<p>ReneeV, I know you addressed your question to GFG, but I’ll respond additionally, because I think it’s a fair question to ask in general.</p>
<p>Yes, I think it’s appropriate. A couple of reasons for this:</p>
<p>(1) The original intent was to model a college course, as I said earlier. While an entire single college course might not be <em>as</em> difficult as a single highly challenging h.s. AP course such as GFG describes & such as I experienced, the scope of a demanding 4-yr college in general will include significant challenge; it’s just that the h.s. course telescopes that challenge into a shorter time frame – from 4 yrs. to 1 yr. </p>
<p>(2) The practicalities of higher education is that there’s a certain amount of initial competency/functional fluency that one needs to have handy, given greater volumes of info to digest at that level, than the volume presented in high school. To parallel this, on the elementary level, the most competent early readers are those who have been well-immersed, over-prepared if you will. I think there are other examples that will come to mind from your educational training & experience.</p>
<p>(3) We all have to remember that the brain continues to develop throughout h.s. & college, so that what one will be capable of in college (esp. if the cognitive seeds have taken root by then), will be experienced as more challenging at an earlier age. In a way that argues for, Why not wait? Well, because of the above 2 points! :)</p>