<p>I just want to reiterate my main point, because I think it’s an important one. This is my opinion.</p>
<p>There are many hundreds (thousands?) of 13 year olds each year who could skip middle school and high school, go directly to community college, and earn perfect grades there, go on to 4 year universities, and graduate at 17 or 18. Probably a few hundred 10-12 year olds could do the same thing.</p>
<p>The VAST majority of them would be MUCH better served by going through a regular school curriculum with appropriate enrichment opportunities, especially since so many such opportunities are available now, both in-person and online. </p>
<p>A small minority of that group of students should be accelerated into high school, to graduate high school very early, and then go on to college.</p>
<p>Only the tiniest tiniest minority is well served by entering college at 13. Maybe a handful a year are best served by that option. But I am quite sure it is a very very small number. An exception to an exception to an exception.</p>
<p>As homeschooling grows in popularity, especially for gifted students, we’re going to see more and more and more 14 and 15 year-olds with two years worth of community college work. </p>
<p>My point is, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. There may be some extremely exceptional cases, but as a general rule, rapid acceleration into college has WAY more downside risk than upside benefit.</p>