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[terrisus]

Then he should transfer to a real high school with other equally talented kids. This is a pretty obvious example of his school system failing him - no idea how to actually deal with a high achieving student and so just keep pushing him along in grades and then shove him off to college.

True, it's not "ideal," but it's far better than holding him back with his chonological peers just because "He needs to make friends with people his own age!"

And yes, I am doing some projecting. Spent more than enough years in elementary/middle school twiddling my thumbs waiting for the coursework to catch up with me.

 

[Darklord]

True, it's not "ideal," but it's far better than holding him back with his chonological peers just because "He needs to make friends with people his own age!"

And yes, I am doing some projecting. Spent more than enough years in elementary/middle school twiddling my thumbs waiting for the coursework to catch up with me.

I'm not saying he should be forced back entirely and must ONLY be in the grade the rest of his age is in. Just not pushed forward that quickly.

 

[Black-Wind]

Hmmm ... good for him.

The only thing I don't like about this is the school he's going to (I mean really, a Christian university? W/e, by the time he's old enough to leave his parents he could likely get into any place he wants).

I don't see the worry about his social skills. Just make sure he has proper access to kids that sure his interest ... which may very well be other kids his age who are academically gifted.

 

[terrisus]

I'm not saying he should be forced back entirely and must ONLY be in the grade the rest of his age is in. Just not pushed forward that quickly.

But what if that's what he was ready for? If someone is ready to do college work, keeping them in, say, a 7th grade class isn't much better than keeping them in a 4th grade class - either way, it's material that they've mastered.

 

[Rentahamster]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1303853
What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults?

Gifted children are more likely than their peers to become successful adults -- look at Mozart, Pablo Picasso and Bill Gates. But exceptional intelligence doesn't guarantee happiness. Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is the most glaring example of child genius gone wrong.

Psychologists say the teenage years are often the toughest.

"The tension between what you've been able to do as a child and what you're starting to become as an adult can mean that that's going to be a quite turbulent kind of period of time for a child prodigy," said Dr. David Feldman, a professor of child development at Tufts University.

"Most people, they get into school when they're 6, and they get out of school around 22, 23," Kearney said. "That's what I'm going to do. But I just happened to be in college that entire time."

He teaches a chemistry class to students of all ages.

"I was really worried that I would fail somehow, and be one of those sad ex-prodigies," Kearney said. "I realized that I can't fail because I set my own standards and my standards are pretty low."

Michael's goals are modest.

"You have to be focused on the things that make you a human and not a golden god," he said. "You have to focus on just living."

You may remember Greg Smith from numerous TV appearances a few years back. He finished college at 13.

"I believe that all of us are here for a special purpose and that is to learn," Smith has said.

Now 16, Smith is more intense than ever, studying for four doctorates -- in math, aerospace engineering, international relations and biomedical research. He has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize and travels the world promoting nonviolence.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/15/child-geniuses-prodigies

Child geniuses: What happens when they grow up?

You're the girl with the sky-high IQ, the boy who's amazing at maths… and then what? Patrick Barkham quizzes bright sparks past and present

"I was just normal in primary school," Niall Thompson says. Five years on, he started at Cambridge University aged just 15; the only child of a single mother from a family in which no one had ever gone to university.

...

Two terms in, Niall has not socialised much yet. He went out only once during freshers' week because everything was based around drinking. "That was the main difficulty," he says, "although that really doesn't bother me at all. Everyone should be working anyway."

He has not joined any clubs or societies ("I refused to join the Maths Society. If you're going to join a society, join a society that's different from what you'd be doing otherwise") and does not like sport, so instead he relaxes in his room. He is "never off Facebook", talking to Vicky, his best friend from home (although she's not in his good books right now after she posted on the internet some maths answers he gave her). He watches a lot of DVD boxsets – Shameless, Catherine Tate and, especially, Doctor Who. With his piercings and love of Paramore, he is a bit of an emo kid. "I'm not ashamed," he says.

...

He found the media attention when he started at Cambridge a bit weird. "Sometimes I think they wish I was 4ft nothing with Harry Potter glasses and no friends and no personality," he says of journalists who meet him. Does he feel uncomfortable being called a child prodigy or a genius? "I've got used to it. I feel like I'm in my rightful place. I'm surrounded by people who think you're good if you're good at maths, and it's not considered strange."

Before Andrew was two, he recognised the numbers and letters when Countdown came on TV in the living room of the family's flat in Dundee.

...

"Genius Andrew Halliburton" was how the Sun referred to him. But for a shy boy, talking to the media was tough. "I could hardly get my words straight," he says of a TV news appearance. "That built up a lot of pressure for me before the exam."

He ended up with a grade two. He took his highers more slowly, got top grades and went straight to an applied computing course at university. For years, this had been the ultimate goal. It was a disappointment. "I was pretty disheartened when I found out it was a lot easier than I'd expected," he says. "Uni was the one time I had a bit of trouble making friends, which was strange because I was with my own age group."

He dropped out in his first year and got a job at McDonald's. Out of place, and unsure of what to do with his life, he nearly got fired. "What could be worse than getting fired from McDonald's?" he says. Five years later, he is still there, a humble crew member who sometimes enjoys the surprised look on customers' faces when he does the sums in his head rather than going to the till. He's not bothered by the geek tag – "I always thought of myself as a bit of a nerd" – but balks at the word genius. "I never liked the term." Was it a burden? "Certainly. I always felt I had to live up to that genius moniker, I never once thought I could."

It shocks people, Andrew says, but he doesn't really like maths. He's going back to university in September, this time to pursue his real passion: computer game technology. "I always thought my parents wouldn't accept that," he says, but Al is "over the moon". "I was disappointed when he left university, but we didn't fall out. We expected a lot. We expected him to do well. I'm not saying he didn't live up to my expectations, because he went and got a job, but McDonald's is a bit of a dead-end job." Andrew looks at his mum and dad. "I feel I haven't lived up to my expectations," he says.

In 1970, when John Nunn was 15, excited newspapers reported he'd become probably the youngest Oxford undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey in the 15th century.
...

At Oxford, things got trickier: "Most of the boys were a few years older than me and into girls and drinking and things." In those days, there were no CRB checks or special help for a 15-year-old undergraduate: he shared a room with a "nice" 18-year-old geologist who proved useful when John needed help shooing nosy reporters off the premises. "I'm not sure he had his geologist's hammer with him when he went out," he laughs.

The labels that go with early achievement irritate him. "I don't like this child prodigy/genius thing. OK, you're a bit ahead of other people in one particular subject, but there is just this spectrum. Human abilities are multifaceted."

John detects a profound difference between modern childhood and his youth. As a child, he would play in the garden, read, do a bit of maths or chess. "With all the conflicting claims on children's time now, it's easy not to develop a particular talent which you might have done if you devoted more time to it."