this accelerated math stuff is getting out of hand. Kids who just stick to the normal math trajectory are basically penalized because their parents never thought of just pushing them ahead in middle school. Plenty of kids could handle the more advanced math earlier, but since they don’t do that, or don’t spend precious summers taking math classes, even if they are good at math they are forever behind these “top” math students.
I am willing to bet that if I quizzed a lot of these “accelerated” math students with simple arithmetic problems that I can do in seconds in my head (like 347 + 749), or asked them to quickly calculate a tip for my dinner bill, many of them would stumble because the foundations aren’t given enough time to develop anymore.