[vuln]

This terrified my wife and I so much that we packed and moved almost 1k miles away. My son was taking 8th grade classes in 7th grade. That was a fight in itself with the school system we moved away from. He’s now in 8th grade taking all high school AP/Honors classes. He’s set to graduate high school with his associates and if he keeps it up he’ll have a bachelors by 20. The old school system there was nothing of the sort in place and we’re not talking about a small town. We’re talking about a million plus population area.

We should be doing everything we can to embrace and encourage children to excel. Not reduce every student’s education down to bullshit.

Edit: We couldn’t afford to move but we HAD to. We sacrificed, we saved, we went without. It was rough and the living conditions weren’t the best to start but we were forced. We couldn’t sit idly by and watch our son become another statistic.

[human_person]

I know a handful of individuals who graduated from college at 20. All of them regret it. Starting their careers a few years early in no way made up for missed experiences or the social awkwardness of being significantly less mature than their ‘year’ peers.

If it’s about filling your sons need for intellectual stimulation there are many great online options (and books!).

This may be my own biases but pushing your offspring to skip a grade or take extra AP classes or graduate from college years early focuses too much on credentialism and external validation (particularly for you the parent) rather than helping the child build a rich, balanced life.

[xyzzy123]

I've known a few well adjusted individuals who finished their education early.

You would tend not to notice except in conversation when you add things up and realise they are unusually accomplished.

Personally I think it's weird making people learn in lock step by age rather than allowing them to progress at their natural rate.

There are a few different underlying assumptions there when you think about it, eg that a) people of the same age have equal "maturity" b) socialising with people older than you is harmful (or less beneficial) compared to socialising with people the same age as you c) socialisation mainly happens in an institutional context d) the purpose of higher education is socialisation as much as learning.

Any or several of those ^ can be false for a particular student. Of course the institution and other students matter too in terms of outcome.

"Pushing" and validation chasing are bad tho, with you on that one.