well to be fair, it seems he only has an associate degree, not a bachelor’s.
These are not “kids who graduate from college at 15 or 16” but pretty close.
My D finished HS at 13, but was immature for college (particularly in terms of time management) so we held her back a few years, taking college-level classes from Stanford EPGY. She graduated UCB EECS at 19. She is currently a 3rd year PhD student. Coincidentally, her advisor graduated from Cal Tech, also at the age of 19.
Nina Morishige is not working at an academic consulting company. She is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, and apparently earning some money doing “academic consulting” (probably tutoring) in a support program at UBC’s business school. Obviously, her academic career slowed down radically after her Rhodes.
Or maybe she decided to backpack around the world 
There are kids that are geniuses that do follow a more normal childhood (after all, we only hear about these kids when they make the news but there are a whole lot more that don’t do college at age 9). When I see one of these kids its usually a parent who is doing the pushing to go to college very early and I do think it can be damaging. There are plenty of opportunities for gifted kids in the US to keep a more normal social childhood and still be challenged in and outside of school. Its no wonder they become professors as there whole life becomes mired in academia.
This is a highly gifted boy. He NEEDS his academic stimulation. His parents did not “do this” to him- instead they did not force him to stand still. So much so many do not know about gifted kids. They do not fit in with agemates. Would you force a natural athlete to run at the same pace as the average runners of his/her age? Or not allow a gifted musician to play complicated music? Of course this kid will not have a “normal”, aka average life.
It is difficult for parents of even middle range gifted kids to figure out what to do. Being gifted means being out of synch for your age. Post #13 shows how things were done for one highly gifted girl. Fortunately there is a lot of online learning that can be now- more than even ten or fifteen years ago.
What is success? Your definition may be radically different than mine. Remember that, like all other people, gifted people are multifaceted. Different personalities et al.
Every time I see a thread regarding giftedness on CC it rankles me. People who do not know or understand giftedness don’t comprehend people being different from the majority of very bright people. Try forcing your college bound kid to go at the pace of someone with an IQ of 70- 50 or 60 points below theirs. One size does not fit all. I could go on and on… These are special needs kids- would you not meet those needs because 99% of kids can go through school at the same too slow pace?
I’d disagree, if you look more into it you’ll find the parent pushing the child to the accelerate the education process as much as possible. Kids just don’t naturally want to go to college at nine, they will if their parent wants them to. They can find plenty of intellectual stimulation outside of the classroom, it’s the parent that drives this.
Education should never be the whole of life. If this kid lives at home, and takes college classes, I don’t see a problem. He gets intellectual stimulation but can live a normal life outside of school, just like most kids. Whatever “normal” means to an extremely gifted student. He may need extracurriculars in his area of interest, at the university, too. But he is living at home.
We cannot tell the situation and really I think judgment is inappropriate unless we have had the exact same kid in the exact same situation
I’m all for accelerating smart kids if its needed; i just hope that these genius kids get to live out their childhood and enjoy it. We have 50+ years to live as an adult; 18 yrs to be a kid more or less. Smart kids’ childhood shouldn’t be on the fast-track.
i was just realizing how i can’t differentiate between my 30s and 40s; but i can certainly remember my childhood and teens. It goes so quickly; i hope that a fast=paced education doesnt detract from their childhood years.
There is no way to know whether the parents are pushing something on this boy or he really requires it. We have an idealized vision of what a “normal” childhood is, but for many kids who are gifted or just different, normal is hell. When I was a kid, I did some professional acting. My parents got some grief for denying me a “normal” childhood. However, what normal meant for me in elementary school was unrelenting bullying. (High school was much better). I never wanted, or benefited from a normal childhood.
There is also a story I read once about one of the very young female gold medal gymnasts. I don’t remember who. But the father was being reprimanded for putting his daughter in gymnastics so young. His answer was that one day, when she was 2 years old, he came home to find her doing aerial back flips off the couch. The best he could do was to get her training so she could do it safely.
We really don’t know the true stories behind any of these situations.
Sometimes going full steam ahead is okay. I can say for my kid was that he far preferred being in a class with a bunch of kids older than him than being all alone learning through some program. When he was in elementary school at parties he’d always go find adults and start talking computer programming with them. He’s not even my social kid, but working alone is just not that fun. I also don’t think that biologically we are designed to only play with people within a year or two of our age. We think it’s normal because that’s what western culture has designed, but the factory model of education is not the only way to go. But for the profoundly gifted there is never going to be an ideal situation.
“Naturally”… kids are not naturally such a high IQ either, they are different. Extreme ends of the Bell curve kids are rare and do not follow the norms for what they need, crave… Please do not try to attach your norms to people outside your box.
Again- study extensively the realm of giftedness- beyond your possibly low end kids’ range- before making comments. Most people do not comprehend what gifted kids do. So many comparisons to be made.
PS- re thread title- well, duh, an 11 year plans on continuing his education. What else should he do? Get a job at his age and life experience? Let his mind go to mush? Settle for the pinnacle for most instead of reaching his limits?
I’d like to know what happens to these kids that are so gifted. Do they do great things, further science in a radical way, contribute to society, we seem to think that this accelerated education should lead somewhere…but it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere for that .0001 percent. I’m not against it but so what…
You can’t “push” a 4-year old to understand algebra. We’re talking about a profundly gifted kid.
He was enrolled in High school in St Petersburg, where good students dual enroll junior and senior year at the local community college, i.e, St Petersburg college. These kids graduate with a HS diploma and an Associate. He did what most good Juniors and seniors in this high school system do. Then he moved to the local 4-year college to continue his studies. He did it earlier than these typical Juniors and seniors but had learned many things earlier than most,too.
No you can’t push them to understand it but you can push them to study it. There is always a parent behind this, I just disagree with it because the outcomes don’t match up with the talent.
What outcomes are you looking for, and why should you expect any certain outcome other than satisfaction at having received an education that matches the intellect?
Maybe all some geniuses want is a happy life around people who accept them for who they are - and away from the expectations and judgment of complete strangers. Maybe some want to become brain surgeons and rocket scientists while others “just” want a quiet life learning whatever they want to learn at whatever pace they are capable of learning it.
"Nina Morishige is not working at an academic consulting company. She is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, and apparently earning some money doing “academic consulting” (probably tutoring) in a support program at UBC’s business school. Obviously, her academic career slowed down radically after her Rhodes. "
It looks like she stayed in the UK after Rhodes - maybe she got married and took a break from academe to have kids? She also qualified as a pilot while living in the UK, so maybe she had a commercial career flying before returning to math.
Amazing how much I’m learning about my former friend!
From this discussion I’ve come around to an opinion much like @JanieWalker. I mean, look at any group of “smart” people, say those with talents in the top 20%. How many of them are “stars”? I imagine most are happy to have a job, perhaps have a partner and family, go on vacations once in awhile, enjoy reading or gardening or cooking or volunteering. Why should we necessarily expect that these “geniuses” have any different eventual goals in life. So if going at a super fast pace suits them in childhood, that’s fine. It doesn’t mean they’ve “failed” if they end up having a quiet life (like the rest of 99.999% of humanity).
Some do some don’t. " Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth ," found lots more PhDs among the profoundly gifted. I’m not sure if they also got them at younger ages, but the study did find that they were more successful if they were allowed to skip grades.
There’s a summary here: https://www.businessinsider.com/short-film-reveals-what-study-of-5000-genius-kids-for-45-years-found-2017-9 or you can read the copious published studies.