DW: We alsways knew that Hyrum was very good at math. He finished algebra in 6th grade. Sometime around 2019, we were discussing and debating how we were going to keep up with his voracious mathematical ability and his schooling in other ways. One issue was that he just wasn't challenged. He was getting 100 on absolutely everything they handed him and he was bored.
One day, I felt a prompting from the Spirit that we needed to have him skip a grade so that he could be about his life's work sooner. Normally skipping a grade would have happened some years ago already. But now was the time. So we started gearing up to figure out how to help him get through 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in 1.5 years.
Joy: I did leg-work with schools, talking about what they would require for him to skip a grade. They mostly said, "He can't." I said, "Okay, if he did x, would be qualified for the next grade," making scenarios until I figured out exactly what they needed to have happen, because they weren't willing to consider it.
I worked with Hyrum to help him test out of some classes through UT-Austin.
DW: I remember writing homework and tests for him for 7th grade history.
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| Freshman Hyrum, Sep 2021 |
DW: And then COVID hit, just after his birthday. He has often said that one of his birthday presents - over spring break, just as lockdown started - was not needing to return to school that year.
Joy: I don't think he appreicated that birthday present. He didn't want to do school online at any moment in all of his life.
DW: But given that strong push, we enrolled him in a public online school for 7th/8th grade. They worked with us to identify what classes he had already finished thanks to his UT-Austin tests, and he took half-7th grade and half-8th grade classes that year 2020/2021. Full credit to Hyrum particularly for one of his science classes that he did almost exclusively through YouTube videos from Texas middle school teachers! And he used that to pass the STAAR science test. By the end of May 2021, we all were able to convince Stephenville that he had passed all the 8th grade STAAR tests and was ready for high school a year early.
Hyrum's biggest concern was that he would be a year younger and a year smaller than the boys in sports, and that would hurt his sports abilities. It likely did make some difference, but given that he has always been tall for his age, the difference wasn't as bad as it could have been. He was in soccer for a year and then switched to tennis where the team was more supportive and he had more of a chance to succeed.
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| That time he scored a soccer goal and his team made a bridge to cheer for him |
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| Sophomore tennis |
One of Hyrum's choices and personality traits that I admire is that in the last four years, I have not heard him speak ill of anyone. He made friends in both the grade he left and the grade he entered, and he kept both ties up. He did occasionally tell us stories about what happened that day that had us raising our eyebrows, but no matter what anyone did to him, he called them friends and would help them and do all he could on their behalf. His willingness to forgive is impressive.
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| Sophomore Optimist |
He entered in the Optimist Club essay contest each year ... and WON each year. 1st place sophomore year, 2nd place junior, 1st place senior year. Although he ran several of his larger school/Optimist essays by us, we only ever made modest suggestions. It was all him.
Joy: He only asked me for advice on one essay in four years, and that was his valedictorian speech. He talked to me about a paragraph, and I suggested a one-word change. That was really close to it.
DW: He's got a real gift. He became better than me at chess, playing online. He tutored Spanish folks at an English class the local Baptist church runs, and the high school Spanish honors society recognized him as being functional bilingual. He attended every church dance he could find in a two hour radius.
Joy: He loved attending high school events, like Burning the Wood for homecoming. He always wanted me to go to his pep rallies for soccer or tennis.
DW: He took STAAR and other tests with not one, but two broken arms. (Okay, yes, son, you only broke one arm that year and injured your other wrist but it wasn't actually broken. Yes. It wasn't your first rodeo taking major tests with two injured limbs.)
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| Broken during tennis practice in early 2024 |
Joy: UIL has been a really important part of his high school experience, as well as before. It has given him an avenue to strive to achieve and challenge himself in math.
DW: He did Number Sense (math in his head speed competition) for years, and recently added Science and other Math UILs to his repertoire. This year his Science team made it all the way to State!
Joy: One of the things that really impressed me when he started in UIL Number Sense was, though they have coaches, they don't get much training in their school here for UIL. So he and another student tried to make a program to help challenge themselves and teach themselves to do better in the Number Sense area.
DW: He does sometimes speak of 6A schools with a twinge of envy, that they have actual UIL classes to train their teams. These are the medals he won just this year for UIL (top two rows), tennis (third row + plate), and as Valedictorian.
We are all kinds of proud of our boy and all he has accomplished. We were heavily involved in the setup, but the delivery was all him!
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