At our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad meeting, I asked how this asynchrony would be addressed in the coming year. I suggested acceleration and was met with immediate disdain. In fact, a few folks flinched.
“He’d be in over his head.”
“He’s a boy. It’s different for boys. They’re so young.”
“He already has such a hard time sitting still and focusing.”
“You wouldn’t want to do that to him.”
Do you know what I wouldn’t want to do to him, folks? I wouldn’t want to place him in a classroom Monday-Friday for an entire year where the teacher would be going over material that he had mastered in preschool. Yes, he already had a difficult time sitting still and focusing, but how on Earth would putting him in that classroom situation help with those issues? After one year of a half-day program, I had seen his love of learning dulled. To place a child this energetic, a child this curious, a child this passionate about learning, in a classroom all day and have him learn next to nothing? That would be torture, folks.
I wouldn’t want to do that to him.
So, I suggested partial acceleration, thinking that perhaps it was less scary for those at our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad meeting. I added that, when I was in elementary school, I was subject-accelerated for reading and writing. The Catholic school that I went to did it in such a creative and flawless way that I only realized I was subject accelerated recently, upon reflection. I thought that perhaps this anecdote, coming from an educator, would help, but once again I was met with contempt.
The school countered that the incoming first grade class was an especially bright bunch and that Leo was in the “perfect cohort” - this, despite the fact that only moments before they had stated they had never seen scores so high. When I asked how they would meet his unique needs, I kept hearing, “Differentiate! We’ll differentiate!” When I asked what this would look like, no one could elaborate.
Finally, I asked, “How are you going to meet the needs of a kid who is reading on a 6th grade level and doing math at a mid-third grade level in a K-3 building?”
And do you want to know what the psychologist told me? These are real words, folks. I will never forget them because it was in that moment that I knew, with full certainty, that we would be homeschooling. The psychologist actually said to me, “We’ll just have someone walk down from the upper elementary with a book.”
Someone?!
With a book?!
Who? What? I mean… just… WHAT?! I had been on the fence, wavering back and forth, before the meeting. Homeschooling a profoundly gifted kid, at that point in time, felt completely overwhelming to me. But, someone with a book felt much, much worse.
I am now thankful for those words. Those words made me both angry and determined. In that moment I knew that, while I had no idea how I was going to do this, I would without a doubt do it better than someone with a book.
It has almost been one year since that meeting and things feel lighter here. I am consistently amazed by what a difference a year can make. And, while I continue to be an advocate for acceleration, it’s no longer on our family’s radar.
When I first learned of this blog hop topic I thought to myself, “Acceleration? How am I going to address that?”
Acceleration is a non-issue for our family. The beauty of homeschooling is that you are able to meet your child exactly where he or she is at, and you address his or her unique needs. You don’t worry about grade level. There are no exams. Leo is allowed to read what he wants. He’s read The Hobbit, The Neverending Story, and Wonder this year- all of these books came from my bookshelf. We use multiple sources for math, but all of them are on either a third or a fourth grade level, and he’s working on fourth and fifth grade language arts. He is obsessed with science and conducts far more experiments in any given week than he would in a typical first grade setting. He takes art classes, piano lessons, he’s dabbling in both Spanish and Latin, he’s learning to code, he maintains his own blog, he does gymnastics in the winter and soccer when the weather is nice, and he participates in both service and nature study. And we have oodles of free time, folks. We play, we read, we play tons of board games, and we hike. There’s absolutely no way he’d be involved in all this if he were in school 8:00 am until close to 4:00 pm, and I’d bet the farm that he wouldn’t be happy or well-behaved in that setting.
Put simply, I meet him where he is at and go from there, without worrying about grade levels. His unique, asynchronous needs are being met and he’s happy. How amazing would it be if we could do this for all the kids? Can you imagine that next generation, folks??
So… tell me, how do you feel about acceleration? Have you any experience with it? Are the unique needs of your children being met? Share your stories here. And, for those of you who are where I was last year, please read A Nation Deceived. It’s available for free online here. I also have a great board on Pinterest chock-full of pins related to giftedness:
Follow My Little Poppies’s board gifted and twice exceptional on Pinterest.
This post was part of the Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page March 2015 Blog Hop on acceleration. Please click here to keep hopping!
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How do we justify an educational system that ignores competence and achievement, and utilizes chronological age as the primary, or only, factor in student placement?~Miraca Gross, Professor of Gifted Education
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Thank you so much for sharing your stories. I am literally sitting here nodding my head and mentally cheering for you and your kids! Yay!
I guess I am at where you were a year ago. While we are in the beginning stages, my son was in full time kindi and now is part time (two days a week, plus two Fridays a month). The only reason he is part time is to allow time for the change and because he does like a couple of friends. I very much like his teacher, but she can only do so much. Luckily, she loves the kids and has a passion for teaching. However, some things taught in a lot of classrooms seem to be what is popular with kids / parents - meaning, the latest songs, movies, trends, foods, etc. We simply are not a family that is typical.
Since I have moved him to part time, he has learned some things in school, but we learn far more at home in a few hours. My favorite moment this week was when he was playing Yatzee with his sister. He finally was doing double digit math. I knew he could do this, but he needed it in a way that was fun. He won the game with a score of 224. Ha! He is also insistent I teach him cursive. No way he will learn that in school and we have started doing basic multiplication, because he LOVES skip counting. We sing our math facts and I break things down a little bit. But if I get too technical (boring), his brain turns off.
Thank you for all your post and insight. It truly does mean a lot. I try not to get overwhelmed, but some days I truly feel that way.
Oh, how is Leo learning code? Too cool!
I’m so happy that these stories speak to you, Julie. It’s definitely overwhelming but you’ll do great. I love the game story. Board games teach so much. My son went through a learning cursive phase too
He does coding with code.org and also Hopscotch.
Nana Curley says
Beautifully written. We cheer you on. Leo is a much happier child these days, I am witness to that. I saw him do a science project yesterday that was amazing and his enthusiasm was beyond the moon.
Thank you so much, Nana! Having such wonderful support from family and friends has been huge in his success and happiness.
Amy Pobst says
How are you distinguishing between differentiation and acceleration, Caitlin?
Do you mean with regard to what we wanted, or what they were doing? There was differentiation happening in the classroom. Lots of options for lots of different learners, however, academically the differentiation wasn’t coming close to meeting his needs. The research indicates PG kids do best when accelerated with support, when they can be with their intellectual peers. I wanted him at least partially accelerated. There was no way he would do well in first or second grade. I know of folks who have PG kids with creative set ups and it’s working. I think that’s wonderful but, unfortunately, our school system could not think outside of the box.
Wenda says
I love the way you began your post. Huge irony exists, for sure! Gobs of research against holding kids back a grade, yet schools do that a lot. Gobs of research supporting acceleration, yet schools don’t do that a lot. Mind-boggling.
Absolutely mind-boggling. Thanks for reading, Wenda!
Lisa says
Caitlin,
Our son has some experience with acceleration. We knew he was already advanced academically since he was reading, adding, and subtracting before preschool. We just didn’t know how advanced until he underwent testing in 3rd grade. His private school recommended a single grade skip with acceleration in math three grades. (His testing showed he was much more advanced in other areas too but he had some dysgraphia and impaired socially thinking which we factored into the decision.) I am embarrassed to admit this, but after the skip I was worried about what other parents would think. My mind was put at ease when one commented, “Do you think that is going to be enough?” I laughed and was hoping it would be, but privately, I had my doubts.
Initially the grade skip worked great and he made a couple of friends, but just as I had anticipated, as time went on, it was obvious he still had no true peers. He was still thinking on a different level academically. This, as well as his social thinking differences made him a target for bullies. Also most of his teachers had no training on how to facilitate a child whose thinking was on the rigid side and this led to “discipline” issues. Fortunately our son was (is) such a happy positive soul that a harsh word from a student or a teacher was (is) quickly forgotten. Of course everyone has his or her limits. I wish I had seen it coming, but he hit a wall this past fall in the seventh grade and we ended up pulling him out of school. It wasn’t just the social aspect either; the school had also dropped the ball on his math curriculum and didn’t understand he was bored in his other classes as well.
Some people might say acceleration failed for my son because we are now homeschooling. I disagree. At the time, it was the right solution for my son (he does too since homeschooling wasn’t on our radar back then). I think more importantly, parents, teachers, and administrators, need to realize that acceleration often isn’t enough, particularly for the profoundly gifted. Sure, if a child is academically one, maybe two, grade levels above, acceleration may be the best or perhaps even the only intervention needed. Certainly a profoundly gifted child could radically accelerate several grades, but even that may not be sufficient because they can still master the higher grade level material faster and often times these kids want more depth. Acceleration alone is less likely to address the learning needs of profoundly gifted kids. And yes I say needs because it was clear to me that the happiest my son was in school was when he was learning math in a classroom of kids who were four and five years older than him. So I am pro acceleration, but for my gifted son with his social learning differences, and at this point in time, it’s best administered in a homeschooled setting.
I am so happy for you and Leo that you figured out what works for him while he is still very young! The best advice I received from a psychologist with a 17 year old gifted son was to reevaluate at least every 6 months because it’s pretty likely that what worked for your child before, needs some revision, and maybe even a complete overall.
Wendi says
Thanks for sharing your acceleration experience with your PG son. My son was recently accelerated from a combo 1/2 class to a 3-5 combo class, he is in a very small school for gifted so multi age is the norm. Academically he’s doing well, math could still be more challenging but he is socially immature and that makes the jump more difficult I find. He can’t go back however going ahead also doesn’t feel quite right either. Like you said they are so asynchronous it’s hard to find a good place for him and I feel homeschool may be in our future soon. Nice to hear words of wisdom:-)
Oh, Cait, you hit the nail on the head again! I remember, when Mad Natter was just a little thing, visiting his pediatrician, and expressing concern about his sudden jump - between 18mo and 2y, he went from having 4 words (Mama, Dada, good, hi) in total to speaking in five word sentences (Mama, more apple please, yes?) and from puttering around to knowing upper and lowercase letters, all their sounds, numbers from 1-20, number sense, and fledgling addition skills. This seemed like a doozy of a leap for six months, so I said something. The pediatrician said to me, “Well, you might keep an eye on that, after all, the schools don’t do that sort of thing. Our schools don’t even consider giftedness as a possibility until grade 3, they don’t accelerate - ever - and if you have a gifted anything-under-age-nine child, you’re informed quite smugly that “they all even out by grade three anyway” - or worse - “there’s nothing we can do for [him].” How long do you think “there’s nothing we can do” would last for a child with the opposing special need? Not more than a second or two before lawsuits - and yet, we don’t think twice about kneecapping our gifted kids. Ugh. It’s a mess.
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Chalis says
We didn’t even try public school for our daughter. We approached several local private schools and asked that they just “test her for kindergarten readiness.” Well, after testing her, they discovered she would do fine in kindergarten. This is already a 1 year acceleration, and she still seems bored. We are having her take the WPPSI, SBV, and KTEA in June just to see where things stand on the gifted scale, and we are hoping that having those numbers well in advance of any additional acceleration request would be helpful. We are glad we entered kindergarten early, already accelerating, because we do not think any school would be amenable to skipping more than one grade at a time. So…the moral of the story for parents of obviously gifted toddlers seems to be “start early.” The age difference is only a problem with the one super-competitive tiger mom in the class who was under the distinct impression her daughter was by far the youngest, turning 5 in September. hmmmm nope. Lol!
I just wanted to jump up and down and shout, “YES!!!” while reading this! Having been a classroom teacher - and gifted education specialist at that - I know first hand that acceleration is STRONGLY discouraged in our classrooms. Enrichment, yes. Acceleration, NO. I have several good friends who are still in the classroom, some of whom sincerely disapprove of our decision to accelerate curriculum to meet our children’s needs (not to mention what they think of homeschool in general). But my husband and I have read the research, and more than that, we know our children. No doubts or regrets here.
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We do have experience with acceleration, but it was very different than yours. Several years ago, while still in public school, our son was accelerated from first to third grade (meaning, he skipped second, not a mid-year switch). The move was teacher-initiated, and we as parents had to be sold on the option. We met with teachers, his counselor, and principal, discussed the benefits and downsides, and came to the decision as a group to accelerate. After two years of trying to differentiate in the classroom it was clear that it would not be enough. The move ended up being tremendously beneficial both academically and socially (he made friends more easily with older kids, still does) but two years later, we still decided to homeschool to allow for the kind of educational freedom you describe here with your son. I remain an advocate for acceleration but in broader terms, I’m really am advocate for integrated learning groups that are not age-focused. I’d like to see the way we approach education undergo radical changes that would make conversations like this obsolete. And in the meantime, you can find us homeschooling.
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James says
Great post and great story. Sounds like Leo gets some great support.
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I was grade accelerated as a child, 5th grade, and prior to that was subject accelerated. It was the best thing for me, and I don’t regret it at all. When I started college, there were several incoming freshmen younger than me, and we all did fine.
As a GT teacher and coordinator, I have conversations about acceleration a lot, and we subject and grade accelerate as needed. My biggest area of concern is getting people to understand that even with acceleration, there is a need for compacting and differentiation as these students still learn at an amazingly quick pace.