Posted 1/6/2012 10:56 pm
Is he going to be small/grow up to be a manlet? Boys already mature more slowly than girls, so he could be the shrimp for a couple of years, which could result in bullying.
He's tall and thin, and a total pretty boy. But he's also very young emotionally and kind of sensitive. He plays well with younger children, but he does high-level academic work. It's tough.
Posted 1/6/2012 11:02 pm
Don't let him skip, it messes with their heads when they get In middle school. To use the old phrase, they act bigger than their britches. Not worth the headaches down the road.
Posted 1/6/2012 11:15 pm
There is a risk in it, but it can stimulate him as well. How about an alternative:
- some stimulating hobbies outside of school (perhaps artistic, like guitar playing to also develop that side of him)
- some intellectually challenging extra classes outside of regular school?
Posted 1/6/2012 11:18 pm
I skipped a grade as well. It sucked getting my driver's license the second half of my Junior year. There's no real reason to rush things.
Posted 1/6/2012 11:23 pm
Home-school the kid for a couple of years. Get him to pass the GED as young as possible. There's no reason why any smart and motivated kid can't pass the GED by the time he is 13 years old.
Then, let him take classes at your local community college. It's cheap, and he can easily earn both an A.A. and an A.S. before turning 18, while still having lots of time free to learn to play a musical instrument.
By the time he is 18, he will be halfway toward his bachelor's degree, and he will have had fairly carefree teenage years. He will be a dream candidate for most colleges' admission committees, so he should be able to get a scholarship somewhere good, but instead of taking 4 years he should be able to finish in 2 or 3 and be ready for grad school if that interests him.
Don't push the kid into being a Doogie Howser, whatever you do. Let him spend his teen years being a teen.
Posted 1/6/2012 11:27 pm
I work in Finance/on Wall St which, for whatever its other failings, has drawn a lot of smart people and paid very well in recent decades.
I have never met one successful person who took the path described above.
Send the kid to a good private school. At the school I went to, there would be no talk of "skipping grades." Out of, I think, 200 kids in our class, 30 went to Harvard, 15 went to MIT, etc.
The kid described above will be one of these lost twats who spends his life with his purported educational achievements as its high point.
Posted 1/7/2012 12:42 am
I second the guy about the private school if you can afford. At least try and fill out the forms.
If you can't afford, then, yes, I would pull the kid out of the public school system. The odds of that shitty system killing whatever drive your kid has is very high.
Follow the GED plan listed above. He will be better off in the long run as long as he can adapt socially so make sure the kid has social opportunities with kids his own age. Independent sports leagues, a religion, volunteering, a band, or whatever. There are tons of groups out there.
Oh, and the competitive schools like focused kids. Don't believe the well-rounded shit. If he plays an instrument, then make sure he does something with it like plays in an orchestra. Like theater? Have him write a play and see if it can be performed by local groups. Like science? Then have him think of a project. Ivies love odd ball religions like Islam, Quakerism, Unitarians, or oddball instruments like harps. They want to be unique. They want their students to be brilliant and unique. They like to admit kids who have already proven themselves in the world outside of school because the odds of them going on to be successful adults are high and this will bring $$$ and prestige back to the institution which is the only thing they care about.
Posted 1/7/2012 12:43 am
What he should do is skip a grade, then hang out with the hoodlums and delinquents in his new higher grade, avoiding schoolwork. Then he'll get held back, and be back with his old classmates, just as smart as before, but with the difference that he will have learned to run with a much more mature and cool crowd of kids than his old nerd buddies.
A middle-American kid who developed an interest in Sufi mysticism and meditation, learned to play the harp well enough to be first-harpist in the community orchestra, grew all of the vegetables he ate for a year at age 15 and has learned calligraphy expertly enough to write the Euler function so it looks like a work of medieval art -- THAT is the kind of kid America's private colleges want today. Bonus points if you can get him involved in some legitimate business activity that will signal to the admissions committee that he is likely to become a wealthy alumnus and philanthropist.
he should do okay
