True story: one of my neighbors went to University of Chicago High School ("Uni High" as it's called). It was (and probably still is) a school for the extremely gifted. (I suppose they have some Reverse Imposters there, too, but I wouldn't know /s )
My dad was against my going there; I wouldn't be able to talk to ordinary people if I was only ever around those "gifted" kids.
I suppose there's something to that; I cited this article:
by a guy who didn't know what to say to the plumber standing in his kitchen, whereas I'd much rather be around people like that than the Reverse Imposters.
Acceleration (universal or subject-specific grade skipping) can help with this. It challenges the gifted student appropriately while still allowing them to socialize with regular people.
Naively it might seem that this could lead to bullying, but from what I read it tends to work really well. The older students aren't threatened by the prodigy.
I took geometry as a freshman in a class full of juniors and seniors. The bullying was frequent, and the teacher strategically refused to show up on time so I had to either wait around outside the classroom like a coward or go in and be hazed.
I skipped mid 3rd to mid 4th. I wasn't really that much younger, but it was not good. It wasn't just that they were bigger or whatever, but at that age what you're going through is still pretty tightly coupled to your age. I didn't feel normalish until well into high school.
I don't recommend it. I recommend letting kids accelerate, but right now the consensus seems to be accelerate most people who need it at 9th grade, not 7th, and definitely not before. As with most of these things the consensus goes back and forth, but that squares with my lived experience.
I wonder if skipping in the middle of the year was particularly bad.
The recommendation you cite conflicts with Miraca Gross's recommendation for exceptionally gifted students, but they will be a minority of those who can grade skip.
i took algebra 2/trig as a freshman in a class full of juniors and became friends with pretty much all of them. i was a pakistani dude at a title 1 school. it just depends on the class
As adults we're constantly interacting with people younger and older than us by multiple decades. Even as college students we're in classes with those younger or older by multiple years.
The modern age-cohort school system is the historic exception. Prior to it single-room schools were common. And prior to those apprenticeships in which some of the apprentices or journeymen were older and younger were common.
Heck, in my neighborhood kids were older and younger. I remember getting advice from an older neighborhood kid when beginning elementary school (the part I remember is that lunch boxes weren't cool, and to use a paper bag instead).
You're right in that being the single odd-ball is unusual. But I think it would be better to just make partial and full grade skips more common than to make them rarer.
My dad was against my going there; I wouldn't be able to talk to ordinary people if I was only ever around those "gifted" kids.
I suppose there's something to that; I cited this article:
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite...
by a guy who didn't know what to say to the plumber standing in his kitchen, whereas I'd much rather be around people like that than the Reverse Imposters.