Elementary Schoolers are taking Algebra I
The extremes are always much more extreme than one thinks.
I have met a couple hundred elementary school kids taking high school Algebra I classes in the past few years.
This has been very surprising to me, given a) it’s a high school class, b) whether to even offer the class in 8th grade has been a very loudly politized discussion (as in the U.S., it’s commonly a 9th-grade class), and c) not all of their parents are “math people.”
Some are home-schooled, some are private-schooled, some are chartered-schooled, and some are public-schooled.
The biggest commonality is that someone (at home or school) noticed the kid liked math and then tried to really see how much they liked it.
At the very extremes, I’ve met a kindergartener taking Algebra 1 and several 3rd and 4th graders taking Calculus I.
When I started meeting these kids doing Algebra I in elementary school, I started seeing them everywhere.
Baader–Meinhof phenomenon // Frequency Illusion
From Wikipedia1:
The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it.
The name "Baader–Meinhof phenomenon" was coined in 1994 by Terry Mullen in a letter to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.[1] The letter describes how, after mentioning the name of the German terrorist group Baader–Meinhof once, he kept noticing it. This led to other readers sharing their own experiences of the phenomenon, leading it to gain recognition. It was not until 2005, when Stanford linguistics professor Arnold Zwicky wrote about this effect on his blog, that the name "frequency illusion" was coined.[2]
It’s a small group of kids capable of doing high school math.
It’s extremely unusual.
But they exist, and no one talks about it.
I had never heard of it happening before meeting them.
Roger Bannister and the Bannister Effect
The much-touted story about Roger Bannister goes something like this.
Nobody in human history had run a mile race in under 4 minutes.
Then, on May 6, 1954, at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, England, Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mark with a time of 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.
From the Big Bang to May 6th, 1954, nobody ran under 4 minutes.
Once people knew it was possible, Bannister's record lasted only 46 days.
The Bannister Effect purports to show
when someone breaks through what was previously thought to be impossible, and others are inspired by their success and follow through into the new possibility.
Whether the effect has merit, check out this footnote2 from Steve Magness on his website about the Science of Running.
That said, It’s a neat anecdote you’ve probably heard before that serves as an inspirational story to inspire you to greatness.
Now you know
Does that mean you should set your sights on getting your kid to take Algebra I in elementary school?
Probably not, unless the kid wants to go for it.
But it does mean that you are now aware of it.
I wish someone had told me when I was growing up.
I wish someone had told me when I first started parenting.
That’s all for today :) For more Kids Who Love Math treats, check out our archives.
Stay Mathy!
All the best,
Sebastian Gutierrez
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