<p>@ VillageMom! :)</p>
<p>----applause----</p>
<p>I agree. Thank God we still live in a country where we still have some freedom about the size of our family, how we educate our children, and which values we teach them.</p>
<p>Faulkner University? That’s the school with mandatory chapel attendance/curfew/weekly room checks/Bill O’Reilly as a regular guest? …I’d rather re-enlist in the Army, at least back there I wouldn’t feel like a child who had to be handheld through life. Those kids have my sympathy.</p>
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<p>Attending local colleges* did not seem to impede at least one child prodigy:
[At</a> just 14, UCLA math student Moshe Kai Cavalin has written his first book, ‘We Can Do’ / UCLA Newsroom](<a href=“http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/at-just-14-ucla-math-student-moshe-229359.aspx]At”>Newsroom | UCLA)</p>
<p>*East Los Angeles College, then transfer as a junior to UCLA.</p>
<p>Spudcommando, well you’re not 12. It’s actually pretty appropriate for a 12 year old to have mandatory activities - chapel’s not a bad idea, a curfew, weekly room checks, etc.</p>
<p>They sort of need that. ;)</p>
<p>These kids were raised in a strict home - that’s not a big deal to them, in all probability. Chances are, they will raise their families similarly.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with Faulkner University, but I think spudcommando’s point was that all of these things ate required for the 22 year old students as well. Wasn’t there another lengthy thread on these kids a few months ago?</p>
<p>prefect, I understand. But my point is that the school was chosen by these particular parents for very young students.</p>
<p>Many kids entering college who come from a strict background don’t find those rules particularly troublesome. I know mine wouldn’t mind most of that too much if they found the school otherwise intriguing. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about the school, but there are other religious schools that have MUCH STRICTER rules than that. If that’s your bent…well, it takes all kinds! :)</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like Faulkner’s rules are any worse than any of the Academies. Chances are, Faulkner isn’t as strict as the Academies actually… (though I’ll admit to knowing nothing about Faulkner nor looking it up just for this thread - I do have experience with a couple of the Academies).</p>
<p>It sounds like some on here are merely upset that others choose different religious options than they would. That’s tolerance at it’s best I suppose…</p>
<p>It’s a totally different issue than college at 12.</p>
<p>Choose your college based upon your fit and allow others to do the same.</p>
<p>But I see what you mean. I did read that the daughter did finish medical school by 22. I don’t know if she got a job.</p>
<p>MommaJ, I agree that this might work better if you are not worried about sending you kids to Ivy caliber schools but I did do some more research and the kids have gone on to graduate as a medical doctor, computer scientist, engineer, and other reputable careers.</p>
<p>Nrvenice, if the point of college education is to get a degree from somewhere to move on to a job, then they accomplished what they wanted. If the point is to get the best education one can-- which is my goal for my children-- then there were probably better options. For example, I wonder if the student would have been accepted to an MD program (as opposed to a DO program) if she had gone to a different school or graduated a few years later (presumably with more research and patient care experience)? Who knows what the opportunity cost was of accelerating 10 years and attending a local college? I’m glad it worked for them but, as someone who was accelerated, I am not fond of this approach. I think the students about whom ucbalumnus and VillageMom posted-- students who transferred into top universities-- were bettter-served by acceleration although not all community colleges are equally strong. I think that ideally, students would be able to accelerate within a challenging environment and with a community of peers. </p>
<p>You have posted four times on cc and all of the posts are related to this family and this story. Are you related to them somehow or trying to promote their book?</p>
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<p>Uh, yes we do. There’s a news story about it. These kids are grown up now.</p>
<p>[How</a> the Harding family sent six kids to university by the age of 12 | News.com.au](<a href=“http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/how-the-harding-family-sent-six-kids-to-university-by-the-age-of-12/story-fngqim8m-1226624219877]How”>http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/how-the-harding-family-sent-six-kids-to-university-by-the-age-of-12/story-fngqim8m-1226624219877)</p>
<p>They may be a very religious family, but they seemed to have fostered their children’s love of learning by allowing them to really dig deeply into the things that they loved and explore things expansively. They don’t live in the dorms; they live at home, and they play with kids their own age.</p>
<p>The oldest went to Auburn University Montgomery, the Montgomery campus of Auburn. She majored in mechanical engineering and is an engineer now. The second went to the California College of the Arts, and works as an architect. The third one went to Huntingdon College and then med school; she’s a Navy physician now. The fourth one just finished a BA in English at Huntingdon and is now doing an MS in computer science. Two of their children are currently in college now at Faulkner University. The latter two colleges are religiously affiliated, but they’re not bad colleges or diploma mills, just not famous. The truth is, most students across the country (whether they are 12 or 18 when they go to school) don’t go to Harvards and Yales; they go to places like Huntingdon or AUM.</p>
<p>And what’s wrong with moving to a house near your parents? The oldest girl is 24 years old now. I’m 26 years old and if I could move into a home near my parents, I totally would. I love my hometown and I’d love to have my children be close to their grandparents.</p>
<p>2collegewego, why should we care whether or not she was accepted to an MD program or a DO program? DOs practice the same medicine as MDs; they’re licensed the same and go to the same residencies. A lot of times, you don’t even realize that you have a DO as opposed to an MD. My favorite doctor was a DO. I mean if you want to go into academic medicine or be a famous surgeon an MD is probably best, but if you just want to do family practice, there’s nothing wrong with a DO.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that sending kids to college at 12 years old is a good idea, but it seems to have worked out for these children. All the ones who have graduated are gainfully employed and seem to be doing well for themselves. Architecture is a field with a high unemployment rate and their architect daughter is even gainfully employed, so I’m assuming that these weren’t kids who had no idea what they were doing and just stumbling through classes. Med school in the U.S. is competitive anywhere you go.</p>
<p>Juillet, Yes, students across the country attend colleges like this (Auburn University -Montgomery, California College of the Arts, Huntingdon College and Faulkner University) but not 10 years accelerated. You said the colleges are not ‘bad’ just ‘not famous.’ I could not find a Common Data Set for Faulkner but their webpage says they require a 1290 SAT for all 3 parts combined. That is significantly below the national average. If these young people were capable of attending a 2nd, 3rd or whatever tier school at age 12yo, they likely would have been able to attend a higher-tier college (say, a state flagship or top Christian university) either at 12 or in a few years. Obviously, it doesn’t matter to them and perhaps not to you but I see no reason to accelerate kids to have them enroll at a college with below-average students. To me, this has nothing to do with the family’s religious beliefs; there are conservative, religious colleges that are stronger academically than the schools these kids attended. Why accelerate them to get a degree from a mediocre college? </p>
<p>As far as whether she attended a DO or MD program-- you may see them as the same, but many people don’t. I certainly have never NOT known whether I am dealing with an MD or a DO.</p>
<p>From our experience, top 10 undergraduate programs and top 25 graduate programs, the caliber of the school helps with the networking you can do but once you’re on the job, people just want to know what you did not your pedigree. Maybe someone in HR can chime in but that’s at least what we experienced.</p>
<p>Nrvenice, well there’s a far cry from top 10 to a college with below average students! Yes, there is a difference in the education a student would receive from a top 10 undergraduate (MIT, CalTech, HYPS) and a local college with an SAT of 1290. Again, you only seem interested in the effect on employment and not on the education received but, in my field, yes, there is alo a difference in job prospects with such a dramatic drop in schools. The same holds true or my siblings’ professions. With the job market as bad as it is, why wouldn’t a parent give their kid every advantage? And it doesn’t even have to cost more. With so many kids in the family, they may be eligible for some very good financial aid at a top school or they might be eligible for merit at a state flagship.</p>
<p>And again, nrvenice, what is your relationship to this family? It seems you are just on cc to hawk this book.</p>
<p>2collegewego, not related to the family. And they’re not the only ones who’ve accomplished this. The more people I ask, the more stories I hear about kids getting into college early. This teen even got into Morehouse: [Young</a> Black Prodigy Attends Morehouse College at Age 12 :](<a href=“http://www.blackeconomicdevelopment.com/young-black-prodigy-attends-morehouse-college-at-age-12/]Young”>http://www.blackeconomicdevelopment.com/young-black-prodigy-attends-morehouse-college-at-age-12/)</p>
<p>So perhaps you need to revise your staid ideas about education. This is my process for revising mine and that’s why I’m at cc.</p>
<p>My staid ideas about education? Do you always insult people who don’t agree with you? And do you know or are you a member of this family? </p>
<p>I wonder if you even read my post? As I wrote, <em>I</em> was accelerated. My mom limited my grade acceleration but I was grouped from 4 to 6 years ahead. (For example, I took geometry at 5 years of age with the school’s most accelerated math class. At 16yo, my college placed me in grad classes.) I graduated from a good state flagship (not one of thecountry’s top flaghips) but did not have the opportunities that many of my relatives did who graduated from ivies. (Some of them were also accelerated but less so.) In my field and in that of my relatives (different fields), the name of the alma mater matters. I can’t imagine accelerating a kid to graduate early from a school where the average SATs is about 500. The truth is that employers really don’t care if an employee is younger than the norm— assuming they are old enough to work-- but, in some fields, the name on the diploma matters and the opportunities at a school like Harvard do surpass the opportunities at most state flagships and certainly surpass the opportunities at small, local colleges.</p>
<p>I personally don’t see any point in accelerating my kids. Unless the school system sucks, or their peer group is a bunch of skanked-out druggies, I’d just as well let them develop at a comfortable rate with their friends, so they don’t become social anomalies for the sake of having myself feel vicarious life achievement at cost to my kid; i.e., a 12 year old in the midst of 19 and 21 year olds. Really? Unless you can find a college where all the kids are about the same 12 to 13 year old age group.</p>
<p>And enjoy those stirrings of puberty while in the middle of junior year of college.</p>
<p>It may not be a good idea to push the kid to accelerate. But if the kid is a curious and voracious learner who is bored with regular school work that is trivially easy for him/her, it may not be a good idea to hold him/her back.</p>
<p>I’m with PolarBearShark. There are plenty of ways to keep kids from being bored (esp if one homeschools). They only get to be young once - why take that from them by pushing them on and on just because they can? Give them time to enjoy their youth while going deep into whatever interests them academic or rabbit trail (rather than basic low level college one is counting as college - count that as high school), then let them fly in higher level colleges with their peers.</p>
<p>IMO, many of those in top level colleges COULD have been pushed in the same manner. They were just lucky enough not to have been.</p>
<p>Because we, too, homeschooled for a period (though not currently), it wold have been very easy for my children to’ve gone to college at a young age. We elected not to go that route. They would ultimately have graduated at the same time as a huge number of peers who will simply be better job candidates-- and as someone who’s currently beginning to face age discrimination based in part on numbers determined by date of college graduation…why rush things?
For kids who are truly in need of the challenge and stimulation there are other options, if desired. Band, for example, takes a ridiculous amount of time. My daughter’s in drama; both kids have volunteer work and are taking classes in things that aren’t really school related (extra music and acting classes, fencing…daughter wants to learn how to race a chariot. I have no idea what to do with that, but the local colleges don’t offer it either.) I guess my biggest point is not to assume-- especially for bright, motivated individuals-- that education and school are necessarily synonymous.</p>