Moving faster does not mean skipping ahead
A friend’s daughter, a first-grader, was invited to do math with the second graders at the start of the school year.
My friend was conflicted about it. She, herself, skipped fourth grade math and still remembers the feeling of being lost and confused in fifth grade math and resented for the privilege. She was worried that her daughter would have the same experience.
The way school subjects are organized in the American system contributes to these kinds of age vs. ability conflicts. Students are expected to move in lock-step with their cohort, regardless of whether they understand the material. If they don’t, they will be with kids of a different age, which has the potential to cause social problems and still doesn’t guarantee that they’ll have their academic needs met.
The difference with my friend’s daughter is that she’s likely mastered all of the so-called first grade standards already. Moving on to new material is a reasonable solution.
Too often, students encounter situations like my friend did as a child: “You can do Step Three so easily and quickly! All right, how about Step Seven?” We’re setting up a gifted or high-achieving student to fail — or at least, to have to constantly prove themselves despite a foundation with gaping holes.
A better approach to take with students who are learning very quickly is to take them through all of the material at a comfortable pace, without skipping anything. Such a student will naturally zip through the material and will grow in confidence and enthusiasm as she goes, whereas skipping material causes uncertainty and self-doubt. After all, a student who is quick to understand how to find the area of a rectangle won’t necessarily intuit how to find the area of a triangle. They might as well experience that lesson, too. There’s no reason to rush. The accelerated path should still be the same path.
In my experience, students who move quickly eventually reach a point where they slow down and need to take the same time as “everybody else.” They won’t zoom along indefinitely. Ideally, the student and teacher are explicitly prepared for this inevitability. It’s a good idea to avoid praising the student too much for her speed; this makes it easier to handle moving more slowly when the moment arrives.
It is tempting for many parents and educators to treat a promising student like a sleek hot rod: “Okay, let’s see what you can do!” But the human consequences of such ambition, however well-meaning, can be dire. There’s no reason to push a student who is already enthusiastic about learning and growth. We run the risk of destroying that enthusiasm and sowing seeds of reluctance instead. Even worse, we’re making the student’s achievement about us.
A student should not skip a grade (or a lesson) unless they can clearly demonstrate that they have mastered the material. Even then, we should prioritize a child’s social and emotional needs, no matter how bright and intelligent the human being we’re working with. There is no hurry.