Wow. So sad. I wonder if being such a prodigy made him so different from the norm that his responses are inscrutable? Or is it just that someone so talented makes us feel weird, and we reflect that back?

That is sad. But I'm suspicious of the families of academic prodigies in the same way I'm suspicious of the families of any other kid who is that exceptional that young -- how much of the accomplishment is child-driven? Not that I have any more experience with that kind of thing than the average 60 Minutes watcher.

That is sad. It's a shame that his family didn't detect the depression, or any hint this might happen.

Yes brenda, it is easier to sell him on the idea since he wouldn't be there 24 hours a day like he is now.

The only kid I knew who fell into that category - graduated highschool at twelve, university at sixteen - his family was a total disarray in most respects. Certainly that wasn't the case there.

how much of the accomplishment is child-driven?

I'd think most of it. Any kid that can read by 18 months, has to want to read by 18 months, you know?

I'm sure it's complex, and has a lot to do with wanting to please your parents, but if the ability is there, they might not be as driven by external forces as one might think, simply because what they're doing is so easy.

I mean, how could you tell if someone was forcing me to go to krav? They might even really want to force me to go, but, fuck, I was gonna be there anyway.

Which is to say -- I wonder, but wouldn't characterise my wonder as suspicion, just because there's so much I don't feel I'll ever understand.

Although you point to the words when you read to the 18 month old child, I don't think many get that you are reading the words. They seem to think you are making up the story to go with the pictures. At least this is how it seemed to me. I don't think my kids knew what words were much before 3. This could be faulty memory.

For me, it's something about the "finished high school by X age" -- it seems to me that a 10 year old could be learning all kinds of interesting stuff on his own, but still be in a classroom with relative age-peers (even with skipping a grade or two). I have no idea if that's actually better or worse for a kid that smart, but my inclination is toward the "normal" life side of things. I guess my kid will never be a child star, or an olympic gymnast, or a college student at 12.

Oh, and I'm clearly not trying to say anything about that particular kid and his specific family.

The crazy brilliant kids in #1's gifted classes do the class work effortlessly and do spectacular projects. The teachers make an effort to keep them challenged. The kids know which ones are unusually bright but they socialize like kids. In middle school they can still get HS credit and in HS they can get college credit. Brendon is in 7th grade, but he already has HS credit for the math he took in 6th grade and this year.

He will graduate with his age group, but have a jump start on college credit. (My wordiness reflects my exhaustion, too tired to edit)

He will graduate with his age group, but have a jump start on college credit.

That's the kind of thing that makes the most sense to me. But really, what do I know? I was just having this conversation with my mother about how everyone thinks they understand education because they went to school. Turns out? Being a student isn't the same as being a teacher.

I think you're right, Jesse, with a lot of kids who are advanced for their aga - always assuming, of course, that the school is in any way equipped to provide that kid with something challenging enough despite not being in step with the class, which is a huge if. But for the kids who are that far advanced, my sense is that not being allowed to follow where their minds are taking them is borderline cruelty. In J's case, the kid I mentioned above, I know his mother worried a lot about the fact that he was cut off in a lot of ways socially. But preventing him from going to university classes (we lived within blocks of the uni, fwiw) would have been much harder on him.

Funny. I just remembered that I got my first kitten from J. Named Tiger, so you can see that creativity didn't necessarily come packaged with the mad math and science skilz.