<p>"Stephen Stafford chafes at the label “genius” even if he is the youngest student in the history of Atlanta’s Morehouse College.</p>
<p>‘I just consider myself 15,’ says the former Detroit resident, who spoke Friday to a crowd of fellow teens at the Southfield Public Library, hoping to inspire them to focus on their studies and go to college.</p>
<p>Stephen made it to Morehouse at 13, the youngest student to enroll at the 150-year-old college once attended by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. …"</p>
<p>Parents, would you let your 13-year-old go away to college?</p>
<p>Yes- if he had been that gifted he would have needed the intellectual environment more than being with agemates. My son was 16 when he hit our flagship, that was no big deal- he is “middle” gifted. The highly gifted are different than the typical HS student who gets A’s, he would still have had social issues et al so let him forge ahead instead of being forced to tread water/run in place academically.</p>
<p>13 seems pretty young to “go away”, but I wouldn’t be averse to attending something local on principal. My husband’s roommate was only 15 as a Harvard freshman. I never had a clue that he was so young. I think the biggest problem is that kids who start college at 13 generally miss out on the experience of attending a top college. </p>
<p>I saw this happen even with the daughter of a friend of mine who was in a hurry to get out of high school. She ended up at BU, but there’s no question in my mind that if she’d been willing to spend another year in high school she’d have had other options. OTOH she graduated summa cum laude and is now at Duke for law school so she hasn’t done too badly all things considered!</p>
<p>With all due respect, who’s to say the daughter of your friend wasn’t perfectly happy at BU and appropriately challenged? Has she indicated otherwise? I realize it may not be what you would have chosen, but that does not mean it was not the right choice for her at the right time.</p>
<p>I’m familiar with many kids (including my own) who start local colleges that early, and also with many who go to boarding schools at that age. I’m glad we have an excellent community college near us so we didn’t have to let him leave that early. Sometimes the child is just ready for more!</p>
<p>DeborahT, well because she said she wasn’t appropriately challenged. She didn’t regret the choice, she was ready to get out of Dodge, but she also zipped through BU in record time graduating early from there too! She felt (and still feels) it was the best of her options at the time. I really have nothing against BU, but at least from our high school - it’s a place where the B+ students go, not so much the A students.</p>
<p>My older son took his first dual-credit college class at the nearby state university when he was still 12 and graduated high school when he was 14 and continued at the university full-time. We did not consider sending him away to college.</p>
<p>My daughter could have done it gradewise, but not socially. She was shy at that age and needed a few years to get comfortable dealing with others. (Having a cashier job is what broke her out of her shell.)
Heck, our elementary school wouldn’t even let her skip one grade, they don’t let anyone skip, because they worry about the social effects.</p>
<p>This child is beyond most gifted in ability. Those at that end of the intelligence spectrum are vastly different from those with, say an IQ of 130-150 (just as those with an IQ of 110 think differently than those with an IQ of 130-140). It would be harder for them to relate to kids of their age in HS or at a local community college (those students tend to be more average). This kid is black and at a historically black college- advantages for him over colleges where he would be a minority, regardless of the more elite status. Sounds like his parents chose a college with the fit in mind, not merely the academics.</p>
<p>I read the article-what works for 99% of children didn’t for him. He has extra “special needs”, just as a severely ■■■■■■■■ child does. One size, or even several, doesn’t fit all. So- the vast majority of parents can’t imagine sending their child away to college at this age, but he is vastly different from most top students. It is hard to be different, it sounds like his parents did well in raising him. So much better than being bored in a HS with too much time to get into trouble.</p>
<p>I also suspect finances as well as culture worked for the family at this private school.</p>
<p>Lefty… It’s too bad your school district doesn’t tailor the education to the child- it is wonderful when they use the same thought they use in the opposite end of the Bell Curve- “special ed” doesn’t make all perform at the same rate, and in all things. But that’s a whole gifted and talented thread.</p>
<p>It all depends on the student and their needs, I used to think kids going to college that early was a mistake, for a number of reasons (my mom went to college when she was 14, back in the dark ages of the 1940’s, and she ended up with some real problems) but it depends on the kid. Having seen what truly gifted kids are like, their needs, it could be the only way for the kid to find a place where they can get their needs met. Some kids are emotionally capable of dealing with the age difference and such, others aren’t, there arent any set rules. And given how poorly most schools (I mean secondary education, not college) in handling kids like that, college might be the only option.</p>
<p>music…my mother went to flagship U in the late 1940’s, top in her HS class et al, but flunked out. Reasons- she didn’t study, took the wrong classes for her- girls weren’t supposed to do math/engineering… Fast forward to my generation in college during the early 1970’s- of course I took math and science, majored in Chemistry and then was one of a small female minority in medical school. Fast forward again and women are more than half the undergrads, nearly half in medical schools today.</p>
<p>Of course, this is different than being extremely gifted as this teen is. I wonder how parents would react to a child, perhaps with Downs (the most common form of mental retardation), who was with children several years younger. Should a teenager be allowed to play with children at their developmental age or be forced to be with agemates, regardless of the “fit”? Not everyone fits inside the box, even a huge one…</p>
<p>It depends on the student completely, but I want to throw in that (and I know I’m going to catch some flack for saying this) I would not have traded my years before college for college. I just googled term ‘gifted child’ and my tested IQ ranks me as “exceptionally gifted” (I know that no one here has any reason to believe me) and when I was younger my parents considered pushing me on either a faster track or into a private school. They chose to leave me in public schools, the same ones that all my siblings would eventually pass through. I started college at 18. I had only taken the two dual enrollment classes my high school offered, and spent two summers in the CTY program at Johns Hopkins.
Basically I’m posting because everyone is on the other side of the argument–parents who know students who started early and sank or swam–but I started on time. Am I less successful at this point than I would have been if my parents pushed me? Possibly. I can’t know that. But it depends how you define success. Academically I’m at a tier one public school on full scholarship. I’m part of a team of undergrads attempting to bypass the blood brain barrier using the body’s own immune system. My GPA is average. But at the same time I have a great group of friends my own age and a bit older who I relate to easily. I recently moved down to my college town to do research and support myself on a slightly above minimum wage job that has nothing to do with my interests. And I am having the time of my life doing it.
Is going to college early a big deal? I can’t say. But I can say that waiting is just fine. Sure, I was bored in high school, but if I hadn’t been I never would have learned to entertain myself. I didn’t need college to pursue my own interests. I also would have missed out on the little things that made me who I am now. I hated high school while I was there, but the stuff that went with it–whether it be the more traditional things like proms, and friends, and guys, or the less traditional things that make peoples lives different–I wouldn’t trade for anything. High intelligence gives someone the ability to learn well, but your experiences are what shows you how to use your knowledge.</p>
<p>Back in the 1980’s, there was a “youngster’s class” at the University of Science and Technology in China. All these kids in that class were of 9-15 years old. They were selected from all over the country and they were extremely bright. Some of them were not sucessful in their lives due to, primarily, lack of maturity at that age. Kids can handle academics. However, success takes more than just good at studying. Maturity is huge part of it.</p>
<p>@ginab - nice to hear from “the other side”. I think that’s the point - different people have different needs. I’m glad that my son waited to go away too. I’m glad it’s continuing to work out well for you! :D</p>
<p>A close friend of mine got accepted to NYU when he was 13 but rejected the offer and was admitted again after finishing high school. His mother skipped many grades and said her experience didn’t feel complete when she graduated college at a young age so she encouraged him to do it “normally” so he has time to enjoy his childhood and college life and that there is more to growing up than just academics.</p>
<p>She also told him a big part of high school life and college is the dating scene and you can’t be hitting on girls twice your age.</p>