Girl 15 gets associates degree

Yesterdays Burlington County Times, County and Region Section, Pages B1 and B6. I hope someone can link this. This is not strictly a dl story but an education story which I think has terrific merrit for parents. NJ Publication. The student started at Burlington County College when she was 10 as an alternative to public education or private school. Hille

 

Inspiring story

 

Provocative question...why does a 15-year old need an Associate's Degree? Shouldn't we allow our kids to grow up as kids?

I hope my teenagers won't waste their time with college when there is so much more exciting stuff to do...they can do that later.

 

If she is a bright kid and can do the work and enjoys it, more power to her. I wish I had been made aware of opportunities to take college courses at a young age. I would have finished my degree as early as possible.

The story is here: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/678/2009/april/06/girl-15-set-to-get-associates-degree.html

 

The question with stories like these is always: who enjoys it, the kid or the parents?

You can always take college classes, but you are a teenager only once in your life.

 

Big deal. Being a teenager can be downright miserable.

 

As I've written elsewhere, shortly after they turned 15, our twin daughters had just finished 9th grade, and were helping proofread an edition of Bear's Guide. When they got to the section on GED, they said, in effect, "Does this mean that if we pass the GED, we don't have to go to high school?" Well, yes. So they both passed. One went right on to community college that fall, had a fine time, and graduated from San Francisco State with a 3.97 GPA. The other worked at a responsible job (managing a small candy factory) for three years, discovered SF State wouldn't take her without any high school, at 18 did a year at Golden Gate University, transfered to State, and graduated (always the competitive one) with a 3.99 GPA. 20 years later, they both have very happy memories of those times.

(Are you listening, Bruce? Twins are unfailingly unpredictable, and always fascinating, even -- perhaps especially -- as adults.)

 

If I could be 15 again, I would have taken the GED and then gone straight to community college with the goal of getting my BA by the time I was 19. After that, I probably would have joined the military for Officer Candidate School or the Peace Corps and just traveled the world for awhile. I hated high school that much.

I think that high school graduation is often more for the parents than it is the kids. I couldn't have cared less.

 

Mine already have more personality than many adults I know, so it's going to be an interesting ride, for sure.

 

>>

I'm with Fish, and I'm not an extremist (I've read The Hurried Child too) but if this is an only child, I'm more inclined to believe it's all the parents. If this is one child of a houseful, then I'm inclined to believe it's the child (probably the oldest LOL).

Pros and cons, yes there are many on both sides. Is this a case of hyper-parenting? Probably not, I know several kids who earn an AA simultaneously with their high school diploma, it's almost "routine" in home-school circles anymore. So, that's about age 17- not too far off. I am, however, of the belief that responsible goal-directed activity should start young, and that what it means to "be a teenager" is totally cultural, and I don't put all my decision-making-eggs in the cultural basket.

 

If I could do it all over again, I would certainly take the opportunity to bypass HS altogether. I got absolutely nothing (ok, very little) out of HS.

I certainly will not push for my children to skip HS, but if they asked me about it when the time comes, I will certainly let them know the options that are out there. As responsible parent, I feel it's my duty to help my children to begin thinking for themselves.

 

I could see this. If I were homeschooling and teaching a subject, why not gear the material to not only meeting the state requirements but also to passing a CLEP/Dantes exam? That could be the final for the class and it also ends up earning college credit. I don't think I'd do it any other way. In fact, even though I'm not going to homeschool (or at least I don't think I will yet) I'll still encourage them to take the CLEP exams for whatever subjects they studied that year in school such as english comp, american history, etc.

 

More power to the girl - if she is capable of doing the work, then why limit her academic potential. In fact, I would argue that if you look at the typical college schedule, she had even more time to be a teenager, since she wasn't stuck in a classroom from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. five days a week.

 

I hated high school with a passion. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gotten my GED ASAP, gone to college and had a BA or BS by 19 or 20.

That being said I did play in a band from the age of 16 to 26 and have memories and stories that would seem fiction if I told them here. Although financially and career wise it was a giant waste of my time, the life experiences I had are second to none. So I'm not sure about going to college and quitting the band to do so.

 

It depends...

Some kids need to go to college early. I teach a lot of Running Start students and that is a decent program.

My son had the required ACT score to get into the UW's Early Entrance Program in the 7th grade. He scored above the average of incoming UW freshmen WITHOUT ever having had a high school level math, science or English course. He didn't want to go to the UW that early, but keeping him challenged is hard. Unfortunately, we aren't able to homeschool and he does like being with peers. So he is in an excellent HS program at a nearby district that combines AP classes starting in 9th grade with the IB diploma and will have 2+ years of college done before he graduates HS. Apparently, theirs is the only US high school that has been approved to allow the IB diploma to be earned in the student's junior year, leaving the senior year open for UW courses, for which he will be shown as an enrolled student, and internships.

 

What high school is it? You can PM me if you don't want to post it here. (I'm in the Seattle area as well.)

 

I hated high school and bailed after 3 semesters. I would have done it again too if I had the choice. More power to this girl.

Some kids just don't get what they need in a high school environment.

 

I am a big proponent of Stanford's EPGY program. I attended a predecessor of EPGY called SMPY when I was in elementary school / junior high on the East Coast and had a blast.

My sister has a daughter who is homeschooled using EPGY and will be picking up a high school diploma when she finishes via Stanford's EPGY High School program.

EPGY website:
http://epgy.stanford.edu/

 

Wow, that's an amazing story! I was especially amazed that this girl is going pre-med and aspires to be a surgeon; good for her! Who knows, she might become a real-life Doogie Howser, M.D.

 

I posted before I found the article- shame on me.... but my heart sunk when I read that she'll be living in the dorms this semester, as a 15 year old girl - far far away from home. THAT I'd be mega-opposed to on so many levels that I'm not even going there. I'll just throw in the fact that she grew up without a father, and let's just say that I'd like to see the follow-up story in a few years. I DO hope she becomes a surgeon, but I don't think the odds are in her favor.
That said, determining appropriateness is still (thankfully) a right left up to the parents (parent in this case) so, I'll just call it agreeing to disagree.