@twoinanddone wrote
A thousand times yes.
Life and childhood should not be a series of boxes made by other people that you’re supposed to check off to win at life.
I think you should make your own list-and a lot of these kids are doing so from a very early age.
If the kid is living at home and commuting, it’s probably a good idea. My sister is somewhat like this - started taking college classes at 13 because her math ability reached that level quickly. Not at Cornell, just the local cc and now the local university, but still college. As for the social aspect, yes, hopefully he is involved with some age appropriate activities outside of school, like my sister is. What some people don’t get about extremely bright kids is that some thrive off of education. My sister is happy when she is taking classes, challenging herself to the utmost. She very quickly gets bored if she isn’t taking classes. Holding him back for a “normal” high school experience may not lead to any more contentment than letting him forge ahead. The fact is that someone with this level of intelligence is not “normal” or perhaps average is a better description. There’s no way to make them average, and would we really want to? Some balance is good, yes, and hopefully they are doing that.
PG, I get and agree with your post #60. Looking down on people is not good. People can be friends without sharing intellectual interests, and the dignity of every person ought to be recognized. Still, it is really nice to have an unfettered conversation that goes wherever one would like to take it. That can usually be found with one or two people in almost any setting, but it’s harder to find with a whole group, but if found, that’s a really nice experience too.
Without having any real personal experience - my guess is that this is a bad idea. It reminds me of the Peter Principle - you keep promoting the kid until he’s average. Is that really a good thing? If he’s in high school, yeah, maybe he’s bored, but that might motivate him to learn on his own, maybe just learn about himself. Then when he goes to college, presumably with his more fully developed brain, he might still be extraordinary.
It seems totally believable to me that a prodigy - forced to wait - will take more advantage of college than one who goes there very young. Is it better to be a 14 yo in college who does well, or an 18 yo in college who is extraordinary? Wouldn’t we all choose the latter? I certainly would.
College is an amazing opportunity, with lots of opportunities. I think it’s a bad idea to try to rush through it at an early age. even if you can “handle” it. “Life is not a race to the finish line. Slow down your horses, take a peek at the signs.”
It really depends a lot on the quality of the alternative to going to college.
“you keep promoting the kid until he’s average. Is that really a good thing?”
That’s a good point. Here is what’s happening so often. A gifted kid never had to study in whole life until sometime in high school. Because everything was natural and what he heard in the class without much attention was enough for him to fully get the material. Then suddenly things get harder. But he hasn’t acquired the studying habit because he never needed it. Then everything goes downhill.
So yes. It is a good thing. The challenges make people strong, resilient and hard working. Take that while in the vital growing up years. The result is often bad.
No, it’s not about racing to the finish line. It is doing the best thing for the moment, and whether good or evil, radical acceleration, whether synchronous or asynchronous, is often the only way to give them what other kids take for the granted, and what gifted kids also need; chance to develop grit, patience, hard working, appreciation, etc, etc.
To have a happy and successful life, gifted kids also need those qualities. High intelligence itself is pretty useless in the real word without the qualities. And you won’t develop those qualities while being angry and bored to death with no challenges.
Sometimes it works out…
Norbert Weiner entered Tufts at age 11
He graduated Tufts at age 14
He received a Phd from Harvard at age 17
He joined the MIT faculty at age 23
He has been credited with originating the field of Cybernetics…
I would never want that for my kid, though. Any more than I’d want him to be a billionaire.
@Pizzagirl, why wouldn’t you, if your kid would find it enjoyable?
If you are advanced in STEM having to stay in HS to learn another foreign language or to take a dance class or to take an extra few years of English or History would be very good. That way at the late nite discussions you can talk about more than algebraic topology with your friends. You would even make some new friends whose interests are completely different from yours
@collegedad13, what if the kid has a burning desire to dig in more on the field, whether it is STEM or fine art. Would it be healthy to quench the thirst, if that is possible at all, both academically and emotionally?
Imagine a 7~9 years old kid, periodically going through high intensity periods of 1~3 weeks, during when creativity drive is so strong that she can’t sleep or even eat well and has to focus on painting or sculpting for all day every day? Would it be good for her to just take away art supplies and suggest trying a different interest?
On practical college admission point, wouldn’t it hurt admission chance if one stops math for 3~4 years because he finished the final course of his high school already?
Wow, some totally misinformed, misguided posts here. Life is NOT the same for the severely gifted regardless of the age group they study with. Their ability to comprehend is so much greater than 99.9+ percent of the population they will never find a peer group. Remember all of those kids you and/or others teased for being different? These kids are so atypical they have trouble dumbing down to any HSer’s level. Imagine making comments/jokes that fly way over the heads of everyone, including teachers. Not all smart kids fit in in HS even when they are the same age.
Social life in college at any age will be different. In fact, it was different for those of us who are merely in the top 1-3 percentiles. At least there were enough of us to populate Honors programs, only be a year or two ahead and find likeminded people to have those late night discussions with. I am amazed at the lack of academic seriousness evidenced even here on CC when college lifestyles.
Regarding finish lines- the extremely (severely- take your pick of words) gifted have a totally different finish line for academic satisfaction than most. We do not all reach the same physical height, nor do we achieve the same intellectual capacity. The bar for reaching one’s pinnacle according to the Peter Principle could apply but that level simply does not exist in our society for the highly gifted. You are not reaching the same endpoint sooner, you are continuing at a differently sloped line with a higher point at reaching adulthood than the vast majority.
I totally disagree with post #68. Only wanting average, plus up to two standard deviations (surely minus isn’t hoped for), may be comfortable with vast numbers but so disappointing. It is great to have more intelligence than needed to do a job. While the rest of us struggle once we’ve reached our limits those people can do more and still easily do the same work. And having money is never the problem- it is the lifestyle and spending habits that matter.
And- for those who point out failures in the highly gifted. Imagine being forced to always operate with a small percentage of your brain, being consistently bored. Many gifted kids populate our prisons for that reason as well. Suppose you couldn’t use the training in thinking you gained from you college education and had to do meaningless assembly line work forever, with no chance to improve it? Some summer jobs are real motivation to finish one’s degree!
I guess parents want their kids to be like them and share their values- in secular, religious, social, academic, you name it ways. It is so much easier to be average (ie in that vast middle). Maybe it takes outsiders in one or more categories to imagine life differently.
Where did you make that leap that not being profoundly gifted means “settling for mediocrity”? If you want to play that game, I’ll happily trot out my GPA in an honors major at an elite, Phi Beta Kappa key, career accomplishments, salary, etc any day.
@wis75 life IS the same in many ways for the severly gifted. Just because you can comprehend physics equations does not mean you can speak to people in Spanish on the street in Miami. It does not mean that you can talk about economic policy and the impact of the federal reserve raising the interest rate.
Going to college early means that you will miss your HS proms. That may be important to many people. It also means that you wont have any friends from the community you grow up in come visit you in college.
The very gifted I have known personally are very different from what you portray.
What “lack of academic seriousness” do you perceive here, wis75? Is it when we talk about eyeliner and fashion in the Cafe?
"Social life in college at any age will be different. In fact, it was different for those of us who are merely in the top 1-3 percentiles. "
What makes you think you’re all that appreciably different from many of the rest of us on CC, wis75? Don’t you think a lot of parents on here were top 1-3% in intelligence?
He will be the most popular kid there …at exam time.
@wis75 “wanting average, plus up to two standard deviations (surely minus isn’t hoped for), may be comfortable with vast numbers but so disappointing.”
Comfortable yes, but NOT so disappointing if life’s goal is personal and parents’ happiness. They are more likely to succeed academically without special support, develop hard working habit before too late, have easier time to enjoy interaction with people around them, and experience far less depression than those with three ore more standard deviations.
Whether “extremely” or “severely” gifted those with three standard deviations depends on how they are supported, especially early in their life before reaching teenage. Alas, judging by responses in this discussion, I don’t see a bright future unless their parents take the matter into their own hand, like the parents in the original posting.
It is sad though, that we are loosing so many potential Norbert Weiner.
Gee- I missed my HS prom, as do many others, who are at the same age. Sounds like it could be very boring if there is no one to talk with on your level. Try to be witty and the jokes fall flat because the others around you miss the obvious to you. Being the smart one (only lower end gifted) meant not fitting in, or being smarter than the boys who wanted to be superior to the girls. You are equating a good HS experience with a good typical social one. There are many kids who wanted to go to prom at all IQ levels but couldn’t and there are likewise those who couldn’t care less about it, again at high/low levels. I could name many experiences valued by some that you just do not value. Not all HS students are into attending sports events, music, arts, academic competitions- the list goes on and on.
You notice differences in HS classes for the math students who are in the same geometry/algebra class as a 9th or a 10th grader. Yes, they can both get A’s but the younger child likely understands concepts more quickly and needs to put in less effort.
I have never desired to learn to speak Spanish, at any level, nor have I ever had the desire to teach the retarded either. You’re mixing apples and oranges. My current Puerto Rican neighbors have doctorates and speak English- my H knows three languages (and their different alphabets), none of which is Spanish.
There is a range in giftedness often considered to start at an IQ of 130 and ranging open-endedly usually to below 200. It is the right half of the Bell curve. Some can be gifted overall or in only some areas. The differences between that person with an IQ of 100 differs greatly from that of a person with a 30 point difference- either a 70 or a 130. Continue the thought processing further- the low end gifted person with an IQ in the 130’s will be as different from the average and the high end gifted person with an IQ of 180 (or lower). Being gifted is a continuum, not a yes/no switch. Just as there are fast, faster, fastest runners and those who excel in HS sports, college sports and the professional level are all superior to most of us in their abilities but vastly different from each other.
"missed my HS prom, as do many others, who are at the same age. Sounds like it could be very boring if there is no one to talk with on your level. Try to be witty and the jokes fall flat because the others around you miss the obvious to you. Being the smart one (only lower end gifted) meant not fitting in, or being smarter than the boys who wanted to be superior to the girls. "
How much of your not fitting in was because you saw yourself as being “above” other people? The older I get, the more I realize that there are lots of intelligences besides pure academic ones that matter in this world. And the more I realize my life would have been enriched if I’d cut myself some slack on always having to be the #1 smartest girl in the room, and just kicked back and enjoyed the ride and other people around me. I love academics and learning and it feeds my soul but at the end of the day there’s more to life.