This makes me angry at the parents. It makes it seem like they’re pushing the kid to rush through academics at the expense of social development and his enjoyment of hobbies.
If this were my kid, I would probably look for a gifted program where he could be with bright children closer to his own age. I would never pull him out of activities like music and language classes just to hurry through college. That’s not fair to the kid, when common sense tells you that of course he’s going to have a hard time fitting in with the other college students.
As I commented in Bosda’s thread, I think most children are willing to accept and befriend a smart kid IF the smart kid is not also arrogant or socially inept. It’s important to give this kid a chance to make friends at this age. Even smart kids need friends.
High IQ is a wonderful thing, but emotional and social development are also very important to having a happy life in my opinion.
I went to college with a girl who was only two years younger than her classmates, and she seemed painfully young. I agree with those who have suggested other options: a part-time schedule, taking time to travel, etc. I learned at least as much socially as I did academically in college. This kid is missing out on that crucial element of the college experience.
Yeah, I agree. Despite being in the gifted program at my school my parents wouldn’t consider letting me skip a grade because I was already one of the youngest in my class, and only let my brother skip 6th grade because he was almost a year older than most of his classmates.
If my kids are like me (ADHD & emotionally immature, which apparently goes together according to some studies, and late to start puberty to boot) I wouldn’t let them skip grades either, nevermind start college at 12. Consistently being one of the very smallest kids in the class is hard enough when classmates are within a few months of your age, imagine how rough it would be if it were years instead.
Plus, I’ve already met a like the one in the article: my friend Suzy originally started college at 15, hated it, then took a few years off until she was the same age as the other kids in the Sophomore class. She was much happier when she was in school with kids the same age rather than older ones entirely because of the social issues.
Seriously - you graduate at 14, and then, what? Get a job? And then you work, and then you die. The end. Sounds fun.
If my kid found that the stuff he learned at school wasn’t enough, I’d tell him that if he wants to learn more, he should read lots of books. A smart kid can learn everything he wants to know from a library. You don’t go to college at 12 to learn anything, you do it because your parents want to prove a point.
I started college at 16. Academically I was fine, but socially it was rough.
My kids are the oldest in their classes, so I’ve already made that decision via experience.
Alessan, my guess is you go to grad school and spend the rest of your life in academia or research with the other freaks. I suffered from too much too soon and didn’t do grad school. But I didn’t have parents who understood the path.
I disagree. What I have considered for Celtling is more a liberal arts/life skills curriculum until she reaches the age to go on to whatever specialty appeals to her at a more competitve school.
So I would encourage her to study foundational things like accounting, mathematics, literature and languages; things that would be helpful no matter what academic/career path she chooses later on. She’d be at a college near home, (or I’d move close) with me or a hired “companion” accompanying her around campus. The hope would be that she finds a field of interest, and continues to a more competitive school like MIT (or equivalent in her preferred field) when she reaches 17-18.
Which makes plenty of sense, but I think Alessan is talking about the far more specific case of the kid in the OP and his sister. His sister is 14 years old and in optometry school. Her career has been chosen. At 14. Actually, no, her career was chosen at 12 when she graduated college and entered her graduate school.
I don’t know about you guys, but I changed my major about 3 times between the ages of 18 and 22. When I was 12, I’m pretty sure I wanted to be an Egyptologist. I can assure you that I am in no way an Egyptologist at 26 nor do I wish I was.
On a much, much smaller scale, at our college we have quite a few smart kids who start as freshmen at age 17 - usually kids who were bored out of their minds in traditional high schools and simply took the GED to graduate early. I can’t think of any of them who have any problems going to school with kids older than they are - most of them were not only smarter than the other kids in their high school, they were also more worldly and less intimidated by age differences. You probably wouldn’t even notice they were the youngest in any of their classes today.
Now, 12 years old?
Well, if my kid were smart enough to handle the work, and expressed even an iota of interest in doing this, I don’t see why not. However, I would have to live in the area, want that kid to stay at home and not live in a dorm, and make sure that after school he was also taking time to do some “normal” things kids at that age do - even if it was just playing some video games with their neighborhood kids and going out to ride bikes, etc. It would be tricky, yes, but why shouldn’t your kid get the best education possible? As far as what they will do after they graduate? Well, on to a Masters and PhD and then let them get a double degree or whatever…I don’t really see a downside to multiple degrees at any age and who knows - maybe at age 23 he will suddenly want to become a poet and hitchhike through Europe? At least he always has a nice degree to fall back on and could probably do some job in his spare time that will earn him more money than most people could earn full time.
I agree with the people who say he should go half time. That should be plenty. I believe UC professors get free tuition for their kids, so money isn’t an issue, and that would give the kid time to play or research independently if that was what he wanted to do. 18 hour days would be tough for maturer college students. This kid should still be growing, and needs his sleep.
My daughter went to Berkeley half time her senior year of high school, because she ran out of classes. (Thanks to starting in NJ where they used to actually fund education.) Though she was officially a student, and could have gone on without applying again, she had no desire to and went someplace else - which was a great decision.
I see some folks are positing that he actually does live at home. If that’s true, and he’s getting emotional support from his parents on a daily basis, then I’ll revise my 90% figure down to 40%. I still think it’s unconscionable that he has no physical or social activities with kids his own age.
The question is, what’s the PURPOSE of going to college? If you’re a genius at a particular field and you have a burning passion for that field, then a university would be a good place to work with real professionals in your field. You can’t do that with books and online courses. But if you’re that kind of kid the degree you’re working on while you’re attending university as a minor is irrelevant, you’re going to end up with a PhD and your undergraduate work is just to make sure you’ve got the right preparation.
So what’s the point of studying 18 hours a day at a typical undergraduate program at 12 years old? To get him his bachelor’s degree credential in record time so that he can finally get to his real work doing real research? Fine. To get him into optometry school at 16 instead of 17? What’s the POINT of that? I understand if you’re a genius and a normal high school is a waste of time. Absolutely it would be a waste of time. But so is your undergraduate degree, it’s just a more difficult waste of time.
Taking classes just because you’re a fast reader and a fluent writer and can memorize stuff easily is a waste of time unless you’re learning stuff you actually want to learn. Are you doing anything meaningful with your talents? What’s the goal here? The goal of a high school diploma is to show the world that you’re minimally competent and can read, write, sit in a chair for several hours, and do simple math. A bachelor’s degree is pretty much the same thing, plus a certificate that you’re minimally competent in one particular field. So what’s the point of getting a high school diploma at 12 and a bachelor’s degree at 15? To show off how smart you are? Who exactly are you showing off to?
I don’t think he wants to go to optometry school, his sister (who got her bachelor’s at 14) went on to optomestry school (where she already has at least 1 or 2 years done). If optometry school is like other health sciences, she is stuck in a block program for 2-4 years, and will get her diploma when she is around 18 (and thus an adult who can prescribe the drugs she’s been taught). If she gets it before 18, I wonder if she has to do some sort of mentorship/preceptorship program.
Anyways, the optometry school is the sister, not him. He may want to go to medical school or some other health science-related, or decide to do research.
And as someone who went to a professional school, I finished my degree “early” because that undergraduate degree didn’t matter much as long as I got the pre-requisites required for my chosen career. I can see why for someone who is already determined, just finishing the prerequisites in as short a time as possible is something they’d want, to get it over with and on to learn their profession.
Of course, after I got into my field, I found out I wanted to specialize and now I’m a professional student.
I suspect that he’s the type of kid for whom the college catalog looks like a toy catalog or a travel brochure. A huge percentage of those classes look fascinating to him, and he wants to take every one of them. His parents may well have talked him down to the number he is taking now, and demanded that he give up something when he got overloaded. He may well have been the one to choose which activities he gave up.
Or not, we don’t know; but I know kids who fit that description, and would love to have his problems.
