Day 572 of 1000
This is the first in a series of posts on the benefits of skipping high school and going straight to college. The introductory post and index to all the other posts in the series is here. You can see their undergraduate results and post-graduate (PhD) chase here. I try to keep the results updated as they occur.
People send in questions and I try to answer them here: Answers to homeschool questions
I thought I would write a few posts on why we think skipping high school is a great idea. I will write about the positive reasons for skipping high school, how we did it, and the actually outcomes for our children. The bad of what passes for a traditional high school education these days seems to out weigh the good by a lot. Still, I do not plan to write much about the abject failure of the majority of traditional high schools in America–at least not in this series of posts.
We definitely made some mistakes on the way, but it has been fabulously gratifying. Sometimes we went too slow. Sometimes we tried to go too fast. We serendipitously lucked into activities and opportunities that moved us forward. We missed deadlines and made mistakes through laziness, incompetence, and ignorance that set us back. Most of all, though, we made a plan and then just plugged away at it for about a decade. The plugging got tedious at times, but we can honestly say it was worth it. Joy, gratification, and humility are the words all of us, kids and adults alike, would use to talk about the educational path we chose for our family.
I have written an outline for what I want to write and will keep a list of links on this page.
- Part 1: Introduction (this post)
- Part 2: Different paths for different kids
- Part 3: Kelly’s path from junior high to college
- Part 4: Christian’s path from junior high to college
- Part 5: Why we think it is silly not to go to community college
- Part 6: That supposedly thorny socialization question
- Part 7: Why not skip high school? Worldview preparation is essential
- Part 8: Kelly takes a mathematical proofs class at Big State U.
- Part 9: Christian takes Chemistry at Big State U.
- Part 10: A full load a big state University
- Part 11: The fact sheet (how we did)
- Addendum 1: Starting college by age 12 (not us)
Say, too bad my parents didn’t know about this! Very, very interesting! And doubtless an option most don’t even know is possible.
I’ll keep eagerly reading. Are you going to write a book about this? Or maybe someone(s) has/have already. You might share a copy with the White House and Arne Duncan. Or rather, sell it to the gov’t for $984.73! d:-)
Thanks for the note Jon! I am looking forward to writing about this. I am quite confident we were far from perfect in all this, but, all-in-all, we are pretty happy with the outcome. Are kids are pretty well adjust, happy, respectful, (relatively) humble, and a little bit ahead. I am sure it is not for everyone, but it worked for us.
I like the idea about writing a book to sell to the government about all this, but I am thinking the price you suggested is a little low. Or maybe not. Will my book be worth more than a $600 hammer? Maybe. I guess I will have to write it and see.
Oh yeah, the $600 hammer. I was thinking of the crescent wrench. It didn’t come out as high as the hammer, ha. I’m sure your book or plan’d be worth plenty more!
I’m curious about why you think political correctness is a reason to skip high school. I’ve always considered political correctness to be a good thing. Would you mind explaining?
🙂
Miriam Webster defines politically correctness as “conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated.” Notice the word political. I invite you to search on the word “worldview” and read what we have posted. An example of our reticence to give into political correctness might be exemplified by the fact that we are a Hispanic family that is adamantly opposed to affirmative action. In addition, we hold to a fairly traditional Christian worldview, have worked hard at teaching our children why we believe what we believe, and did not want to turn that over to government school teachers before the kids were old enough to defend themselves. We have written about this in our blog and invite you to search for and read about that, too.
Hello, I am a boy genius, I have an eidetic memory and an IQ of 184.
I am trying to get quality education especially in science my subject of interests are Theoretical Physics & Quantum mechanics, Egyptology, and philosophy. My teachers fail to challenge me. Is their anyway I could further my education to a collegiate level. I am in 8th grade and my teachers will not help me enroll in higher education. For instance I am have learned the physical sciences in 3 & 4 grade these courses seem like a drag.
Hello “A Birthday hat”. I really do not think I have much for you. Our kids are definitely not geniuses, so they had to work really hard to start college early and are now having to work really hard in graduate school. I am not sure what kind of advise to give someone with an IQ of 184 with an eidetic memory. We are of much more humble stock.
A Birthday Crown
Well, if this kid was really a boy genius, he would probably know which version of “there” he should use. Do yourself a favor, smart guy, and worry about the philosophy when you get to Harvard, until then, crack a 5th grade English book first.
Well, since you’re a genius, perhaps you could spend a little bit of effort bringing your grammar and punctuation usage up to high school standards at least. Apparently your English teachers have more than sufficiently “challenged” your abilities.