<p>I’m a bit like ginab- my parents considered pushing me a grade ahead, but didn’t. However they did switch me into a private, catholic parochial school that was very good for more “humanities” (it feels weird be talking about humanities classes for second graders… but whatever) subjects but struggled with teaching math/science. Luckily, i have a math/science kind of brain and was able to fly through. Academically, I could have graduated and gone to college after the first semester of my Junior year, but I was very involved with my school’s show choir and theater and had a great group of friends that I certainly didn’t want to leave. I ended up graduating in the top of my class, and very, very happy.</p>
<p>I definitely agree that different people need different things. It takes all sorts to make the world go round.</p>
<p>Everyone is different. I moved away to college at 16, and even at that age I was a little immature for college. The classes were hard but manageable, mainly it was the other stuff (read - the opposite sex, intoxicants, social stuff). But I’m sure some kids, even younger, handle it fine.</p>
<p>I do wonder though, for parents or kids who started really early (like 13 or 14). What do they do when they graduate? Do they almost always go to graduate school?</p>
<p>Isn’t a 13 or 14 year old too young to be hired at most jobs anyway? In my state you can’t even be hired in 99% of places until you’re sixteen. I think grocery stores are about the only place that can hire you, and most won’t because you’d have to call someone over to sell alcohol. I’ve got no idea how a professional office or lab would handle the age thing.
That’s probably why they have to go to grad school…</p>
<p>I was 17 - but I was just young for my class (but still within the normal range). A 13 yo? Absolutely not. I thank my lucky stars that my kids are just “normal bright” and not the over-the-top gifted-I’m-so-bored-without-constant-challenge. I think it’s kind of a curse, to be honest.</p>
<p>This is one reason I’m glad I live in NYC. </p>
<p>My offspring went to public gifted and talented programs. Some classmates were truly brilliant. They were, nevertheless, KIDS. Some took college classes which they took at colleges, and got high school credit for them. But even the most brilliant took high school courses like PE, health and sex education, public speaking, etc., in high school. They were involved in high school ECs. A few were also involved in college level ECs, usually, though not always, in music. They went home at night to their parents’ homes.</p>
<p>I think it’s healthier for almost everyone to do things this way. It’s not an option though in many places.</p>
<p>Kids who start work at a young age have a couple options. Some, like actors, can get special work permits and I suspect others can do so, as well. Others that I know are in business for themselves either running their own business or doing consulting work. My son has been a (quite part time) working musician since age 13 and a violin teacher since age 14 but didn’t get a job working for someone else until he turned 16.</p>
<p>Like others here, though my son started part time at age 12 (he got the equivalence of a high school diploma at that age), for various reasons, he and we chose to keep him at home until 18 when he will graduate high school at the normal age. It has not been without its challenges and I don’t know how it will ultimately work with college admissions but it was the right thing to do for our family.</p>
<p>A friend of ours from church graduated from high school at 13, college at 17 and ultimately got his PhD at Caltech by age 23, I think. He turned out very well (he’s a college math prof) but did sew some very wild seeds for a number of years and he did not recommend his path (nor did he recommend Caltech for younger students but was grateful for the education there).</p>
<p>In the ideal world children can receive an appropriate education while living at home until they are 18. However, this is not an ideal world. Most school systems can’t give enough academically to the most highly gifted nor can they provide a peer group of near agemates who also think at the same level. Gifted children are often social misfits for various reasons, being forced to be with agemates for extra years won’t give them the ordinary happy teen experience. The “best fit” may be with the college academics since the HS fit won’t be very good.</p>
<p>Those who are well above average in academic intelligence but not too far above most have the easiest time fitting in. They have the smarts to rise to the top and compete but also are close enough to average people so they get along without having to think about it (such as not needing to remember to talk at a level most can understand, tell nonobscure jokes, lose patience with how slowly others “get it”…).</p>
<p>No one can “have it all”. You can’t have an average/ordinary life unless you are that. I am so happy for this teen that he is able to enjoy his life.</p>
<p>Addenda. There was a thread awhile back about “gap” years. It is hard for an underage child to take part in many activities that are alternatives to college after HS. Many jobs require being of age, as does travel- checking into hotels… Also, the gifted need more, not less, intellectual stimulation- that is usually found in the college setting as opposed to alternatives. It can be frustrating. What do you do when your 5 year old reads at a 5th grade level? You certainly don’t make him read the easy reader books but it was hard to find books with enough “meat” that also appealed to his age level. No wonder so many young boys gravitiate to sci fi for fiction…</p>
<p>It probably depends on a lot of factors including location, finances, availability of advanced work, etc. as to whether an exceptionally gifted student can get their academic needs while staying at home.</p>
<p>As with a couple other posters on this strand, my son would qualify as one in the top .1% in terms of intellegence but he is not a social misfit. He’s extremely outgoing and social and has many friends of all ages. For a number of years between the ages of 13 and 16, most of his friends were older and came from college classes, music, or church. This year, he got to experience being with his same age peers for most of his activities (baseball, youth group, homeschooling literature class, music, math circle). He is a chameleon and is able to fit in because he shares interests with various students. No, he doesn’t talk to his friends about the graduate level physics research he’s doing; he saves that for his professor. He’s writing a book with a college graduate friend and he doesn’t talk about that with his same age peers. He also agrees he’s not what he terms as the “typical” gifted homeschooler. He says there are a couple of them at math circle and he admits they’re kind of hard to talk to as they are socially awkward.</p>
<p>Having said all that, my middle son, also idenfied as being in the top .1% in terms of intelligence, is shy and socially somewhat awkward. These two sons are so very different from each other.</p>
<p>For both, it’s been a great challenge for different reasons trying to find academic resources. For my oldest, our finances and location have limited us the most but my son is a self-directed learner and he always finds something interesting to learn about. OTOH, he has rarely been really challenged in his academic work and this is worrisome should he go off to a highly selective school but I am hopeful he’ll make the adjustment to a heavy and difficult workload.</p>
<p>As to the 5 year old that reads at a high level, yes, I remember well how challenging that was, particularly since my son was so sensitive to anything even slightly scary. I still remember the nightmares he had at age 6 after he read a book that mentioned Pearl Harbor. </p>
<p>Tough choices but I’m really glad the young man in the story is doing so well! :-)</p>
<p>Attending college is about more then the academics, going to class and studying. It is also about having the social skills to interact with your peers. Even in h.s., a 1-2 year age difference can make a HUGE difference in how you look at things and how you interact with those around you. If someone is that gifted they don’t need as much time to study or absorb the material faster, I would instead enourage them to become involved in more extra-curricular or sports activities in order to occupy their free time. They can also do volunteer work, be involved in their church or enjoy other similar activites with children their own age. Intelligence alone won’t enable you to excel in sports, where physical ability, coordination, etc. are more important and can be just as rewarding to master those skills as well. And when they graduate x years sooner then their peers, now what??? Yes, they can graduate from college at a very young age, but look at how much else they would have missed out on or perhaps still won’t have the social skills to be successful for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Leon Botstein, President of Bard, believes that the AVERAGE high school student - the NON-gifted ones - are ready for college work at 14-15. And he has put his money where his mouth is. The Bard Early College Program in Brooklyn takes NON-GIFTED kids (all they have to be is motivated) and gives them a full college curriculum at that age. And they are doing just fine. </p>
<p>My older one started college course (at both two and four year institutions) at 13, and after the first week, her age was a non-issue.</p>
<p>Our S is extremely gifted, which we learned when he was 3 and trying to help the preschool director improve her nationally standardized placement test designed for children of that age. We have had choices all along the way and opted to keep him with others of his age. It has been challenging to keep him properly stimulated but for HIM, he benefited greatly from the extra time to socialize and refine his social skills. Academically, the preschool director and pediatrician said he could have easily entered or bypassed kindergarten at age 3 and continued skipping along if desired but they felt that socially FOR HIM, it would not have been ideal.</p>
<p>Because he was so gifted, he was able to keep himself engaged and amused, even when the curriculum might not have been academically challenging. We and he have no regrets at allowing him the time and space to mature socially with his peers/agemates. He is now starting his career as a federal employee in his chosen field of electrical engineering and couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>It’s true that none of us know what would have happened if we had chosen a different path with or for our kids, but we can only know if the path that WAS chosen seems to have worked or not. </p>
<p>I would not have been comfortable sending either of my kids at 13 away to college, but we’re all different and I don’t know this kid, this family, or this U. Our S took course at a local college when he had completed 10th grade & found it a very disappointing experience. He didn’t feel the other kids came to class prepared & was not satisfied that they covered much material, which he had hoped they would. He rated the material covered on par with what he had covered in 6th grade.</p>
<p>I would not be thrilled with my 13 year old dating kids who are 18-20+, as it doesn’t seem like a level playing field and that would be the peers they found themselves with. Academically, I am sure they could have done fine with the work, but socially, it does not seem like a good fit.</p>
<p>Poor guy! Feel sorry for him! There is no way 13 years old would connect socially to college kids. He has missed great deal of HS experience and he will miss even more at college. He cannot date legally. Who would want to go to jail for dating a 13 years old kid? I can see big troubles for this poor soul. Academics is such a tiny portion of young person’s development. It is almost irrelevant, since it could be re-done in a future (like I had changed my profession after 30, went back to school and got 3 more degrees)</p>
<p>I personally feel that one of the most important parts of the college experience for an exceptionally gifted kid is being with other kids equally or more gifted, and I’m not convinced that that is what this boy is getting. IMO I think for many exceptional kids it is better to wait until they are a bit older and go to a top college with other equally exceptional kids. That said, sometimes you have to find the “least worst” solution, and for this kid, perhaps college at 13 was that solution. fwiw, I don’t think he went “away” to college, because the article mentions taking a first class there at 11yo.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to sound snotty or anything, and I don’t know much about Morehouse, but looking at their middle 50% SAT scores didn’t lead me to believe that it is filled with exceptionally gifted kids (but of course those scores do not tell us anything about who the top 25% are)</p>
<p>Regardless of its students’ SAT scores, Morehouse occupies a unique place in American higher education, one that grants its graduates access to some incredible opportunities. To quote GQ,</p>
<p>Granted, the source isn’t the most scientific, but the point is, Morehouse’s SAT ranges are next to irrelevant when it comes to determining the college’s true quality.</p>
<p>(By the way, Morehouse, like Howard U, takes its social mission very seriously. It is no secret that, on average, black students perform worse on the SAT than most other ethnic groups. I really doubt that a college whose institutional identity is so deeply rooted in its social purpose values test scores over leadership potential and political awareness.)</p>
<p>I was deemed gifted at a very young age. In K and first grade I would sit it on higher grades’ classes. This is when we lived in AL and they did not allow skipping. </p>
<p>We moved states, I skipped a grade, and then entered an Advanced Learning Program (grades 3-8). Most kids in the program turned out not to be so “smart” and now aren’t successful. </p>
<p>Since I was younger, I was always a LOT more mature than the other students. I’m a rising senior and I still feel like I am in the wrong environment. I need a more mature, older crowd. I never connected with people my age because of my unique interests and my vastly different way of thinking. </p>
<p>I wish I could have graduated last year (grade 10). I am both academically and maturely ready for college. </p>
<p>But, I will graduate in 2012 with a perfect GPA and in the top 5 of my class of 300. I don’t feel like it’s much if an accomplishment because school has always been a breeze and I’ve never felt challenged, just bored. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily have wanted to go <em>away</em> for college, but there is a nearby flagship that is top in the country that I could have commuted to. I’m thirsting for a more academically challenging environment. My parent wouldn’t have let me actually live in college at a young age for safety reasons, but I would have been allowed to attend. </p>
<p>Long story short, it really does depend on the kid. Like other posters have said, it is not a one size fits all situation.</p>
<p>My kids have both been mature beyond their years but staying with their age-mates have allowed them to find similar kids. D graduated after JR year of HS & started CC. Does your HS allow dual-enrollment so you can be enrolled in HS while taking college courses? That is a compromise that works for many students & allows them to begin college with a lot of General Ed requirements out of the way. Just a thought. They thought D was a dually enrolled HS student, especially since she looks VERY young. :)</p>