Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Very young HS grads. What next?

I admit that I struggle with the concept of early college and the question of whether my children will be mature enough to handle the social pressures. I know that they will not act the same way at college as they do at home. If we get to that point, I would be inclined to have them live at home and attend the local university. Then, when they are "college age" let them go off to school, possibly getting a second degree.

I had a dear friend who started college at 16. I was a counselor on her Freshman hall. Academically, she had hard time her first semester, getting mostly "Cs." Once she found her comfort zone, she had straight "As" for the rest of her undergrad career. Academics were not the problem. Socially, she engaged in a lot of what I considered to be high risk behavior. She seemed to be going through a major rebellion. She tended to hook up with guys who were controlling and angry. She reveled in the fact that they seemed a little dangerous. I had major concerns about some of her choices and would try to talk her about them. She tended to laugh off my concerns and say that she was experimenting with her freedom. Anyway, she ended up getting murdered in grad school by a male companion. When I learned of her death, I wrote a letter to her parents relaying my memories of their vivacious, creative daughter. In response, I got a letter that let me know that they still saw her as the angelic, precocious teenager. They did not seem to know who their daughter had become once she left home at 16. I don't know if any of this had to do with her age -- it may just have been who she was. Still, I can't help but question after all these years if the teenage lack of judgment played a factor in all of it.