<p>I attended public schools in the era before homeschooling existed. I spent 2nd grade in a private school in England and by combination of my relatively cerebral style and this school, I was probably 5 grades ahead in most subjects when I returned. So they asked my parents if they could skip me to 4th grade, which I did. I was small at the time and socially I don’t think it was great, but I don’t think I would have fit in in 3rd grade either. I was still pretty unchallenged. We did SRA reading and I did it independently and basically went years ahead and was otherwise bored stiff. When I entered high school, I was the shortest boy in the grade (I’m now 6’2"). They asked me if I would like to skip 9th grade. I tried it for two weeks but was in the same grade and in one of the same classes as my older sister and it was very awkward. Plus, the social fit was not good and there was still not much intellectual challenge. It is the same school population from the perspective of IQ and attitude, so whether you are in 9th grade or 10th grade wouldn’t matter that much. I was bored through almost all of high school, but got a job writing software at Bell Labs, which was at the time a phenomenal research institution, and helped people there with research. When I got to college, I felt like I fit in for the first time and remember saying, “There are people like me here.” Had a blast in college, though I had to learn to manage a real workload of challenging work. I suspect being much younger would have made college much tougher from a social perspective and fI don’t know if I would have been mature enough to handle all of the available choices. I had a great time socially, learned a lot, was intellectually challenged, wrote a senior thesis that was published in the best journal in the field (which made graduate school very easy), and graduated magna cum laude from a terrific school.</p>
<p>Based upon my idiosyncratic experience, I wouldn’t rush to get to college (I know you are not rushing your son). In your son’s case, are there places he could work that would be intellectually challenging? For example, we live near teaching hospitals and research labs that are at the forefront of genomics and neuroscience, among other things. My son will probably spend a year working at one of these labs before going to college. Are there community colleges that he could take a few courses at? Is there some intellectually challenging project that he would love to take on? </p>
<p>I have a friend who, if I am not mistaken, entered graduate school in math at Harvard at age 19. He went to some large midwestern state university in the state he grew up. He was not that socially well-adjusted at Harvard – clearly insecure and trying to impress other folks. I think he was doing some of his adolescent rebellion while in grad school and made several choices that I suspect he would make differently in hindsight. Again, I’m not sure he was mature enough to handle the adult choices he was called on to make. I’d have to ask him if he feels the same way, but watching him – he lived across the hall from me in the dorm that first year – I thought he should have waited.</p>