

Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school? - jamessun
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/should-we-let-wunderkinds-drop-out-high-school-0

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toasterlovin
There's actually a third path: put smart kids in college early.

I went to a program at a state school in Southern California. It was pretty
amazing. I was with about 120 peers (20-30 students per class year), who
ranged from 12 to 18. We had a common room to go to between classes, so it
ended up as a hybrid between high school and university – the more challenging
courses of university, but with the peer group and social experience of a
(very small) high school.

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Skoofoo
> But the tech community may be different from other industries. Degrees are
> not necessarily seen as a hallmark of achievement and programmers are judged
> on their ability to type lines of code. You are what you create.

That is the key here. It is reasonable to not focus on education if you wish
to pursue a lucrative, high-demand career in an industry that tends to care
about actual skill a lot more than education.

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sp332
But as the article mentions, the odds are still much better for high school
grads (and even better for college grads), so _on average_ keeping kids in
school makes more sense.

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JoeAltmaier
God Bless America, is what I say. If you can make your fortune without years
of study, why not.

And the title argument is ridiculous. Nobody 'lets' somebody else choose their
life.

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exarch
I think the key here is that school is actually obstructing, not aiding, the
"years of study". Extraordinarily gifted people can often be autodidactic -
very good self-directed learners. When that hunger for knowledge exhausts the
ability of the public school teet to supply, it becomes either a matter of
starvation or fending for oneself. Staying in school in these cases can
actually hamper learning via distraction and peer pressure to conform to the
"norm".

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bmh100
I dropped out of high school after completing the advanced, senior-level math
in my sophomore year. The school had interesting classes, but there were no
more classes to intellectually challenge me. It was the right choice, and I
immediately enrolled in college. You are right on track, exarch.

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IanChiles
If I may ask, how did you manage to enroll in college without a HS diploma?

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exarch
More than one university tried to recruit me before I'd even _started_ high
school, based on the results of an SAT test I was asked to take in 6th grade.
I didn't go, but mostly because no one offered a full-ride, and my family was
poor and couldn't afford to pay tuition and put me up in another state.

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EFruit
From someone who has tried to pursue this path: The answer is no. If your
parents have it ingrained in their minds that college == success, and the idea
that there are no alternative routes has set in, enjoy your mental starvation
with a side of busywork.

The situation is even worse when one wants to work with computers. Minors plus
computers OBVIOUSLY equals someone staying online every hour of their life,
playing video games where you violently kill kittens. </sarcasm>

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Kudzu_Bob
High schools are like prisons to smart kids.

