The rise of educational computer programs in the past 20 years has led to a belief that teaching is the same as content distribution. Thus, if you believe students are a tabula rasa that we can fill with content, computers can deliver content as well as a teacher. Clearly, this is false. Students are not vessels that can be filled passively. They have to want to learn, have the skills to learn, and be able to integrate new knowledge with existing knowledge in their head. Teachers and face-to-face learning provide this function -- they create community, collaboration, motivation, excitement etc. Replacing teachers with computers will result in poorer educational outcomes for all but the motivated students. And in my experience, that is a small subset of students.

Completely agree. You need to do your homework and not just see a metric and assume it is what you want. I brought it up because CMU definitely funnelled its top 20 students into a special set of classes. It was not an 'honors' program, but was highly effective because the professor took those same students and had a separate program for the Putnam. Basically, you can't use metrics to find what you want. You have to dig deeper and talk to people. I also think this is true for hunting down a PhD program - you can't rely on metrics. I can only speak for what ds did when hunting down places to apply. A 'top' physics program does not mean that there is anyone doing research in your area of interest. You need to look closely at the program. For example UIUC is considered the top condensed matter theory program, and they have 5 professors. However, two are old (68 and 74 - and PhDs take 6 years), 1 has no reputation and doesn't seem to be publishing much, 1 is considered a jack ass (he had 2 independent people from 2 institutions tell him this), this leaves only 1 professor to work with. If anything goes wrong with that relationship, there was no one else to work with really so you would have to switch subfields. Another thing that happened for ds is that not all professors take students each year. So the year my ds started his PhD, 20ish students were newly accepted, and 7 of them wanted to work with 1 professor that was only taking 1 student. Because a PhD is like an apprenticeship, professors are VERY picky about who they take. Different professors vet their students in different ways: My ds had to do oral exams on the whiteboard every 2 weeks for a term to prove he could handle the work, others give trial research projects to see if you can research at a level they want. Some programs have you do a rotation through the labs, and then professors will choose who they want to work with after seeing your work. So just because you got into the program does not mean that you get to work with the person you want to work with in the field you are interested in. This is another reason to do undergraduate research if you want to go into a top graduate program -- in the first year you are jockeying for position to get in with the best professors so you need to already have some research skills walking in. Its quite a game to manage.

DS took 2 second-year math classes at our local 4 year university. At the age of 15, he earned 100% on both final exams where the mean and median were 60%. This experience led him to find a more rigorous program. We researched the programs in NZ by talking to professors, and the ones we talked to said that their classes were of equal difficulty to the ones ds had taken at our local university. So NZ was out. When we went to the US and Canada to consider programs, we did face-to-face chats with professors and students on campus and asked very pointed questions. We came to understand that you can't have difficult classes unless you have top students. So how do the programs attract and support top students? 1- Because my ds was in the competitions, we asked about that. We found out that CMU has an excellent program because Po Shen Lo (the USA IMO team leader) is a professor there and woos students from the IMO camp to come to CMU by offering to be a very hands-on mentor and by running a very-strong Putnam club. We found out that Waterloo in Canada gave a full ride scholarship to any student from any country who medalled in the IMO. 2- We also found that some schools use an honors program, collecting the top students for more difficult classes, but still running easier classes for the rest of the kids. CMU did this. 3- We asked about research opportunities for UG and found that U of M was very good at mentoring kids into research, which is super important in becoming a mathematician and having a rigorous education. You can have easier classes, but if your focus is on research with a professor who is a good mentor, then you can be as rigorous as you want. 4- We also talked to administrators to find out if you had to actually take all prereqs or if you could place out / self-place into higher level classes. That way you could take harder classes from freshman year and skip the easy ones. Places like Virginia Tech did not allow this, so that school was out for my ds. Basically, you just need to get your nose into it and figure out *how* universities can offer difficult classes without all the kids failing, and figure out how accommodating they are for kids that are stronger than the average at the school. To give a rigorous education to a top student, the program needs to attract AND support top students.

One data point, Cornell gives ds $42,000 per 12 months (he just got an 8% raise because of inflation). That is for TAing for 1 class each term and summer research. The TA job cannot take him more than 15 hours per week under contract. This year he is on a fellowship, so no TAing.

My ds did do an UG at a top university, but that did not assure him entrance to PhD programs in physics. Based on our experience, research is key. He applied to 9 of the top 10 grad programs in physics. He did 2.5 years of research in particle physics with CERN, applied to 4 programs, and got into 3. He did one summer (3 months) of condensed matter theory research with a very well respected researcher, applied to 5 condensed matter theory programs, and got into NONE. The applications were the same (including rec letters) with the exception of his 2-page essay talking about what field he wanted to study and how he was prepared to do well in it. Basically, he did not have enough experience in condensed matter theory for them to be assured he could do this kind of research, so he didn't get in anywhere. Theory programs are notoriously difficult to get into in physics; however, this was very eye opening. Now, once you are in, you can change fields if you can get a professor. So he got into Cornell with a particle physics application and is now doing research condensed matter theory. So all ended well, but I agree with all the above posters. Doing research with outstanding professors who have a reputation in their field is critical. Also, there was a section on most applications for graduate school classes you had taken. It was generally known that you should have an As in at least 1 grad class before you apply - meaning you have to take one in your junior year. Then you need to be taking more in the first semester senior year because you do send them the grades for that term before decisions are made. Top school want to make sure you can handle grad level work before taking you on. DS got a B in graduate-level condensed matter theory class in his first semester senior year, so that could also have killed his chances at getting into a condensed matter theory program. Possibly unfair given it was in the middle of covid and living on campus was more than a bit difficult, but that's life. Just our experience from 2 years ago.

I would suggest you talk to 8filltheheart. She doesn't always frequent the accelerated board, so you may want to repost on the high school board.

Is she really skinny? When my son got super skinny after a difficult and protracted wisdom teeth situation (7 removed and 2 in his sinuses, yes 7), he couldn't eat. And once he couldn't eat, then he lost his appetite, and when he did eat he felt nauseated. We got a liver function test that said he was eating muscle because he was so skinny - basically in ketosis. I'm just throwing this out there if she is underweight as that can cause the nausea.

Both of my younger sisters call our parents 'mama' and 'daddy'. They are 50ish. My older sister and I call them mom and dad. We all seem pretty mature to me. lol

I've done 2 things. 1) Refuse to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Eventually, the need disappeared. 2) Embrace the biphasic sleep. I pick a good podcast before I go to sleep at night, and get it ready to play. Then when I wake up, I just listen to it for an hour, or maybe 2 podcasts in 2 hours. I'm currently doing economics, and learning heaps. It doesn't put me to sleep because I am really biphasic and that is just life. But I don't feel like I'm wasting my time, and it is very relaxing.

Well, kind of. I assume that most states have laws as to the age you can leave a child alone in the house for 8 hours a day. If so, then only families with enough means to have a stay at home parent can take advantage of this opportunity.

Me personally, I'm actually for more state control and regulation. I just find it odd when people assume things are free market because they have the trappings of them, and then wonder why there is a teacher and nursing shortage. Free market should fix that shortage by raising wages thus drawing in more people to these fields. But people can't afford the education that is required by state legislation. So not so free market. I'm for keeping high standards, and subsidizing both the education and wages of professions that are in shortage.

In addition, the government requires certifications for many professions - doctors, lawyers, teachers, hairdressers, etc. This gives universities way more power such that they can charge beyond what the market can bear as seen in this thread. Guilds like hairdressers lobby state governments to regulate their industry, because this constrains the supply of workers and keeps wages high. It also requires additional education (and the associated costs) to meet these regulations. This constant drive to increased education, beyond what is required for the job, is due to government intervention. Social workers need masters degrees, for example. This is not free market.

Agreeing to all those subtleties to Monopsony power - it is a much bigger issue here in NZ where we have only one buyer for the entire country for all public schools. However, as to my second point, regulation does constrain the market. We do not see schools with 100 students to 1 teacher like they had in Britian in the 1800s. They would be way cheaper. And by forcing people to send their kids to school by law, you cannot opt out of purchasing the education product. This does impact market forces.

Supply and demand don't work for Teachers for 2 reasons. 1) In the public system, it is a monopsony - only one buyer in a location - so salaries do not increase when there is a scarcity of applicants. Supply and demand rules break down when there is a monopoly or monopsony. 2) State regulation requires attendance by law and regulates things like student/teacher ratios. These regulations/laws constrain the free market so it cannot seek an optimum product for a price people will pay. This said from a person who is anti free-market, but does understand it. 🙂

I want to say it was Nan in Mass who said something so simple and yet so helpful. Kids do a LOT of growing from the age of 12 to 18, in fact they pick up speed and learn faster and faster each year. So she told me: don't despair when your 12 yo can't do xyz, because in the next 5 years you will see enormous growth.

There are so many paths for neurodivergent kids. And it takes a lot of trial and error to find what works. In the end, my ds just couldn't make *written* language happen by *talking* into a phone. For him, oral language uses a different part of the brain than written language. So we did the hard yards to get him to 1) spell and 2) structure sentences. (Composition was always going to happen whether he used speech-to-text or typing.) We did 2 things: 1) 30 minutes per day of typing dictation to remediate spelling and grammar 2) 2 hours per day of side-by-side brainstorming, outlining, paragraph structuring, essay structuring etc. We did the above for 6 years 40 weeks per year 7th to 12th grade. What is interesting is that the mechanics of writing took less time to master than the composition. For those that are struggling with their neurodivergent learner, my point is that different kids need different things, and don't be afraid to just try different ideas until 1 sticks, or all of your ideas converge into some synergistic whole that sticks (which is what I think happened with ds).

The only thing that my ds physically writes is his signature. He even got a bubble filling in helper for his chemistry exam last year because it used scantron, and he can't fill in bubbles. One of the biggest things you helped me with when he was 12 (7 years ago!), was that it was time to abandon my efforts to get him to physically write. I had struggled to just give up on it -- I was still in the mindset that we could make it happen if we just put in the time, and you pushed me to just stop focusing on what was not very important and not very possible and incredibly stressful for my ds.

I still remember at the age of 17, we were talking AGAIN about topic sentences, and he turns to me and says "why did you never tell me this before?" 😳 Um, I talked to him about it every single day for 5 years! Maybe 10. That is when I came to understand his mind was simply not ready to hear what I had to say until he was 17. Fascinating really.

I also want to take this moment to thank PeterPan for all her help 7 years ago when I was trying to figure out how to help my little boy with dysgraphia. I had so many questions, and she calmly and slowly answered each and every one, and helped me brainstorm options for this boy who could not at the age of 12: physically write because he couldn't remember what the letters look like, spell any word at all without sounding it out incredibly slowly, have any sense of where a period went or any understanding at all of how language is structured, remember what a introductory sentence was let alone organise his thoughts in any way. Thank you so much, PeterPan, for your time and patience. DS is now a writer. This piece of his came out two days ago: Removed

Ah spellcheckers. My younger boy could not spell 50 out of the top 100 words at the age of 12. So many people told me that he could just use a spell checker, no problems. But, hello, how is he going to get a spell checker to come up with the word helicopter, if he can only get HEC down?!?!? Spell checkers only help if you are close.

Agreed that my post was flat. You know me, I could write a book. lol. However, I'm not sure I completely agree. When I have students with anxiety, the first step is to reduce expectations across the board. Make things easier for a time because in my experience success breeds success. So have them succeed, then slowly ever so slowly build up the level of work. And while you are doing that, you are dealing with the underlying cause of the anxiety. For me, tutoring is about 40% content and 60% emotional work. So in the OP's situation, I would consider the work too hard for her child's current state of mind. I fundamentally believe that if a child can, they will. So the flip of that, is that if they won't that means they can't, and it is my job to figure out why.

My philosophy is broad. Anxiety means that they can't. To me, when I say that someone *can* do something, it means that they have the intellectual capability, the emotional stability, and the desire to do the work. If any one aspect is missing, than they can't do it, not that they won't, but that they can't. And the only way to make the desired outcome happen is to figure out which issue is the problem and work to resolve it. To say that a kid can, because they intellectually can, chops the whole person into pieces and isolates critical characteristics from each other even when the person experiences the problem as a whole.

I am of the belief that if they can, they will. I would suggest that the content is too difficult or in some way inappropriate.

We are at the end of Winter here, and we didn't have a big spike (graph for NZ based on wastewater). Why is the USA having more cases?

I charge by the term and have a set package. 20 hours direct tutor time (2 times per week for a 10 week term) 3 hours non-contact time for communication, planning, printing, etc If a student is sick, I will tutor by phone. If they are very sick, then we will reschedule. I will do make-ups for non-sickness if given 3 days notice. (I limit it to 2 times per term unless there is a good reason) All make-ups need to be made during the term (except if it was in the last week of term)