I Immediately Knew We Had a Problem.
Dylan’s schedule is fairly fun for him this year. Because of all the time he spent in the IBCP program, he had all of his graduation requirements completed before the start of his senior year, but he still had to take an English and a math class.
Math has been a problem for Dylan since the fourth grade. He was in the highest math level when he started fourth grade, because he tested at the highest level. But Dylan was having a bit of trouble staying on task. So they moved him down a level, to see if the slightly slower pace would work for him.
It didn’t. He was still having trouble keeping up. So they moved him down another level, where he had no trouble with the math – but surprise! Dylan was still having trouble focusing on his math work.
They moved him down to the second-to-lowest math level in the fourth grade. And there, he fit right in. Why? There was an extra teacher. This was the first time I’d heard the word “para-educator.” The para-educator spent the entire period tapping Dylan’s paper, gently calling his name, and reminding him to focus.
That was eight years ago.
For Dylan’s senior year of high school, after years of slower-paced, “on-level” math classes, Dylan was stuck. He has to take math, but he is so bright that – even after taking Algebra 1 twice – he’d finished his graduation requirements by tenth grade. He didn’t want to take Calculus, so his senior year choices included:
AP Statistics (college level – but a subject he expected would bore him)
IB Math Modeling (college level – but NO college credit because he’s not in the IB program)
Quantitative Literacy (finances and investments)
All along, I have said that Quantitative Literacy was the best choice for Dylan, but his counselor and his math teachers – seeing how bright he is – refused to put him into the class. They said that, since his grades were good in math, he should take a higher level class.
He eventually chose IB Math Modeling.
I was only in the math class for eight minutes on Back to School night, and I immediately knew we had a problem.
IB Math is, indeed, college-level math. There are a handful of students who are not in the IB program, but the math is intentionally taught at a lightning pace and with the intent of preparing students for the Ivy Leagues.
At the end of Day 1, Dylan was already struggling. When he took his first quiz at the end of Week 2, he didn’t know how to do a single thing. But, because he’s smart, he figured out – on his own – how to do it. And he got a B on the quiz.
At the same time, he didn’t turn in his homework on time for an entire week, so he was failing the class. Obviously, he might be better equipped to learn the material if he would do his homework. But he says he can’t follow enough to know how to do the homework.
“I just feel like all this information is coming at me so fast, and I can’t get it all into my brain,” Dylan told me.
So he tried to drop the class – twice – but no one wants to put a brilliant kid into Quantitative Literacy so the counselor keeps talking him into giving IB Math more time.
The way he sees it, he has two choices:
- Struggle all year with IB Math.
- Be bored all year in Quantitative Literacy.
Dylan only has a few days left to make a definitive decision.