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Comment by omega3 | Hacker News Reader

> first taught a 9th-grade general math class

This blows my mind. The kids in the US don't learn/know simple fractions until they are ±15yo? In Europe I believe it's around 9-10 years old which is still late considering I've had it when I was 7 or 8.

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As a former high school math teacher, I interpreted "general math" as a class intended for students who have not been successful with the typical grade-level math curriculum. That is a situation where teachers need to get creative with instructional approaches.

Introducing fractions in 9th grade is not typical in the US either. I would charitably guess the commenter is mis-remembering or there were special circumstances, like it being a remedial course for kids who were far behind in their academic achievement.

Usually it’s around 2nd or 3rd grade, though I don’t recall exactly as I’m not an educator and my kids aren’t that old yet.

Fractions were certainly in the curriculum earlier, but were they learned? I'm sure my high school calculus cohort understood them, but I'm not sure the average adult can add fractions confidently. Those who don't are going to weigh down any math class after that point.

(I'm not blaming people traumatized by early math schooling. I just think there are many.)

My kids started learning fractions at age 7 in a very under resourced, rural school.

Something about op's story smells funny.

I went to a rural public school in the US, we did fractions in 4th grade (~9-10 years old). 9th graders learning fractions sounds highly unusual.

Yeah, there's something off in the story. I went to public schools in one of the most poorly educated cities in the US and of course we were doing fractions when we were 7. 9th grade (admittedly "honors", so about a year ahead of non-honors students) was geometry / trigonometry. For non-honors I believe that was algebra.

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