I was not clear. In my mind I was thinking about 10-13 years old as going to college early. I am not sure why you find our family view on "well-roundedness" so offensive. I am not stating that you need to agree. We have a child that could graduate very early,but we are choosing to delay that with other options, so I am speaking from a perspective of a parent who has experience with a child who is excelling across the board.
I don't at all find the concept of well roundedness "offensive." What I find to be a totally inaccurate assumption is your assumption that students would not be well rounded if they enter college early or that they would be more well rounded if their entrance to college was delayed. It may not be your experience, but yes, there are kids that young who are very well rounded.
Agreed.
I venture to guess that my daughter is one of them. She is
not a 'freak' kid by any means, but she really IS that smart (or whatever you want to call it).
It's
hard work, as a parent, to keep them 'fed' with all of what they seem to need, and to try to gently offer up a mixture of things to them so that they CAN be that well-rounded that young. I don't necessarily find it offensive, but I think that perhaps it is a lack of understanding of the specifics.
For example, my daughter's weekly obligations include:
caring for her pets (cats, dog, rabbits)
piano practice (around 6-8 hours a week)
several 4H projects (dog, rabbit, and related leadership obligations-- 2-8 hours in any given week)
community service (often about 3 hours weekly)
school (high school honors student)
friends
side projects (animation, currently)
household chores
her small business
honor society club officer duties
swimming/Tai Chi/other sports
art class with her dad at local CC
reading for pleasure
playing
So yes, she really
is one of those kids. While we
could have 'prevented' her from being radically accelerated, I suppose, by unschooling and/or allowing her to lounge on the sofa day after day reading everything in sight (her natural state), I simply don't believe (as an experienced educator) that most kids are very well served by THAT environment, either, in the long run. I realize that there are parents that disagree with me on that score, and that's fine, but they aren't changing my opinion on that one given what I've seen in college classrooms over the years.
We've had to be creative and innovative as parents and advocates in order to prevent her from graduating from high school at anything even younger. So it isn't that we haven't really tried going "wider/deeper" with her-- but there are really only so many hours in every day, and her schedule already makes MY head spin.
