<p>Beliavsky – very interesting article and I enjoyed it, but also kind of Duh! Really smart kids are often really smart adults and smart adults are often successful adults. But as it lacked any comparison ( such as the merely super smart or just smart or children of super high achievers or really smart 16 yo ), I think it fails to prove a direct link between prodigy status ( as opposed to demonstrating high intelligence at a more typical time ) and success. Also, I believe the article failed to indicate what percentage of the people followed actually were in college at age 11 or, for the sake of argument, obtained their initial degree more than 4 years ahead of schedule. I think that would be interesting to know. </p>
<p>And Bay and PV, I think your reasoning is sound. However, if we were to extrapolate that idea to emotional and physical precociousness, what do you think of an early adolescent for whom the next logical step is sexual activity and parenthood? Some kids are very responsible and natural caretakers. Sexual precocity is fairly common and the trend is undeniably moving toward development at an earlier age … I know that’s not what you’re arguing for at all and neither am I. Just seems to me that there are a host of differences between taking college level classes ( great if you can) and going to college ( perhaps as important as the classroom instruction, but don’t see any 11-15 yo actually ready for it).</p>