Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Article on geniuses dropping out

In college a full-time student may spend 12 hours a week in the classroom. High school lasts for 7 hours a day because it serves as a place to warehouse teenagers, not because it is educationally necessary. If high school students could attend class from say 9 AM to noon and have the rest of the day free (but with the need to set aside time for homework), as college students do, wunderkinds would feel less need to drop out.

Yes. I agree, Bostonian.

My DH and I have refused to allow our DD to drop out before attaining a high school diploma.

However-- no way do we feel that 7-10 hours a day of what is on offer in high school is a "good" use of her time and energy.

For her, the happy medium has been an online charter school-- it's only about 2.5-4h a day and she can spend the rest of her time doing the things that actually DO matter to her. The soft skills that she is learning are also important to us, and she is also gaining executive function as she matures through these years. I do NOT think that dropping out is a good idea for 99% of students, and not even for the vast, vast majority of PG students.


Please note that for kids who are more normative, DD's schooling is NOT a time-saving option, and that in fact, even most of her MG classmates spend 6-9 hours a day at it. But if we're discussing HG+ students, the general rules don't apply.

I don't think that college is educationally necessary. In fact, I'm still not sure what exactly I was supposed to be doing there.

I *know* that law school isn't necessary.

Most of my education occurred in middle school and high school. The rest of it was mostly a waste of my time.

Agreed. Although, I did get a lot out of Grad school - but I had exceptional professors which I understand is rare these days. only a very small percent of students graduated in my program, most transferred to bigger name schools where they wouldn't have to think as hard...

This article reminds me so much of my DH! He taught himself programming in middle school and a bit of high, started volunteering his talents in high school, and in college called companies until he found one who would hire him to work remotely from his dorm room. At college while telecommuting from his dorm room he double majored in Religion and Philosophy earning both a BA and BS. When we started dating he had a 24hr course load (mostly independent studies where he taught himself under supervision of a professor in that area).

He still can't do just one thing and has both a fulltime job and his own business. He never did take any programming classes but rather figured out he could take professional certification exams with minimal effort by reading a manual or playing around with the technology. He is highly decorated and sought after in multiple technologies.

I do think the tech industry is different than most. My husband never needed college or even really high school. However he still sometimes feels he hasn't lived up to his potential because he never went further than a bachelor's degree. When he thinks of seeking further education, he ultimately feels that it would be a waste of his time and offer nothing professionally. Really just a fun diversion.

It is, in that, apart from math and language arts, there's very little in high school or college that has any direct relevance to the field. There's a lot to learn, they're just not teaching it.

College used to be a great way to prepare for a tech job, but somewhere around the late 80s, the technology started moving too quickly for the schools to keep up.