<p>I think it’s madness. If a kid is extraordinarily precocious, it might make sense to accelerate him into high school, let him work through high school and enter a good university early. But sending him to community college at 10 has nothing to do with the needs of the child but the needs of the parents. There’s no prize for finishing college early, except getting into the newspaper and on the Today show, which, I think, probably correlates NEGATIVELY with long-term success and happiness.</p>
<p>jym626 I too am extremely impressed with Alia Sabur. Not only is she brilliant, but she has a great sense of wanting to contribute her talents to doing good in society.</p>
<p>Actually, I am impressed by Jym’s use of “aprosodic speech cadence.” </p>
<p>Quite a word to have to look up that early in the morning. </p>
<p>PS The “Could you use in a sentence please?” is a reference to the Spelling Bee and not to Jym’s sentence. By the way, did anyone see the part where the latest champion was asked to spell “numbnut”? :)</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Numb-WHAT?!? “Oh, NUMNAH!” National Spelling Bee](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaQ22DM0mjs&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaQ22DM0mjs&feature=related)</p>
<p>Negative vibes here too.
Went to college (competitive one) with a kid who was 13, (I think). Nice kid but too immature to be away from home and at college; he dropped out. Did hear about him a few years back, took him a long time to grow up, finish college, find his niche.
I absolutely agree with posters who said let kids find a non-academic passion and pursue it. Emotional IQ is supposed to correlate better with success than intellectual IQ.
For the record, spouse and I have between us 4 immigrant parents (English was not spoken in my home!). We have very American regional accents. So I imagine Moshe spent much more time with Mom than with peers.</p>
<p>Most of my D’s friends raised in immigrant households speak English without a hint of any accent, even if their parents do not speak English. The only ones who have slight accents are the kids who came to this country at the age of 8-10 and older. This wunderkind’s accent tells me that he has not been interacting with his peers regularly.</p>
<p>Absolutely agree with Xiggi on this one. I saw the original interview and was assuming that I would be “wowed” by a kid who just wanted to learn as much as he possibly could. That’s not the vibe I got from the show. I got the “mom made me do it” vibe, at least for some of what he’s been doing.</p>
<p>I agree with most of the posts here. His accent hints to the fact that he’s spending a bit too much time with Mom and not enough time with his social peers. A 10 year old’s “out of school time” should not be consumed with hours upon hours of studying. He would be better served learning to deal with his peers and filling in his free time with appropriate spontaneous kid fun. Many kids are intellectually advanced for their age yet it’s up to the parents to allow these kids to enjoy the gift of childhood. When “pushed” either consciously or subconsciously by parents, the outcome is seldom a happy one.</p>
<p>Well shucks, xig… And I was just about to to applaud you on your excellent example of admissions acceptances/yield and WL use in the Duke waitlist thread! (Well done-- excellent explanation)
Just fyi:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The prosody is the melodic component of speech, while the cadence is the rhythm-- the spacing between words, etc. (should anyone care). Someone who speaks in a flat tone (monotone) has no prosody. If their cadence is off, the speech can be halting, choppy and dysfluent. (There will be a short quiz on this at the end of this post.)</p>
<p>Did anyone happen to notice the absence of Moshe’s Jewish-Italian dad in the Today show video (the one that is on the website) Xig- you saw the full thing when aired, correct? Was daddy on the show or was he conspicuously absent? It might have been entertaining to hear if he had any accent at all, but clearly Moshe’s language, his accent, his use of grammar and syntax was well seasoned by mom.</p>
<p>By the way- that spelling bee clip is classic!! (Are we allowed now to post youtube links?? 
)</p>
<p>I haven’t seen any video of this kid, and my first impression would be that he was pushed by his parents, but there is always the possibility that he genuinely just likes to learn. However, I would wholeheartedly agree with all posters who have stated that he is probably too young and immature to be away at college. Why can’t he just live at home and go to USC or CalTech in a year or two? These two schools are not that far from the community college he has been attending. And I also think that if he is truly outstanding, then he could likely find a mathematics or science faculty member at one of those schools who would be willing to supervise an independent study project for a year or two, both to allow this boy to learn as rapidly as possible and also to determine if he truly is a uniquely intelligent kid or if he is just significantly above average and pushed.</p>
<p>Jym, I do not remember having seen the dad in the on-air show.</p>
<p>I feel bad though, because these kids, despite their rarity in the population, often feel like a dime a dozen – the kind of savant to be gawked at circuses. How many “I entered college at age 9” people do you know of who changed the world? Furthermore, does he know hardship? </p>
<p>Now, I am very sympathetic to precocious kids and I think (using the principles of the dismal science) they should exploit their opportunities to the fullest for the maximum growth possible. Intellectual growth is often exponential and losing two years early in the development of those kids can mean losing twenty years of achievement for some of us. But of course it does not seem to mean anything if the interest is not passionate .</p>
<p>What do you want to do … study. </p>
<p>But throughout all his study, he gives no mature insight on say the world’s intelligence (other than “everyone is smart in their own way” WHICH I agree with but tells too little to be insightful). There is no sentiment of “I want to grow up to teach others,” no pained preponderance of the world’s differences [why they exist and what to do about them, which must be especially salient for precocious individuals], no aspirations to improve the world. </p>
<p>Now I don’t think putting the kid in a normal school will optimal for him – he needs to be <em>talking</em> with thinkers …</p>
<p>One never knows where really smart people end up:
“Ski Genius Has A Surfer/Snowboarder Who Lives In A Van Rewritten Physics? Maybe.” from
[Ski</a> Genius: Garrett Lisi | Outside Online](<a href=“http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200805/garrett-lisi-1.html]Ski”>http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200805/garrett-lisi-1.html)</p>
<p>That’s my kinda guy …</p>
<p>I’m sure that he didn’t study all day. ;)</p>
<p>I always find the question, “So the person gets X degree at Y age - then what?” interesting. It would be, “Then whatever the person wants to do, just as if the person got the degree at Z age.”</p>
<p>My son got his master of science degree from MIT today at age 16. He is going on for a Ph.D. and hopes to have it at age 18, but more realistically will have it at 19 or 20 (his Grad Rat can have a new graduation date engraved for the cost of shipping, and the Ph.D. changed to S.M. should he decide to do something other than finish the Ph.D. also just for the price of shipping, so he could stick whatever year he wanted on his ring without it truly committing him to accomplish anything). He is considering applying for a M.B.A. and/or J.D. program after finishing at MIT (has been considering this since undergraduate school as it could be helpful in running a tech company, which has been his stated goal since age 2) and certainly could have applied to a J.D. program even if he graduated with his Ph.D. at 17 (at least two people have started J.D. programs by 17, including at Harvard Law School, so not just at schools that aren’t top 14). </p>
<p>He got his two B.S. degrees at age 13 and was able to start consulting right out of college, earning $200+/hour on some projects, so it’s not like one can’t start work right out of college either (he only needed a special exception granted by the labor and industry commissioner to be a paid EE before age 14, and he got that before he even finished college as he was an intern while in college). People often say they feel sorry for early-to-college kids. If the kid is the one who has wanted to early schooling (and not merely a parent pushing the kid), I’d say keep your pity/sorrow/compassion for the kids with cancer and the like, not those getting what they want.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the social life of the child in the article, but can again note that the notion that all young kids in college have no social life is a myth. Our son had plenty of friends in college, both undergraduates and kids his own age, and was in activities with both undergraduates (crew, SGA, philosophy club, etc.) and kids his age (handchime choir, magic club, etc.) while in college. He started graduate school at age 14 (moved out of state to live in graduate housing on his own) and has made a bunch of friends his age (even was able to invite them to his weekly lab group meetings and has one of them being told by his faculty advisor that he will be his next graduate student) as well as attending undergrad dorm parties, frat parties, and grad dorm parties (about two weeks after he moved to graduate school, he attended parties at all three in a single day)…and also parties at grad student apartments off campus, living community parties, and parties at the homes of faculty. Tomorrow, he goes to a BBQ/beach party at his housemasters’ home with other grad students, and Tuesday night, he was at a dinner party at a faculty member’s house. His “big social problems” involve things like whether to attend a teen formal or the Grad Gala when they fall on the same night (he did the teen dance last year and the Grad Gala with a 19-year-old MIT freshman this year) and how to get to the 3D conferencing equipment to remotely take part in a conference in Italy when he has to be on live at 10 AM when he has a slumber party with teens to attend the night prior (a CEO had a limo come pick him up from the host’s house at 9 AM). Trust me, these are the sorts of “problems” most teens would be fortunate to have.</p>
<p>I wonder how many early-to-college kids spend a lot of time studying versus how many spend far less time than average. For our son, he spent far less time than average. He didn’t take notes in classes, sometimes never read the textbooks (especially in CS classes; he’s learned over 70 computer languages and started picking them up at age 5 via self-study, so he knew a lot of CS material before taking classes on the topics), and didn’t believe in studying for exams (he considered it bad feedback for what one truly “knows” as studying can mean the exam will be testing more what is in short-term memory rather than long-term memory), and he was able to take fairly heavy loads (the highest load he registered for was 25 credits, not the 35 or 60 some Cornell students took in one semester, though) and still do well. He is intelligent enough that he can coast through rather easily, which is a blessing and a curse as he hasn’t learned to “work hard” day after day like many who aren’t from middle-class families do, but rather just goes in bursts as he feels inspired and then chills and does fun stuff that isn’t work related at other times. My guess is many smart people don’t have to study (or put as much time into writing papers or computer programs or whatever) nearly as hard or as much as general students to still get results that are considered more “awesome” than plenty who work hard, but the people who will go the farthest are those who both work hard <em>and</em> have a certain something naturally, so the most fortunate are those who both love to work hard daily (or at least M-F or such) and have talent.</p>
<p>I think it will depend on the given individual what will be the best social environment. For our son, I absolutely think being in college early was good for him socially as he mingles well with all people and having exposure to a broad mix of people has been enjoyable for him, just as having an eclectic mix of international foods in one’s diet is enjoyable for many people while another guy I know likes to eat soy burgers for dinner every night of the week. To each their own.</p>
<p>I’m waiting for a cross-cultural prodigy (e.g. a prodigy that actually has lived substantial portions of childhoods across several cultures).</p>
<p>Someone asked how many people who entered college at age 9 changed the world. First, can anyone tell me how many people who entered college at age 18 have changed the world, in whatever terms that phrase is meant to imply? Let’s say it’s eminence. My high school started graduating classes of 500-700 students per year in the 60’s. Let’s call is 500 a year for 50 years, so 25,000 graduates to date at a minimum. To date, I have only heard of one eminent graduated from my high school. Now this was/is in a middle-class neighborhood and from the only research I’ve seen on the topic, 60% of the eminent come from families that are considered “very wealthy” and 30% come from families that were impoverished leaving a mere 10% from the vast middle-class, so my high school’s graduates were at a disadvantage…let’s say typically more like one in 2500 rather than one in 25,000 become eminent.</p>
<p>I know at least a few people who started college at age 9 who have become eminent. Terence Tao and Norbert Weiner, for example. I know of only maybe 5, if even, people who started college at age 9. How many do you know? You’d have to know at least 5000 to make their odds of eminence the same as the general population, and perhaps 2500 to have the same odds as those who start college at 18 (being that 25% or so get college degrees and twice as many <em>start</em> college).</p>
<p>And then there is this: people in some states can get a driver’s license at age 14 due to living on a farm or needing to drive to school or work. Does anyone expect them to be better drivers (fewer tickets and accidents) let alone win an Indy 500?</p>