At my school, in the late eighties when my sister was in Jr. high, Algebra I was a ninth grade class for the "regular" kids and an eighth grade class for the "accelerated" kids -- to take algebra in eighth grade, you had to either have a recommendation from your seventh-grade math teacher or have your parent sign a special waiver. About 40 of the 100 kids in her grade took it in eighth grade. By the time I was there, four years later, eighth grade algebra was standard, with just the "slow" kids taking it in ninth grade, and I had to take a special test to get to take it in seventh grade. Five of the 150 kids in my grade took it in seventh grade, and about 130 of the rest took it in eighth grade.

I can't believe I didn't take pictures of the DR and its interesting window config.

And of course it was only those of us in the "smart class" who took algebra in 8th grade, but how else do kids get to calculus?

Calculus in high school is a relatively recent thing -- I don't have the statistics right here, but it wasn't until the mid eighties or so that taking calculus in high school became something for the regular-smart kids, rather than just for the couple of really advanced kids.

Ooh, that looks nice, Sara!!

(I am having cut-and-paste issues, but:) Ah, I was taking calculus in high school where it was somewhat common (I was in AP, but I think there was regular calc as well), but it was early 90s, so that makes sense with the time frame you're describing.

And of course it was only those of us in the "smart class" who took algebra in 8th grade, but how else do kids get to calculus?

Yeah, in my school you had to double up on math one year to get to AP Calc. Maybe about 10% of our class did that. Regrettably I took an intensive PE class instead...OTOH, between weight-lifting and calculus, only one of those comes up on a biweekly basis.

I was going to be a math major in college, until the 1/2 credit freshman seminar for future math majors was so terrible, I don't think any of us ended up following through with it.

I could have been an actuary!

but how else do kids get to calculus?

Some of us never do. Trig was the highest that was around in my high school in the late '70s. I chickened out on anything more than Algebra 2, even though a couple of teachers tried to tell me that I could do this. It just never synched properly.

I got into the AP track by the skin of my teeth, my dad's efforts at teaching me when I had a crap teacher and my mother insisting on them allowing me to get out of the basic track , which ended in trig. All of us who had the crap teacher weren't initially allowed to get on the AP Calc track. Which was kinda unfair, getting tracked out of middle school because they had a history teacher teaching algebra I. A bunch of us made it fine. Hell, I passed the BC (?) Calc AP exam with a 4, I think. May have been a high 3, not sure.

I ended up a math minor. Which is kinda funny, considering while I could do the practical, I kinda was a fail at connecting with the theory, and the math department, well...it is theory! There is a reason I got a degree in physics.

What's sad is I barely remember any of it.

I had algebra 1 as a top track student in my excellent public school in 7th grade (1984), and then again in 8th grade (in a different school; there were no higher options and actually it was good for me to do it again, I finally really got it), and I made it through AP Calc (AB). I worked my ass off in Calc - it didn't come easily. And I don't remember a blessed thing about it.

I was a Math major, technically, and I remember shit-all about it. But really I was a Comp Sci major--they just loaded it with math and called it Math and Comp Sci.