Kids mature at different rates in different ways and families vary greatly in their resources. I'm sure I probably thought at the beginning that with so many things to study college could be put off for ten years. And, then we hit the reality that for our child this was lonely, unsatisfying, and not engaging. That's entirely silly when there existed a perfect solution in the form of a university education.
Exactly. It was the same for us - why try to find things to fill in some time when what he truly wanted, and needed, was already right there. Some kids are academically strong enough to handle higher level courses but are not socially/emotionally/organizationally/etc. able to handle the demands of being in an environment that is not geared to their chronological age. Some are. Ours is and so the decision to stay on the path we started back when we first accelerated him was an easy one to make when it came to early college.
I do often wonder why college has been exhalted to this lofty status with many people. On this board it seems like it is perfectly acceptable to accelerate a younger child, say elementary aged to middle school, but its questionable to accelerate a child into college. The biggest complaint on this board is that our children are not allowed to learn at their appropriate pace and level, and we are absolutely apalled when people suggest that we stop allowing our children to learn things so that they don't get so far ahead. We complain that their gifted pullout enrichment activities do not even come class to supplying our children with what they really need. Yet when it comes to early college that is exactly what many people are espousing. If all those supplemental options to delay college work so well than why are't more of us applying those same ideas with our younger children instead of grade/subject acceleration?
Because for some kids, they don't work. My son has always "needed to learn". He needed to learn when he was 5, he needed to learn when he was 10. At 14, that hasn't changed. Just because he has reached college level doesn't mean that he no longer needs to learn. Of course there are all kinds of experiences and activities outside the world of academics. He participates in those fully, always has. His need to learn never stopped when the school bell rang. But his involvement in those activities doesn't preclude his appetite to further his academic knowledge. I never told him that he had to stop learning when he was in primary school. I devoted (like many parents on this board) much time and energy to getting him where he needed to be. I won't stop him now just so that he can reach an arbitrary age that society has dictated as appropriate for starting college.
He's been outside of the box his whole life. I guess it will just continue. Not every child can or should attend college early. But it is a valid option, and for a few, the very best option.
