
I’m Only 9, and I’m Already in College. Here’s What Life Is Like for Me - zdw
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/9-year-old-gifted-college-student_us_5c3cc04be4b0e0baf53fcef0
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DonaldPShimoda
This is... super weird to read, knowing it was written by a nine-year-old.
That said... I think he has a lot of room for improvement still.

He says about getting into college:

> I had to go through interviews and assessments to prove to the
> administration that I had both the scholastic aptitude and the executive
> functions to attend college.

But then later:

> Because of the asynchronous development, I do not have good time-management
> skills or strong note-taking skills, and sometimes I have trouble reading my
> own handwriting! My parents help me by typing out study notes from my
> textbooks, even though they might not understand the content.

That is not what I would consider "the executive functions [needed] to attend
college" if you were discussing the admission of a 9-year-old.

He also says:

> Also, I do whine a lot over homework because it is boring and long.

and

> my parents [...] keep reminding me that work ethic and ethos are more
> important than IQ

and finally

> I hope to transfer to MIT in two to three years. Hopefully, MIT will
> disagree with my parents’ definition of work ethic.

I don't doubt that the kid is smart, and possibly much more well-adjusted than
many other super-smart young kids you hear about from time to time... but I
still wonder about it all. I think he still has a lot of emotional development
to be done, despite his doctors telling him his "EQ (emotional intelligence)
was also surprisingly high".

The first half of the essay seems fairly humble, all things considered, with
him saying things like "People always ask if I am a “genius,” but my parents
explain that genius is an action ― it requires solving big problems that have
a human impact", which I think is great. But the second half seems much more
focused on him being very smart and fully capable and just as good as an
adult, thank you very much... and I think that's something for his parents to
watch out for.

(Of course, I'm just some random person on the internet. His parents and
support network probably know him better than I do. But these are just my
thoughts.)

~~~
CocaKoala
Yeah, it occurs to me that a 9 year old could have the emotional intelligence
of, say, a 15 or 16 year old and that would be "surprisingly high" but that
doesn't mean that college is a good place for a fifteen year old, let alone a
9 year old with the emotional intelligence of one.

~~~
souprock
It's not that crazy. My kids aren't terribly far behind him. I have a 7-year-
old studying AP Chemistry for the test in May 2020, and if she does OK then
she'll start college at 9. The older siblings started just a few years later.
Homeschooling makes it easier.

In times past, people would be employed and married at about the time they
physically matured. This is natural. We've deviated from this due to overly
lengthy and inefficient education. We're losing years of employment, affecting
total lifetime earnings. We're losing years of low-risk childbearing. If you
can get your education completed before you mature, then you can start your
independent family life at the natural time. You can have a paid-off mortgage-
free home and several children by age 20.

I have a coworker that we hired at 18. He showed up with a degree and even
some previous professional work experience. He has done well.

By _" doesn't mean that college is a good place for a"_, you seem to imply
that something other than college is a good place for these young people. I
don't know what that would be, because the obvious alternatives are surely
worse. High school can be pretty toxic and useless. Bad stuff can happen
anywhere. At least college offers more freedom and respect than high school
does, even if it is still 70% a waste of time.

~~~
zozbot123
Has this kid _really_ completed his pre-college education at 9? I very much
doubt that. Anyway, these days MOOC's and the like are a natural alternative
to an actual, formal college environment, which is going to require a _lot_
more "executive function" and self-guided, long-term personal development and
planning than could be reasonably expected from even an exceptional 9-year-
old.

~~~
souprock
The standards for pre-college education are pretty low.

When I compare what my kids get in college with what I did in public schools
circa 1990, 7th grade is enough. Education is shockingly inefficient.

If you can write a paragraph, you're ready for the first writing class. Unless
you can get AP credit, you won't escape being forced to take that class, so
why waste half a decade when you can start immediately? You can probably
complete the college classes faster (2 semesters) than pre-college schooling
would take you from "can write a paragraph" to "scored a 4 on AP English
Composition".

The same goes for math. Knowing a bit about fractions and decimals is enough
to start. You can skip the first college class if you can simplify
expressions, solve sets of 2 equations, and deal with inequalities. Skipping
anything more would require AP Calculus, but that still wouldn't get you out
of the math credit hour requirements. You might as well just start college
earlier.

If those college expectations sound like high school or lower to you, then
you're old and you're starting to understand. College is the new high school,
if even that. We decided to pass all high school students, with "individual
education programs" as needed to avoid maintaining standards, and to expect
everybody to go to college. This is the result.

~~~
antiterra
Your writing example does not jive at _all_ with my experience, having
recently seen very intelligent kids struggle with the required (no skipping
via AP) basic university writing seminars at Ivy League schools.

Further, there's a difference between 'getting by' and actually gleaning the
value of the education. People who took analysis and university level linear
algebra got _much_ more out of discrete math than I did, even though I scraped
out a decent grade.

I've seen similar situations in community college. It's possible to barely pay
attention and glide through the whole thing, but there's often a decent
education for the taking if you put some work in and engage.

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mjfl
If you're a 9 year old genius, don't go to college. Take another 9 years,
spend your time building cool stuff or publishing papers, and play sports with
kids your age. It's important to learn how to socialize, to have a normal
youth.

~~~
tropo
It might be nice to socialize as a normal youth (debatable) but that ship has
sailed. It simply isn't possible to have normal peer conversations. The
mismatch for vocabulary and sentence structure is huge. It would be like a
normal adult trying to socialize with 3-year-old kids. ("We should use
Robert's Rules of Order." \--> "You're a poopyface.")

~~~
mac01021
>It would be like a normal adult trying to socialize with 3-year-old kids.

I think, at worst, it would be like a normal adult trying to socialize with
9-year-old kids?

And this particular kid says he has lots of normal social interaction with
kids his own age.

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arandr0x
That kid is seriously cute, but it worries me that his parents/adults around
him are apparently expecting him to have the patience and reward delaying
abilities of an adult (he's constantly mentioning his lack of "executive
functioning" and failing the marshmallow test -- if he was able to write this
piece he's not below the average 9 year old executive function level, same if
he can actually watch Rachel Maddow for the whole time she's on, so I think
the parents should let up of that).

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woodandsteel
Wow, what an amazing kid.

By the way, here's my favorite 9 year old prodigy, Yoyoka Soma
[https://youtu.be/91pz1E8pAOY](https://youtu.be/91pz1E8pAOY)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qds6sr2kliw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qds6sr2kliw)

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Koshkin
At 9 one cannot have a college life (think specifics).

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arcaster
Let’s try to avoid another unabomber...

This kid’s story is interesting but I feel he’s got immense amounts of work
ahead of him to socialize in the “real” world. Not elementary school, not high
school not college but the real world. Being socialized and able to navigate
is also distinctly different than having a “high EQ”.

