Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

Parents Forum
101

Some kids/teens never really explored popular music because of various factors such as financial ones. Personally, I didn’t start getting “my own music” until after the beginning of my first semester in college at 17 as I couldn’t afford to buy the music to go along with a budget-line walkman I got as a Christmas gift a couple of years before until I earned enough from my part time job to set aside for that purpose. And the “gag gift” of Vanilla Ice’s “To The Extreme” CD doesn’t count because it was a gag gift a friend dumped on me because a clueless relative thought that Vanilla Ice was “in” and he felt the need to get rid of it ASAP*.

Even then, I had to rely on the kindness of dormmates to borrow their CD/tape decks so I can dub the CDs to type 1 cassettes so I can listen to them on that walkman.

  • It did come in handy when a HS classmate needed to borrow it to retaliate against a dormmate who refused repeated requests to turn down his blasted cheesy hair metal at 3-4 am. Took only 2-3 times of blasting Vanilla Ice by HS friend prepping it on repeat right before heading off to his 8 am classes before the noisy dormmate who preferred sleeping in till noonish "surrendered".
102

twoin…

The gifted are different. Just as the retarded are. Read the literature! Being a kid is different for the average kid, the bright heading to college kid and the kid who won’t master basic reading and arithmetic as well as the gifted. Being a kid should include doing interesting things- not just what most mainstream kids enjoy. Please do not assume kids are unhappy doing “adult” things.

btw- when son was in middle school he had a moderately gifted friend a grade ahead of him, son was at least 2- 3 years younger. Talked to his mother asking why her gifted son played with son (eg Uno) instead of someone closer in age and same grade. It was more fun for her son to interact with someone on his intellectual level than a more average age/grademate. We were lucky with son when he was young that our small neighborhood had 4 boys within a year of each other- one with a reading disability (corrected with the public schools)had an IQ of 120- likely the lowest of the bunch.

I keep forgetting how lousy many school districts are. So lucky to have had great ones in WI. Wish people would put a whole lot more into their state’s public schools.

103

“Twoin- with all due respect, you are only seeing one piece of the puzzle on your neighbors.”

They aren’t neighbors, they are friends I have known since our kids were in the NICU together - literally since the day our oldest children were born. I know the medical problems; we’ve shared everything and have other friends whose kids needed even more services. our kids share similar problems since they shared the same medical issues, not exactly the same but we’ve traded successful approaches to problems and things that didn’t work. Their oldest three kids didn’t show any signs of special needs when they were younger (and the twins weren’t preemies), but at about age 13 issues really became more obvious. My kids actually had IEPs and therapies, and theirs didn’t. This family actually did send their son, who is now about 13, to public school for pre school because he needed services, but were always going to switch him back to homeschooling. They started homeschooling their daughter at age 4 and never considered anything else and at the time, she was doing well, learning, curious, and very social. I considered our kids very much peers socially, theirs ahead academically, mine physically (and when you compare preemies, the physical is as important as the academic). It was as the years went on that I saw so many changes and just didn’t think the kids were thriving. The parents don’t disagree with me and see the problems, we just disagree as to the fix. Another friend from this same group went the public school with lots of services and IEPs and 504 plans, plus a therapeutic school for 2 years. It wasn’t perfect, but I can’t even imagine her daughter being homeschooled.

Homeschooling is the best choice for some kids and some families, but not all. I don’t think it worked very well for these kids, but maybe it wouldn’t have been any different if they’d gone to public school, or private school. They haven’t been bounced around in the school system because they were never in it. They live in a very good district, but didn’t take advantage of any of the services or special classes or activities offered by the district. The parents don’t want ‘authority’ in their lives.

In this case, I think the parents chose homeschooling because it worked best for the mother’s lifestyle. She didn’t like taking the younger guy to pre school, to being on that schedule, and she admitted it. I didn’t like taking my kids to IEP appointments and school based therapies either, it’s not fun. Did all my choices work out for my kids? NO. I wish I had a ‘do over’ for several choices. I found the educational choices much harder to make than any medical decisions for my kids (including college search and selection). I looked at three or four choices for kindergarten, all fairly different (including at least partially homeschooling them), and agonized over the decision, made it, and thought “well, I’m done for at least 9 years.” Hahaha, the joke was on me. I had to make a decision every year, made some I regretted. For high school we sent a year looking for a good school (kids coming from 2 different middle schools, two very different kids academically), looked at an IB program, a school of the arts, magnet programs, moving to a new school district (like moving across the street), and finally settled on the school we were zoned for for both of them. A month before they started high school, we moved to a new state, so all that searching was for nothing.

104

@LKnomad , not sure if the link will work, so I’ll just tell you to google ASL University. I used these materials with the students I taught in the past. They are excellent. I also use ASL Pro as my “go to” online dictionary. It still might help to have someone as a resource for questions. I taught/tutored ASL via Skype for about 3-4 months, but because the student was in a foreign country, internet was sketchy, so it was difficult.

105

@twoinanddone Perhaps additional interventions would have led to different outcomes, but it is speculation. As the parent of a SN child who has received a lot of intervention therapies and “looks normal” to the casual observer but cannot function as an independent adult, children respond to therapies differently. Similar issues do not mean similar outcomes even with similar interventions. Some issues can dominate and overwhelm other aspects. For example, our ds has Aspergers but also has multiple comorbid issues. He suffers from extreme anxiety on top of an alphabet soup. His anxiety causes him to completely shut down and leaves him unable to cope. Med trials as a teen led to multiple serious side effects that led to having to have him hospitalized or carving images into his arm or curled up on the floor rocking back and forth. Yet, to the outside observer he usually looks only mildly impacted by his autism. What they observe and what he actually lives through are 2 completely different scenarios. And once they turn 18, you can not force them to receive therapy.

(And fwiw, this ds did attend school for a few yrs. His issues became far more severe while attending. What he held together at school led to breakdowns the minute he walked through the door at home. On top of that, kids were using him as a patsy and mocking him constantly. Sadly, he was unaware that that was what was happening. He thought they all thought he was cool and was their best friend. It was a painful experience to witness.)

106

@PragmaticMom: “It’s easy to forget that public schools also have success stories.”

I love that you wrote that. In many ways I could echo the sentiment that public school education is not a default pathway to mediocrity or failure, but the largest playground ever in which both kids and teachers have no choice about who else is in the sandbox, and, therefore, must learn to play together.

I do think that public schooling on the whole has become a system more fraught with the concerns that inherently have their start outside of the classroom environment, and yet find themselves as symptoms in evidence when kids find themselves struggling with the juggle of home life and school life. I see the difference in what teachers are able to reasonably do without parental assistance, the wariness they must face from too much parental involvement in some instances, and the difference in the time they have to take a personal interest in their students outside of the classroom.

I had some wonderful teachers a hundred years ago, and some that I remember distinctly because of their lack of fit for the job (really seemed to hate kids). Things have, decidedly, been different for my own children on the whole. From a parent’s perspective, I just did not see that what was right for my kids was going to be found at the local school, or within the district.

My scariest moment ever in public school was opening the door to my grandmother’s house in kindergarten to find my teacher standing there. I thought I was in some kind of trouble that even God would not be able to save me from. Turns out she was there to assist my grandmother in sewing the 25 or so tutus and jackets needed for the class dance at the end of the year. My grandmother was delighted to see her, and they were so incredibly friendly with each other. I remember thinking of my teacher, “She’s a real person…”

107

I have wonderful memories of the last classroom that I taught in right before my oldest son was born 21 years ago. I don’t think it would ever be replicated today because of the focus on mainstreaming. I had a class of 8 special day students with various learning disabilities, who were for the most part eager to learn, a fantastic principal who trusted me, and an outstanding teacher’s aide. I still remember one of my 6th graders turning to me, saying, “Mrs XXX, I can read!” And indeed, she could. It wasn’t that I was so great a teacher, but what I think I brought to the table was reading aloud every day and stoking their love of learning. This was back before the standardized test was the ruler, and special ed kids and curriculum was a lot more flexible. It was a pretty magical way to go out (of public education).

Things here in California have dramatically changed since those days, and I could not see myself back in public education other than as a charter school facilitator. But I do agree there are some great schools and great teachers in public schools.

People have said in the past that it was because I was a classroom teacher that I was able to transition into teaching my own, and that simply isn’t the case. There was very little correlation between a classroom experience and teaching/facilitating one’s own children’s education. I will say what I brought to homeschooling from teaching special ed was flexibility, and that has served me/us well.

108

My first thoughts on reading the post title were “how sad”.

Reminds me of a relative who had a kid at 14. IMHO, you lose part of your childhood if you start things too early.

I taught a 16 year old in advanced classes, who graduated college at 18. She wanted to go to medical school, but ended up getting married, getting a master’s then a PhD and now she is teaching college too. She has a few kids and is living a “normal life”. She is wistful about missing out on her teenage years in a normal way. Very nice, very sheltered.

My youngest is very talented in math and science, and we are thinking of pushing her ahead in math, but also wonder what the point would be. Colleges look at students taking the most difficult courses available at the school, and she could do that without an issue and without outside classes.

My second thoughts are similar to what I feel when reading about certain athletes. That the parents drop everything for their one child, or one of their children. We aren’t about to move to Lowell to be close to MIT. We aren’t about to hyperfocus on one child over another, or one child over our careers. When my son could have joined a top five club sport team in the country, a team that did national and international tournaments, we decided together with him that commuting 75 minutes each way on a low traffic day, and 2 hours or more each way on a bad day was too much for our family. So it’s “his loss” that we didn’t commit 100% to his athletic career.

One of the national soccer team stars many people respect had his mom driving him six hours each way to soccer practice. The average family just can’t do that. The open courseware was only a small part of the OP story.

109

Not all families have a parent who can or chooses to dedicate the time necessary to successfully or even spectacularly homeschool their children. If you need two incomes to keep your family surviving, you don’t home school. And some well-to-do families have two parents who choose to work at a fulfilling career and move to a typically expensive area with good public schools which their children attend.

I will really shock you and tell you that high quality day care from age 2 has made both my children both academically successful and extremely well socialized. My 2 year old thrived in a high quality (government agency internal) day care environment since he was extremely stimulated by his peers and an extremely enriched social, academic, and physical environment. Similarly my kids have thrived in a high quality and highly ranked school district that also lacks the ridiculous competitiveness that some people have described here. They have genuine friends who rank with them in the top of their class and they are supportive of each other and they engage in ECs that actually interest them. They are both very social and would hate being away from that. They probably don’t have much interest in hearing me drone on about american history or even drill them in math (even though I could teach calc and beyond). So neither side is suited well to home schooling and both are suited well to an excellent public school experience.

The very good school districts that dot the US provide a good environment and plenty of academic options and experiences for a top 5% kid. It when you get into the top 1% or top 0.01% kids that there may be some drastic measured required, whether opening a cafe at MIT or sending your kid to college at 15 or turning your kid into your career.

There are very few kids who are truly special snowflakes like this MIT kid. If you have one and you can both afford to and choose to quit your career to make them stay special and maybe make them 10% better so they can find that cure for hunger in the world, go ahead.

Same if it makes you terrifically happy.

But I think successful homeschoolers and top high schools share one characteristic, they are simply not the problem. I think parents who can follow a good HS curriculum or an enhanced curriculum and provide their kids a good or stellar education are not a problem.

It is the poor performing schools and the ignorant HSers who are not serving the kids. I might even argue for arguing sake that if you live in a poor performing school district and do not engage with the public school but instead coddle your snowflake, you might be missing a chance to contribute more to society by not say teaching or volunteering.

Just saying …

And sad ? No, I think this kid is doing great because he is just not like most people. If he wants to play with or date or play basketball with 16 year olds, they are living right there in Cambridge, but my guess is he wants to be in a robotics lab with 20 year olds, because he is special and his mind is developed in ways that we just don’t understand. And it seems he wants MIT and probably will get exactly what he wants out of it. His family is there too (a 15 year old hundreds of miles from home would be more disturbing, a 17 year old ,not so much).

I had friends who did not enjoy HS and went to Ivies at 17, they did great and lead successful lives now. Different strokes …

It would be sad to take your top 5% kid and somehow feel that you need to accelerate them beyond the CalcBC level … unless that is truly what they want. My kids were happy in CalcBC + all the other parts of HS life and will do fine …

110

I cannot speak for the young man in the article, but I can share our experience with our son. It had absolutely nothing to with our pushing him ahead and everything to do with him running ahead and dragging me from behind. When he was 6, we were baking cookies and he asked me if I knew the magic of rows. I had no idea what he was even talking about. He then went on to tell me that if you had 5 rows of cookies and 4 cookies in each row, there were 20 cookies. He said if you looked at the window panes, that 6 rows of 3 were 18 window panes. He said he played with his Lego blocks and recognized that the pattern of rows and numbers in lots of combinations and what they all equaled. He saw math everywhere.

By age 9, there was not a single concept in elementary math that he had not completely mastered and he was intuitively solving algebraically. He would have been bored to tears to have spent the next several yrs doing nothing but math he had long since mastered. We did try to slow him down by having him taking courses like counting and probablility, but math is simply the way he thinks and he thrives on complex and challenging problems.

By 8th grade, math of physics totally captured his interest and he spent hours reading on the Internet, reading books, watching Great Courses lectures during his free time. I don’t know any physics (and he was beyond my math abilities by 8th grade.) He absorbed physics like he did math.

For him, taking typical high school math and science coursework would have meant learning nothing new for yrs and depriving him of the subjects that brought him great pleasure. Spending hours puzzling through a complicated proof was something he loved. Doing plug and chug problems frustrated him and made him feel like he was simply wasting his time.

111

It can work. Very much. I have a young friend who probably did more, both socially and in personal impact, than most kids. He went off to become the prototypical Stanford kid, interested in so much and able to fulfill. (Same for his sister, with different interests, who chose a different college environment.) If I recounted his full experiences, you’d be awed. Another chose NYU for the city opps, as well as the specifics that college offered her. These kids aren’t sheltered, nor crippled.

I do know a Duggar-like family, uber isolated (interesting story, if I get to it.) I saw one kid’s app and the number of engagements, again, exceeded what’s common. (Granted, this was a son.) And, they were an active quality, not simple joining or doing what everyone else is expected to.

Some of growing up is ‘going along for the ride,’ letting everyone else tell you what happens now, then next. Some measure of conformity is good, it makes us functional in society. But just because we have a traditional school system doesn’t make it the only right choice. And just because someone knows some who don’t make the most of the H/S opps, shouldn’t make it suspect.

The idea these H/S kids are somehow denied important experiences seems to hinge on assuming the standard schooling is so very good. Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no.

112

Can totally relate, @Mom2aphysicsgeek ! Holy cow, I was always running to catch up with my oldest, and there were years that I was flying by the seat of my pants, not knowing what to do with his rage to learn math, in particular. He took a very unschoolish, meandering path some years. As for his math/physics path:

By age 4, he would ask for “tests” while swinging, and he was doing mult./division/ square roots and so on. In K, he was in 3rd grad math, in 2nd, I made the jump to algebra, and we spent 3rd doing this fun “soft” algebra curriculum. In 4th, he did a semester of geometry taught by a college prof that homeschooled his kids for a year. Mu son also read a lot of math books and played math games over the years.

In 5th, I didn’t know what to do, so we repeated algebra with a deeper text. In 6th, my dad tutored him in Alg II/trig until my dad got ill, and then my son just did MathCounts. In 7th, he started calculus with a tutor who wanted him to go take Calc at the local UC because the tutor couldn’t teach him anymore, but we did not want that! We compromised and had him begin online community college classes starting with pre-calc. He also went to state MathCounts that year, but didn’t enjoy it. He also did physics that year.

In 8th, he did one semester of online Calculus at the local CC, and no math second semester. He audited a general physics class at a local Christian university for a year and loved it! He took the math II and physics subject tests along with Physics B AP that year. Summer after 8th, he took stats online at the local CC

In 9th, he went on campus of the local CC, taking Calc II, III, and two semesters of Calc-based physics and took 4 AP exams. 10th found him finishing all math and physics at the CC. Since we didn’t want him going away from home early (and we certainly weren’t in the position to move for his college), we found creative ways to meet his need to learn. He used an online math tutor/mentor for 2 1/2 years in a very unschoolish way covering things like more Dif Equations, Dynamical Systems and Real Analysis. He also audited three semesters of upper division physics classes at the local state univ and did physics research, as well as became a tutor for one of the upper division physics classes and actually worked for the univ for a semester. He rejoined math and physics competitions in 10th-12th, and those were probably the biggest academic challenges he had.

Never was there pushing; always there was a need to be creative and to find resources since we had made the decision to keep him home until age 18, and he was on board with that. He has friends that chose to graduate early because they did not want to be held back. Different scenario for different personalities. The boy in the article and his family clearly had a way for him to go to college early with the family nearby. It seems to have worked very well for them.

We stumbled upon a lot of this. For instance, after he ran out of physics classes mid-sophomore year, I had no clue what he was going to do for 2 1/2 years. He had taken bio and chem (and disliked them), but wanted more physics. So I looked at both state univ. and opted to contact a professor at the one very close by, explained the situation, he agreed to meet my son and let him audit and fully participate (tests and all), and then invited my son to do graduate level research the following summer-nothing I could have planned!

Sorry so long winded, but what I see about kids like the OP and many (but certainly not all!) gifted kids is their innate need to learn. Boredom has its place in birthing creative solutions, but if you bore a gifted kid too much, he/she might shut down. @rhandco , if your youngest is hungy for more advanced work, I would encourage you to explore the idea of moving her up, which might eventually necessitate going outside of the standard curriclum. While it’s true that schools like students to take the hardest curriculum, if a student is ready for more and they choose to go find it, I guarantee they will like that even better. And isn’t education about the learning rather than what colleges want to see anyways?

113

As others above have noted, is she pushing to move ahead in math and science?

114

Well in total contrast to @Mom2aphysicsgeek and @sbjdorlo my NON homeschool kid is another math and science kid who needed to really really pull ahead and encountered roadblocks from the public school every step of the way. Now he is a senior at the local high school and is taking calculus at the CC but he should have been much further ahead. Note that he is also on the autism spectrum. We noticed an extreme love and talent in math around the age of three. He noticed numbers by watching the microwave count them backwards. He loved anything with numbers including the local SoCal freeway system, calendars, watches and telling time, and the list goes on. He was in a special day class for two years for autism and I couldn’t get anyone to recognize his abilities. At home he was following us around making us give him 7, 8, or nine digit addition or subtraction problems (for fun) and at school they kept insisting that he was having trouble with his single digit math facts. When he mainstreamed in second grade they would not put him in a GATE class even with his advanced skills. He started testing out of all his math units and he was sent to the back of the room during math time to play games. In 3rd grade, the teacher realized that he needed more and when she approached the administration they told her that she could accelerate him but needed to buy her own materials. At that point I gave up on getting the school system to help, so I started looking (and paying) for outside enrichment. I started him with EPGY, and online gifted math education program, from Stanford and he completed a year of math in one month. The next year he completed in 4 months. In fourth grade, when he started testing out of all his math again, I talked the teacher into allowing him to do EPGY in the classroom during math time, she agreed. In fifth grade I wanted him accelerated into a higher grade math class at a middle school, they said no. I called an attorney. They said yes. Imagine that.

They only allowed him to accelerate one year but at least we had something. He ended up in geometry in 8th grade and unfortunately, the local middle school only went to algebra. Back to fighting, AGAIN! They paid for an online geometry class. At least once he got to high school there was enough to keep him occupied. He opted for pre-calc rather than calc, so he wouldn’t end up too far ahead. He couldn’t take Calc BC and had to take AB because of a scheduling conflict. All through high school he broke every single curve in math and science. Now he is at the local CC and has a 112% in the class. He has a similar grade in AP physics and did last year in AP chem. Seriously, when you end up with a grade that high, you are in the wrong place.

The public school system held him back, but I opted to keep him there for the SpEd services and socialization. I do think he ended up with a better social situation, than what I could have given him through homeschooling. I traded off social for academic, and he seems to be OK. College will be a better fit academically.

The funny thing, was in 9th grade, his SpEd teacher suggested he plan to graduate early and do an early college, but he said no, he wanted to stay in high school all 4 years, so we followed his lead. He is happy enough, even though he is not being well challenged.

The other kid is homeschooling. It is just a better fit. You really have to follow the child’s lead. As long as he or she is happy then OK, but I will say that traditional school did hold my son back academically.

115

@sbjdorlo Thanks for the ASL tip. I will be outsourcing this one as well as several others. We are also in CA and use the charter system so we will have $2700 in instructional funding next year. Plenty to get a weekly tutor.

Have you considered looking into the charter special education system for teaching? Our school has both ES and LS, and the LS is specific to SpEd. More and more parents are taking their SpEd students and heading into the charter system. I found the services I am getting through our charter are significantly better than what I was being offered in the traditional public school system, both in terms of quantity and quality. Our OT increased from 3X annually consult to weekly, SLP went from 2 monthly 30 min to 60 min weekly, and RSP is now one on one. Fantastic!!!

116

While this is the expected norm for most 15 year olds, the under 17 year old undergrad classmates I knew were treated no differently by their respective parents than the more typical 17-22 year old undergrads regarding living far away in dorms with other undergrads.

And they carried themselves so much like mature 18-22 year olds that one would have a hard time guessing they were under 17 with the possible exception of being “young looking” unless they trusted you enough to tell and show you their ID as both of them did.

117

Pickone1 – you said it best: “But I think successful homeschoolers and top high schools share one characteristic, they are simply not the problem. I think parents who can follow a good HS curriculum or an enhanced curriculum and provide their kids a good or stellar education are not a problem. It is the poor performing schools and the ignorant HSers who are not serving the kids. I might even argue for arguing sake that if you live in a poor performing school district and do not engage with the public school but instead coddle your snowflake, you might be missing a chance to contribute more to society by not say teaching or volunteering.”

^^ Indeed, it is the poor performing schools and the ignorant HSers that need attention but seldom get it. In both cases, the children bear the brunt of decisions they did not make. And it would seem many of the success stories are linked to affluence. The kids who suffer, in both scenarios, are the ones least likely to have access to parents or schools that are well-to-do/well-connected/well-resourced.

118

Just so everyone is clear, there are other 15 year olds enrolled full-time at MIT.

119

@LKnomad , that is fantastic! Congratulations on getting such great services in the charter.

I’m not interested in working in deaf/special ed any longer. I’m actually educating myself on dyslexia since my youngest is dyslexic. Back when I got my credentials in the 1980s, “Whole Language” was the buzz word-worked fine for deaf kids, but I am having to do in depth intense phonics with my son (I chose the cheaper way, Writing Road to Reading, rather than Barton), so I’m plenty busy with him and working part time as a college consultant.

@Waiting2exhale , yes, indeed. There have also been very young grad students at MIT, as well-even younger than this young man.

120

@Mom2aphysicsgeek Oh my gosh, you’ve described my younger sister. She is also accelerated in math, a lot her own doing. (We’re a homeschooling family, K-12). When she started math, our family was going through a move and my mom didn’t have time to get a textbook for her to start work in. So, my mom would write out problem sets in notebooks and give them to my little sister. She would work though them and return promptly - and ask for more. My mom was surprised that she kept wanting more math, but she gave it to her because it made her happy and kept her busy. My mom is very good at math, and there was definitely a rhyme and reason to the way she taught her - it wasn’t random. My sister would just master the concepts quickly, so my mom would teach her something new to keep her challenged, so she wouldn’t get “bored to tears” as she (and you!) put it. In doing so, she covered at 3 years of math in my sisters first year of school. After that she put her in regular textbooks, just a few above her grade level by age. By the time she was 9 and I was 13, she and I were essentially doing the same math, and she was doing better than me. :"> So, my mom merged her in with me when I started algebra, and she was with me in the math sequence from that point on. She finished pre-calc by the time she was 13, and then we had to fight the community college tooth and nail for months to get her in. In the meantime, she took the SAT and got a 730 on math and did Calc I essentially on her own, and passed the CLEP exam with a perfect score. (I took Calc I at the community college, since I was 17 so it wasn’t an issue.) Finally, they let her in, after a long appeal process and whatnot, and she took Calc II with me during my senior year and is currently taking Calc III. The thing is, she’s going to have to go to the state university for more math classes since she’s exhausted what the community college can offer her, and while they were happy to admit her after one look at her scores and classes, it’s becoming a struggle since she’s at the bottom of the barrel for registration since she’s a dual enrollment student. So she doesn’t know if she can get into Diff Eqs and other classes for next semester… She plans to take other classes as well to round herself out - gen eds, language classes, etc. And she is not a total math nerd - she does a lot of activities, like choir, chess, Civil Air Patrol, and more.

Anyways, it was definitely a case of her not being pushed, as it was her pulling ahead and my mom placing her appropriately. She doesn’t really care about physics, but she loves math. She plans to be a math major and dreams of being a Rhodes Scholar… who knows, but she could probably do it if she tries hard enough, she’s very bright. I took physiology during high school, at the regular pace, and sweated blood to get through with a low A. She’s doing it in one semester, double the pace, and acing everything. She doesn’t like it, but she can understand it and connect all of it… it just didn’t compute with me, I’m not a biologically minded person. But I like physics more than she does, so I reckon that compensates a little…