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Jack Rico, 13, just graduated with 4 Associate's degrees, and a 4.0 average from Fullerton in California.
He must be bored a lot.
At least that's what they said about "super smart" kids in my day...they were so bored as to often be disruptive to the classes.
The question is, where does he go now? To a 4 year Bachelor's degree? Because at 13 he can't get working papers, and the jobs some states allow at age 13 ( farms, for example) are probably considered "beneath his capacity".
He seems to have graduated with Humanities degrees, other wise I'd suggest we set him on finding a cure for covid-19!
Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory-for those unfamiliar) coming up in Jack Rico?
I guess if he works online, he should start developing a "room mate agreement"!
"Dr. Rico..please report to the senior lab technician..."
Guess we'll have to wait until Jack Rico is 16 or 17, when he has finished his bachelor's and doctorates!
OP, I've been in university classes with 12-year-olds. Universities have a program for allowing gifted kids in early, these days. Maybe it's an affordability issue for his parents, IDK, regarding his CC involvement, rather than a 4-yr. institution. Most kids like that end up doing 4 years' worth of university on an accelerated schedule, and completing an advanced degree before they're 18. By the time they finish all that, they're certainly employable.
Would've been helpful to post a link, so we could learn a bit more about the case...
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 05-28-2020 at 11:44 AM..
I'd be curious if anyone has done a follow up on prodigies and how their life went after this rush period. We had one in my major in college. Just slightly older than what this kid will be, I think 19 when he graduated college. Really nice guy, but naïve. Kind of Sheldon's brain with Kuthrapoli's personality. Went to grad school at MIT and last I heard was working for one of the big (I won't name it here for respect of his privacy) software firms on the west coast. All in all he's probably the most financially successful of all of us that were in the department together.
When our youngest was a First Year Med School Student in 2014, somehow all the tallest males in the Anatomy Lab Class were assigned to the same cadaver. This group of six, who all appeared to be about the same age, consisted of four guys who were 22-23 years old, our son who was 32 years old, and the final guy who was only 17 years old.
My feelings toward youth prodigies are more of compassion than admiration. First of all, a star twice as bright shines half as long. Their own mental resources aren't like government's money: you can't just "print" them out of thin air. Sooner or later, they'll run out, oftentimes at an age when they're needed the most: young or middle adulthood, when mental resources are seriously needed to build one's career.
Second, they don't get to have a real childhood for the most part. They're pressured to academically excel: first by parents and teachers, then by their own volition, due to feeling like they have to do it to keep praise/approval coming. Smarts and academics drown out things that are important for a well-rounded childhood: sports, friendships, generation-specific pop culture (like "Animaniacs" cartoons), fun games (like the gym parachute or kickball) and so on. So they spend their childhood without getting to actually be a child. Which may cause them to want to "make up for lost time" as an adult.
Third, does anyone really care how the youth prodigy themselves feel about it? At least enough to ask if they even want to live that lifestyle? Probably not. The best thing is to pretend that the prodigy part doesn't exist, and have the child live as normal a life as possible. With a possible exception of interest-specific youth groups, like Minecraft or science experiments.
The same is true for young sports prodigies as well.
My feelings toward youth prodigies are more of compassion than admiration. First of all, a star twice as bright shines half as long. Their own mental resources aren't like government's money: you can't just "print" them out of thin air. Sooner or later, they'll run out, oftentimes at an age when they're needed the most: young or middle adulthood, when mental resources are seriously needed to build one's career.
Second, they don't get to have a real childhood for the most part. They're pressured to academically excel: first by parents and teachers, then by their own volition, due to feeling like they have to do it to keep praise/approval coming. Smarts and academics drown out things that are important for a well-rounded childhood: sports, friendships, generation-specific pop culture (like "Animaniacs" cartoons), fun games (like the gym parachute or kickball) and so on. So they spend their childhood without getting to actually be a child. Which may cause them to want to "make up for lost time" as an adult.
Third, does anyone really care how the youth prodigy themselves feel about it? At least enough to ask if they even want to live that lifestyle? Probably not. The best thing is to pretend that the prodigy part doesn't exist, and have the child live as normal a life as possible. With a possible exception of interest-specific youth groups, like Minecraft or science experiments.
The same is true for young sports prodigies as well.
My son has an IQ around 162, skipped grades, was in Duke TIP, Johns Hopkins CTY, math competitions, Harvard summer school, made an 800 on SAT math at 9yo. etc. He stayed busy doing a lot of non-kid stuff. Years on he has years in his pocket relative to his medical resident peers and he is happy, conversational, likes bebop.....he's very well rounded.
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IMO he need to differentiate between prodigies and gifted kids. According to the experts child prodigies are those who are as good as top notch adult professionals per area. Academically gifted kids have advantages over peers not adults.
I think any kid theses days can achieve that if they put their collective mind to it instead of playing Fortnite. Kids these days have very good memory and they just don't have good attention span.
I'm not so sure I'd want a life & death decision being made about my medical care by a prodigy 19y/o kid with an MD degree. There's no substitute for experience. Knowledge is one thing. Wisdom is another.
Old Amos & Andy routine-- The kingfish was trying to bilk money out of Andy by selling him a correspondence school course that would earn him a degree in only 6 weeks "Well, how come it would take me 4 yrs if I went to Harvard or Yale, but only 6 wks from your course?" asks Andy...."We can do it cuz we cuts out all the fraternity parties and panty raids," says The Kingfish.
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