Girl 15 gets associates degree

Yeah, that's not cool. If she were living with family, that would be a different story.

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

Good question, and also very provocative. When I was 12, I desperately wanted to go to Rogers State College in Oklahoma (which was not too far away). To the extent that I put in an application! They noticed my age during the phone interview unfortunately. I also applied to OSU when I was 15 and was accepted, but could not attend since I couldn't produce a diploma from the international school I made up.

It's not always the parent, many times it's the student. Of course, I am a huge nerd.

 

I just noticed this thread and will add my 2 cents.

I did exactly the same things as this young lady. At 13 I dropped out of school and started attending a local community college. Within a year I had completed my GED. I was 16 when I moved 1000 miles away to live in university dorms. It turned out to be a disaster.

Looking back there were some advantages to the experience. The community college provided me with two things. First, I was able to take courses that would have been unavailable to me at the high school. Second, to this day I still have a desire to learn. High schools often seem to squash this desire. However, there were also some disadvantages. First, I did not have the opportunity to bond with other adolescents. My teenage years were spent with people who were significantly older. I still feel that I missed out on many typical teenage experiences. Second, when I went away to the university I did not have the discipline to be an independant learner. At the time I did not realize that my family provided the structure for me to complete my studies. As an educator I now recognize that one of the roles of secondary education is to help students develop this discipline in preparation for college.

I sincerely hope that this young lady is successful and does not look back upon her teenage years with regret.

 

Every single decision, twist, and turn in life at all ages leads to experiences, and an opportunity to reflect back on whether or not those experiences are what you wish they were, in hindsight.

I have recent, first hand experience parenting and observing two daughters get to "experience" the opportunities of teen years with a "limited" academic focus. I can say that from my observation of the drama, frustrations, more drama, limited positive feelings, more drama, that the route this young lady took may not be ideal for everyone, but it is at least as good as the most of the alternatives.

 

The article said she will be living close to her father, which is why she choose UNC.

 

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Griffin, you rock!

 

Is this article available online?

 

It was in the article linked by DSH2009:

"Her mother said it’s hard to have her daughter leaving home at such a young age, but she’ll be going to school close to her father and his family."

 

I could not locate her bio, but I recall that multi-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist Rebecca Twig started college at age eight and has a bachelors degree in biochemistry at age 13.

 

I've been thinking about this throughout the day. There are MANY children that start college young. I know kids 8-10 years old going to college. I know kids that graduated from IVY league colleges with bachelors at 14. As Jennifer said, dual enrollment is common especially among the homeschool group.

A lot of the early college students, but not all, belong to DITD: http://www.davidsongifted.org/

Davidsons is an organization for kids that test in the 99.9 percentile or higher on IQ tests. One of the boards I'm on is for parents of children that start college early. Early is defined as starting college (on campus independently) at age 14 and under. The thing is...you can't put any of the students in a box. All of them are so different. The drive and hunger of some of the kids is unbelievable.

The majority of the parents would not have chosen this path if some other option had been available. It's not easy having a child that is profoundly gifted and helping them work through the isolation they often feel. Most learn to compartmentalize their life. Think of someone with an average IQ of 100 trying to play or find common interests with someone that had an IQ of 60. It's not any different for the child with an IQ of 140 (or even higher) trying to interact with someone who has a 100 IQ.

As someone else pointed out, frequently young college students have more free time than if they went to high school and were consumed with busy work. That free time is often used to pursue music or art or other interests.

I think what bothers me the most is that it's too easy for the 'norm' to become skewed with groups such as DITD. You hear and read about kids doing phenomenal things and pretty soon 2 STD above the norm or going to college at age 12 is not big deal. It's on the low end of the DITD bell curve.

More important than going to college early, or getting a degree early, is the type of person that child is evolving into. Chuck Swindol once said, "Our actions outlive our achievements." Most of the parents I know with early college students have spent a tremendous amount of time and energy teaching their children understanding and compassion and how to deal with the world around them.

Sorry for rambling...

 

Yep. Better to have the kids in a horribly run public school talking about important issues like Miley Cyrus and how that "slut" down the hall is sleeping with two football players.

Then when they go home they can hop on the XBox or for the truly health conscious they can play a game Wii fit.

That way we can all !gasp! in unison at "kids these days".

 

Here's a nice collection of remarkable prodigies: the Korean boy who earned his doctorate from Colorado State University at 14; the boy who enrolled in junior college at 6 and later won over $1 million on television game show; etc.

http://www.oddee.com/item_96629.aspx

 

There's been some controversy regarding some of the prodigies listed, but Michael Kearney is the real deal. I've seen him on TV and in different clips and he comes across as a really nice guy. His mom is active in the gifted community. It is annoying when IQ's are posted because there are so many variables regarding which test, when it was taken, the Flynn effect, etc. You're not necessarily comparing apples to apples, but it's the 'number' that people look at and compare one to another.

I wish there was more documentation or case studies of "then" and "now." It would be interesting to hear what some of these students are doing today.

 

I agree that I would not let my teen or pre-teen go away to college early. I still remember the look on my son's face when I told him that he could go to the university early...and I hastened to reassure him that he would still live at home but be a commuter student - just like going to a fancy private high school! I would even drive him there in the morning. He thought I meant living away from home at age 12.

My daughter, who is a senior, was accepted accepted to several colleges and is planning on attending UNC- Chapel Hill starting this August.

 

B.A. at 16

My daughter is on her last few courses of her B.A. She should be done by the end of July. She turned 16 in February. In the fall we are planning her teacher certification and taking a M.Ed. or M.A. in education.

We are overseas so she will be doing this online. RA universities.

She is a very hard worker and sharp as a tack.

Sidney

 

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I wouldn't assume someone being taught how to achieve in school is a prodigy... I'm with Skinner, and a total behaviorist. In error, I attended the How To Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence course in Philly in 1993. My oldest looked like a prodigy to the untrained eye- of course, he wasn't- but a 4 month old showing an adult where Madagascar was on a globe, or pointing out Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror looks really cool at parties.... training (IMO) is the separator- innate intelligence is born out of the person. I am sure that given any random healthy baby, I could absolutely teach him to read by age 2, or play violin at age 3, or any number of "amazing" genius-looking things. I've done it with my own first 2 kids, and watched it done to no less than 100 others. I chose not to do that with my last 2 kids- I mention it because I think sometimes people mix up what the child can do with what the child can prove.

This girl isn't a genius, she's driven. No one is innately genius at getting good grades- that's conditioned behavior. The genius is the genius in spite of school.

 

Okay, but where the hell was the father for the first fifteen years of her life?

 

Oh Ted, you don't need fathers anymore.

Unmarried women boost record '07 U.S. birth rate

Unmarried Childbirths in U.S. Reach Record Levels


This article about the 15 year old earning her degree just proves it.

 

That's a good point! Of course, I can point to any number of people who have to move and then wind up with little visitation. He can't be that bad, if she's willing to be around him.

Can't say the same for my mother