HK,
I really disagree with your views on the necessity of hot housing for early college. From my sample size of one I know that is possible for a chld to be at home in a collegiate environment - and to be independent- at 12 or 13 because mine was. And if he was able to do it then I have to believe that there are others.
Why can't it be possible that the social and executive functioning skills of some children are as advanced as their academic skills?
I do agree that early college should be a last resort. It's just that in some children that point comes earlier than for others.
I don't think that you and I actually disagree on this point.
It
is the right thing for some kids. MOST of that cohort will need some kind of hothousing of social/emotional/executive skills in order to be truly at home in that academic setting (which comes as a package deal with adult-ish expectations in those other domains).
Most isn't "all" however. But it does explain why I firmly believe that 12yo children on college/uni campuses
ought to be rare. If that ever becomes commonplace, then there is something very very seriously wrong with our K-12 educational system, and probably something equally wrong with higher ed.
The other thing that I wonder about... is the necessity of putting a very young teen into a position where his/her decision-making is impacting the entire course of his/her life and career.
Yes, these are PG children-- I think that at least that, we can all agree upon. This is NOT a good plan for bright or MG kids, right?
But they are still a long way from having
fully developed executive skills, no matter how good those skills are relative to population norms in the moment.
Again, it's one thing if it's truly child-led, this kind of academic forging. But it
does mean that instead of making errors as an 18yo college freshman, such children are going to be making errors in their first JOBS after graduation instead.
It compresses the time to "adulthood" by societal standards. That's the nature of my concern. It has little to do with what seems normative. Normative doesn't really exist for PG children anyway. Common experience can, but that doesn't mean that perceptions and analysis of those experiences will be the same. Nor does all of that intellect substitute for life experience.
My goal isn't for them to be in college by 12-13. My goal still is for them to be kids ... but not the way others around us think kids should be / act ... I want them to be the kids THEY want to be.
Very well-stated. I am deeply troubled by the video in the OP primarily because it
does seem to be presented as a "goal" of some kind-- and the assertion that if one just buys their "curriculum" or "book" that it can be made true for ANY child... well, I think that is likely to be profoundly awful for some children who are bright but not HG/HG+.
I, too, was a child that would have benefited enormously from college at 14-16 (and in fact, my BFF
did because her parents were more flexible than my own).
