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I am in Australia rather than the US, but my approach was that since I placed my kids amongst an older cohort, it was only fair to give them the same freedoms (within legal limits for drinking and for driving), so they would have the best chance to succeed socially. Due to the necessity of working long hours when I was a trainee specialist, my eldest spent 50 hours a week in long day care from the age of six weeks so by her fourth birthday, she had the global development of a six year old and she truly was indistinguishable from her grade peers. The added bonus was that since she was assigned to compete in her age group for sports, she was swimming, athletics and cross country age champion at her school which brought a lot of social credits. She started dating a classmate when she was 14 and exercised excellent judgement as her first BF is now my son in law. They are in their mid twenties and she has a year to go to become a fully fledged general medical practitioner and after a series of well managed projects, he has been selected to become the next state director in a mid-sized engineering firm.
My youngest was also an early school entrant, but with a different birthday, the gap between her and her grade peers wasn’t as large. As the baby of the family, however, she wasn’t as socially mature, but her older sister guided her through the potential pitfalls. She was/is extremely tall and was taller than all her older classmates until the boys reached puberty. She started dating at 16 and our entire extended family adored her BF. We were all as crushed as he was when she broke it off, but she told him she was too young to be in a serious relationship. She is currently the youngest residential student on her Uni campus (first semester starts in Feb here, rather than Oct in the US) and only just recently reached the drinking age of 18, so there was a large turn up at the uni bar to see her sip her first cocktail.
My son is my middle child and he didn’t meet the social expectations for an early entrant (ie. he did not always follow instructions), but his birthday placed him amongst the youngest boys in his grade. He was radically accelerated for maths (declined the offer for science) and participated in many activities (eg. robotics team, martial arts) with older students, but because of his exceptional abilities, he was always greatly respected by older peers. He was the only one of my kids who was legally permitted to drive whilst still at high school and we got him a cool new car so that he and his younger sister could enjoy that particular high school experience of independence. He had a very cool reputation whilst being a geek at heart, so the teachers loved that he made the school a more inclusive place as he was the school’s star athlete (state level at many events) but spent lunchtimes either in the library playing chess or in the music building, playing the keyboard or guitar, so for a while, everyone mixed together.
Brace yourself. What may have seemed a fascinating novelty and interesting curiosity, is scaling up and poised for massive deployment. Here's a brief video, sixteen minutes and 14 seconds, updating on Artificial Intelligence (AI) already taking over various job categories -
(h t t p s : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = C z j i p O 4 v u 1 g)
A few highlights: 09:55 - unemployment forecast: 42% of registered nurses, 47% of truck drivers, 64% of accountants, 65% of teaching assistants, 89% of fast food workers. 10:39 - 3.8% growth in GDP predicted, consisting of consumer spending and "non-residential fixed investments" 11:17 - top 10% of income earners account for 50% of consumer spending 11:40 - "non-residential fixed investments" means AI data centers (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, etc) 12:00 - top 10% own 90% of stock market 12:15 - average citizens becoming much less of the equation; being eliminated from economy 12:37 - mention of Sam Altman and UBI (Universal Basic Income) 12:55 - mention of top AI executives saying UBI will help unemployed with the AI transition 13:31 - mention of Elon Musk being asked, in an interview, what career advice he would give... causing him to remain silent for 14 seconds... speechless.
Ironically, accompanying this video, there is an AI-generated transcript and an AI-generated summary.
"AI generated video summary: Morgan Hill Farms reveals unexpected garden challenges and canning triumphs. A discussion about AI's potential impact on the economy and jobs follows. Prepare for a surprising perspective on the future of work."
Even though some of our students and kids may be mature and work well, even up to skipping grades, some of them may have only age-appropriate freedoms rather than grade-appropriate freedoms.
For example some teachers may recommend doing most of the organisation for the kid for "maturity" reasons even if a transition may be in the kid's better interest.
The student may also feel unfree if they are working at a much higher level and yet merely have the freedoms of kids that they don't relate to.
How do you deal with this problem? Do you let them have freedoms at their grade level? Date earlier? Not mind as much if they smoke/drink yet somewhat discouraging it? Still giving them a support system to show how more freedom doesn't necessarily mean you as a parent will leave them out to dry in case issues occur?
Hello, I live in a rural, somewhat isolated area. My 9 year old twins were both diagnosed as gifted in a private psych-ed assessment. We finally have the documentation we need to push for support from the school. For some reason there are an exceptionally low number of identified gifted students in our board (the Superintendent of Special Education told me 12 out of 10,000 students). This means that there are also very few resources and programs available. My boys will not have access to a school for gifted students or even very much attention from a resource teacher. I think the school staff will do what they can to be supportive level devil, but they don't seem to know what to offer. Our meeting is coming up and they have kind of put it on me to ask for what I want. I am not sure what I need to push for. Any advice? A little bit of background, my boys are highly creative and very sensitive, have some social struggles and are under achieving at school.
Also, my daughter is in grade 2 and is also very bright. We can't under-go any testing until she is 9 but she too is advanced in several areas. She doesn't have the all same struggles as her brothers so it is easy to overlook her needs, but I want to advocate for her earlier if I can. I think she is around the age her brothers were when they figured out that they could avoid doing their best at the things they didn't like at school. If anyone has any advise about things to ask for from the school or to provide from home, I would greatly appreciate it!
For your second grade daughter, create a folder with all of her advanced work. If her work is flawless, ask the teacher for tests/assignments that are a grade or two higher to gauge the real gap. Introduce her to activities that don’t guarantee success initially, e.g., knitting, coding, playing a musical instrument. Praise her for her persistence and problem-solving, not just her ability to understand quickly.
A study by University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth and the Momentous Institute indicates there are benefits to educational outcomes, from learning about the brain.
While this study is not specifically about a cohort of gifted pupils, it would be interesting to see whether education about the brain may similarly be helpful to intellectually gifted pupils, who may often suffer from lack of intellectual stimulation (aka learning something new) at school and may also be socially isolated by a system which is reported to largely expect them to be self-taught (auto-didactic) and fine on their own.
Brief Excerpts from article: <<Momentous School emphasizes brain health, teaching age-appropriate neuroscience and mental health strategies starting at age 3, said Dr. Jessica Gomez, executive director of Momentous Institute.
Students learn about brain structures, like the amygdala, and conduct projects on how the brain works by fourth and fifth grade...
All of Momentous' classrooms display illustrations of how the brain functions...
The study, led by Gomez and Nevin's research teams, argues that teaching students neuroscience and mental health from ages 3 to 10 helps them consider how brain health shapes their choices throughout life.
Studying the brain helps students recognize how emotions and stress impact learning, Gomez said. When students know how their brain works, they can better regulate their emotions, manage stress and keep their brain ready to learn, she said.
Understanding how the brain works also allows students to improve their cognitive abilities, such as information processing, decision-making, and innovation, Nevin said. In an increasingly AI-driven world, these skills are crucial for education and the workforce, he said. >>
Related Topics: Executive Function, IEPs, 504s, Neuroscience for Kids (Chudler, UW).
The University of Texas at Austin was sued by SFFA for using race as a factor in admissions. Although UT decided to stop taking race into account after Harvard, it chose not to blind its admissions staff to racial data when assessing potential students, as the majority of other universities, including Harvard and UNC, have done.
Nerdstock 1 is a grassroots gathering of highly gifted adults (and supportive souls) focused on community, connection, and creativity. It's a place for thinkers, dreamers, makers, and feelers — with a vibe that mixes the deep talks of a symposium with the spirit of a festival.
You're absolutely right rigid credit requirements can be limiting for advanced students. Some families have successfully petitioned schools to accept middle school or outside coursework for high school credit, or used dual enrollment more flexibly. While a GED can be a backup path, advocating for personalized learning plans is often the best route.
