<p>VIDEO</a> REPORT: Local Girl Celebrates 16th Birthday and College Graduation in May</p>
<p>Incredible, but whenever I see stories like this I worry about the person in question. Forget missing out on the high school experience and things like prom, what about the college experience? Does she have friends? Has she gone on dates with anyone? Has she really “discovered” herself, or what she really wants (since I’m assuming her parents are the driving force behind this accelerated track given that she was home schooled)?</p>
<p>It strikes me as too much, too soon.</p>
<p>Whoa- you are imposing your life on someone radically different from you in intelligence. The gifted are as different from the average as the equivalently ■■■■■■■■ are. Would you have been willing or interested in conversing about the same things as she was at the same age? Would you have enjoyed spending time with boys who couldn’t relate to you at all intellectually? Imagine being forced to go at a snail’s pace in the slowest reading group and never having any classmates understand what you were talking about. Dating? Not every kid within 2 standard deviations of the median does that. Not everyone gets asked to prom. Your life works for you but one size does not fit all.</p>
<p>I think it is fantastic she was not held back and frustrated as a child. Her biggest problem is the Bell curve numbers that mean there are very few people with her intellectual abilities- therefore hard to be among her peers intellectually and agewise at the same time. It is so much easier to be in that huge number of people with enough others to find those to be with who also share other facets of your persona. Being gifted means being out of synch deevelopmentally- social/intellectual growth. </p>
<p>She can’t help being gifted anymore than a person can change the skin color, height or other given. Would you propose a tall person cut off their legs just to be average in height? Would you have her deny herself intellectual curiosity or ability because you lack it?</p>
<p>My son was only 2 grades ahead- HS grad at 16. Socially some regrets, but when I look at his parents age isn’t the factor. He was delighted to move ahead when he did and had friends at all stages. If he hadn’t been able to learn at his pace he likely would have had problems due to frustration with being held back. Prisons are filled with gifted men who were frustrated as children.</p>
<p>More than enough from me now. You need to get eduacated about giftedness. As stated by some in the field- the gifted ARE different. You are imposing your average lifestyle expectations on someone who can’t- try making a severely ■■■■■■■■ person also fit your life. Doesn’t work.</p>
<p>btw several years ago there was a Miss Wisconsin who later became a physician- not as advanced as this girl but equally out of synch with her age group.</p>
<p>Great comments, Wis75! My S2 has exactly the same issue with his classes: too slow for him. However, he is a little worried about having to deal with much older kids. From academic perspective, he is ready for skipping grade. However, he is afraid of social aspect of it. And, he does not want to be home-schooled. This is a problem we have yet to find a solution.</p>
<p>You got good points. However, I’d use another word for ■■■■■■■■. I know it is the scientific name but, it’s a really nasty word.</p>
<p>Different people were born with different talent and innate abilities. Some are book smart, some are street smart. Looking back my classmates, several of these “■■■■■■■■” kids are the ones who are now running very successful businesses. Go figure…</p>
<p>They come in all flavors. [Westport</a> 6-Year-Old Piano Prodigy Gained International Fame This Weekend - Westport, CT Patch](<a href=“http://westport.patch.com/articles/westport-6-year-old-piano-prodigy-gained-international-fame-this-weekend#youtube_video-9772326]Westport”>http://westport.patch.com/articles/westport-6-year-old-piano-prodigy-gained-international-fame-this-weekend#youtube_video-9772326)</p>
<p>Euphamisms abound for things less than desirable. I prefer cutting out the garbage terms- ■■■■■■■■ is NOT nasty, only people’s associations with ■■■■■■■■ people who, by nature, represent less desirable characteristics. Sugar coating terms doesn’t change the facts. Every other word used will become “nasty” through the association. </p>
<p>I doubt the ■■■■■■■■ kids who later succeeded were not that much below the 100 average IQ. Also, the ones you thought were ■■■■■■■■ may actually have had better IQs than you thought, they just didn’t get engaged in the educational process. Not getting basic reading and math proficiency hurts a lot in later grades.</p>
<p>Going ahead a grade or not. A tough question. At the time our son loved the idea- he was in elementary school. Your son may be older and if he has doubts, don’t do it. Wisconsin schools have gifted and talented programming mandated by law. They also have (it could change with budget cuts) programs that pay for other schools when the subject isn’t offered in a HS. I’ve forgotten program the title but it allowed one girl to spend her senior year of HS in Madison taking college courses- her parents had to pay the room and board but not tuition. Others will take college courses locally. Definitely worth while to keep in the public schools for all of the socialization and extras you can’t do at home. As a parent you can talk to guidance counselors and try to optimize his schedule. Ours made sure son got the best teachers in middle school and son took it from there to take the best classes offered. He didn’t always do the work in HS and his grades weren’t perfect- something he now realizes hurt him in choosing a college. Definitely look at the GT sites (Davison Institute, Hoagies) and WCATY et al for summers. I learned a lot about GT education as our district had a parents committee when they were improving it years ago.</p>
<p>Regarding being 16 almost 17 at UW. No problem for freshmen in the dorms since the legal drinking age is now 21 and everyone drinking is doing it illegally. Students and professors don’t care what your age is. My biggest concern was if son would be able to wake up in time- he never heard the extra loud alarm etc in HS- he did fine at UW as he wanted to be there. He had 2 HS students in his Honors Physics- the 14 year old girl was far younger. Dorm life worked fine and it was good we wouldn’t allow him the apt life his second year- found out area apts all required parental guarantors but wouldn’t have rented to someone under 18 even with that. Socially son has some regrets about driving and drinking ages but I think 10 years from now he’ll understand the dilemna- hold back or let him go at his pace. No matter what you decide there will be issues- that’s the nature of not being average.</p>
<p>Good for her. I’ll enjoy my youth for a little bit longer though. ;)</p>
<p>She’s also enjoying her youth. She can zoom through the material it takes you a lot of effort, just as you easily read while a ■■■■■■■■ person may not be able to comprehend enough to do so. The biggest disadvantage to being extremely gifted is the lack of a peer group- there simply aren’t enough of the same level of functioning in any given area to have the numbers most of us can relate to on our level. One of the problems is that most people just can’t comprehend what it is like to be able to learn so quickly and comprehend in the same depth. We impose our own abilities and experiences with learning on others.</p>
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<p>Wow, I wasn’t expecting this kind of response, especially to something I think most people would agree with.</p>
<p>First, I have to take issue with the attacking tone of your post, which was uncalled for. You don’t know me or how intelligent I am, and snide remarks like “you need to get educated about giftedness” are also completely baseless.</p>
<p>All of the problems you described, such as associating with peers and getting bored to tears in classes happened to me too. I was homeschooled for awhile, and I was in a “gifted and talented” program in elementary/middle school. Did I graduate from college when I was 16? Of course not, neither of my parents have college degrees and they weren’t dedicated to accelerating my life like this girl’s parents obviously were. Without that direction I drifted for awhile, but as soon as I got focus I succeeded. I won’t get into specifics, but I’m doing honors in my major, my GPA is stellar, and my GRE scores are good enough for me to get into any grad school I want.</p>
<p>So, in short, I’m not “average.” Is this girl smarter than me? Probably, but I’m not going to shrink back and say I can’t relate to her. I can, and for that matter I think a good chunk of students at UW-Madison can. 35% of UW students scored between 30 and 36 on the ACT, to use one metric. One of my group members for one of my classes got a perfect score on the ACT – you think she doesn’t understand these same issues? </p>
<p>In the end, no matter how smart someone is or how driven they are, it doesn’t mean that they don’t need friends or that social interaction is “above them” somehow. There’s more to life than “getting to the top,” and there’s no way I would ever have wanted to graduate from college at 16, or even 18 for that matter. You miss out on too much personal growth and, most importantly, you miss out on too much of life. If it works out for her, great (and I hope it does of course), but as I alluded to in my original post, that seems unlikely.</p>
<p>I totally disagree with your comments. In my town we have many geniuses and their parents do not allow them to skip grades. I view this as a multiple variable situation. I think moving up the child hurts the child and also hurts our society. I live among very smart people that tend to have smart children. Consider a ten year old boy (andrew Luck) he’s most probably a genius, but also a world class football player. In my town we have many kids that have multiple talents, you many have just denied them a major leadership position and the other kids the interaction. The kids end up at the same place, but they are much better adjusted to enter college as a normal 18 year old. In some cases the parent will hold the student back a grade to improve their social interaction. In life we must deal with others unless you want to sit in the lab with test tubes.</p>
<p>Posters- you don’t realize how rare this girl’s abilities are. Her academic ability is one in millions, not thousands like that of most gifted. This girl is extremely intelligent, not like the vast majority of gifted students, even those who skip a grade or two. It doesn’t matter what “most people” think. It “only” takes an IQ of 130 to be considered low end gifted, this girl could be 40 points above that- like the difference between an IQ of 120 compared to 80, which is definitely intellectually ■■■■■■■■/slow (choose your desired term). “Genius” could be the average gifted. As far as adjustment is concerned- it is a lot easier to be socially adjusted when you are not too intelligent and can relate to more people. You are off base when you compare life to being in a lab as socially inept- science people are no more/less socially apt than humanities people. Spending time with shallow people who can’t comprehend- who wants that, whether it be discussing street novels or lit major novels? Think outside your box, posters. You don’t know that much about the subject. Compare it to the D1 college football player’s knowledge based compared to a super bowl MVP’s. Enough on this. This girl has done a fantastic job and it doesn’t matter what any of us think. Her world is far beyond our mundane ones intellectually.</p>
<p>graduating college at 16 is ridiculous no matter how “gifted” you are. and what’s with skipping grades? I was always a smart kid so I just took harder classes in high school and out of school programs in elementary school. it gave me extra time to do more extracurricular activities and have other talents. wis75 needs to calm down</p>
<p>It is ridiculous to be outside 2 standard deviations of the middle is what you are saying. Is it equally ridiculous to be a dwarf or a giant? One size does not fit all as you suggest it does. Why don’t they offer adequate instruction to feed the minds of the gifted who are otherwise bored out of their skulls? IF the system would do so it would not be necessary to have highly gifted kids advanced- the college material would be available to them in elementary school. Lack of understanding of people outside your norm doesn’t change these special needs. Our society is woefully inadequate in dealing with those smarter than 99% of the population, hence my attempts to educate the ignorant.</p>
<p>Done. Nice follow-up story. Seems very happy/grounded.</p>
<p>[Monona</a> 16-year-old may be UW’s youngest graduate](<a href=“Monona 16-year-old may be UW's youngest graduate”>Monona 16-year-old may be UW's youngest graduate)</p>
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I think it is very clear that the parents made a conscious decision to accelerate childhood for both kids. Regardless, Serra has a very bright future and congratulations are in order.</p>
<p>@wis75: I’m not going to push for details…if you know this family, you are obviously in a better position to comment than the rest of us. But these articles alone don’t give enough information to support the assertions you have made or the tone you have used in this thread.</p>
<p>Don’t know them, do know Monona. Proud of my attitude- intellectual snobbery. Never dumb down to make average college students feel good. UW students tend to intellectual eletism. No imagination is not something to boast about. There are so many different worlds even wwithin a college campus. The last link shows how well her parents managed her childhood- she did the usual childhood activities in addition to not being brain starved. Notice how “profoundly gifted” mirrors “profoundly ■■■■■■■■”? People are vastly different from the majority at the extremes of intelligence and need huge accomodations. We should end this discussion- some posters just don’t get it and never will.</p>
<p>Masters in nutrition? Wants to be a Surgeon. Gee wonder why. Apparently people think being a doctor is the only way of making money these days. Frankly I’d feel kinda bad for this girl. I don’t see her chances of fitting in at school being very high.</p>
<p>Other UW has 15 YO college senior.</p>
<p>[15-year-old</a> college student eyes opera career | The Arts | The Seattle Times](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2018321283_denna31.html]15-year-old”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2018321283_denna31.html)</p>