11-Year-Old Graduates From LA [Community] College

[MATLABdude]

I don't know, I was thinking it was brilliant! Now I'm trying to figure out who has an 8-year-old I can borrow to plant in my classes with all the answers to my questions.

Probably highly paraphrased from the original, which I read many years ago on some website I can't recall...

Two university math professors are having lunch at a diner one day, and arguing about the state of youth, and how little "kids know today". One of the esteemed gentlemen (Professor B) goes to the washroom, and his dining companion, Professor A, waves the young waitress over.

Prof A: "Young lady, I'll give you $10 if you'll do me this favour. When my friend comes back, I'd like you to respond 'x squared' when I ask you a math question"

Waitress: "Ex Squared when you ask me a math question. No problem!"

Professor A gives her the $10, and shortly thereafter, Professor B comes back, he and Professor A continue conversing for a while. Finally, Professor A proposes a wager.

Prof A: "I think the youth know more than you give them credit for. I'll bet you $20 that when I ask our waitress a simple calculus question, she'll be able to give the correct answer."

Professor B agrees, and Professor A beckons their waitress over.

Prof A: "Miss, could you tell me what the integral of 2 x is?"

Waitress: "Why certainly, it's x^2!"

Prof. A: "See? What'd I tell you?"

Waitress: "Oh, plus a constant!"

 

[Moonbear]

It does vary a lot. Some California community colleges offer a complete curriculum that is fully transferable to any UC school. Others do not.

Yes, I've seen that sort of variation in community colleges as well, and that's what prompted my statement. Sometimes, it's that the parents are actually so ignorant that they can't recognize that the community college curriculum is being taught at such a slow, remedial pace that any halfway intelligent child could do it. There are also a lot of classes taught at that level that do not require any actual understanding of the subject, just rote memorization. Children are amazing at memorization. But, then their parents are all impressed because their kid is in college.

The thing that I always wonder is when do kids lose that ability to devour and retain information, and even lose the things they did know before? They get to college, and things that I could teach to a 6th grader (and have, for afterschool programs or just for fun), they can't seem to learn.

My main concern for a kid who gets pushed into community college at a young age and is praised and held in awe by their parents and the press is that they are going to develop a huge ego that will hinder their learning or success in the future, because they will think they are better than everyone else, so don't need to listen to what others try to teach them and are insufferably arrogant.

On the other end of the spectrum are those who are constantly pushed by their parents and rarely given praise for it, so that no matter how far ahead they get, they feel like they are never doing enough and end up with low self-esteem. That's what happened to the person I went to school with. His parents pushed and pushed and pushed and sometimes he just wanted to be a normal kid with friends visiting but was always made to feel like he wasn't doing quite enough to live up to their expectations and had to study more.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Something else that caught my eye was that he got an AA degree instead of an AS. Normally the math and science classes required for an AA degree are not transferable to a university [towards a technical degree]. So it does make me wonder if a relatively easy curriculum was selected in order to graduate him as soon as possible.

Still, completing high school by age 8, or any college curriculum by age 11, is impressive to say the least.

 

[Moonbear]

Still, completing high school by age 8, or any college curriculum by age 11, is impressive to say the least.

He may not have completed high school. This is one of those goofy things homeschoolers do from time to time, they substitute community college (or "university" of Phoenix) classes for normal school. It seems there are plenty of schools out there willing to accept a parent's money regardless of whether the level of schooling a child got to before that.

 

[Cyrus]

He may not have completed high school. This is one of those goofy things homeschoolers do from time to time, they substitute community college (or "university" of Phoenix) classes for normal school. It seems there are plenty of schools out there willing to accept a parent's money regardless of whether the level of schooling a child got to before that.

My old physics professor and I had this discussion as well. He complained about the education culture we have, particularly in high school. The problem with high schools are that they hold back smart students and require them to take classes in x,y,z even if they already know that information.

When he was at MIT, the teachers had no problem taking you out of a class and moving you to a more advanced class if they thought you would do better there. When it came time to graduate, they didn't care if you took 60 credits, but got the necessary level of knowledge. He said far too often kids in high school should be allowed to leave and start college right away and stop wasting their time. Right now, he's got a home schooled kid with a 740-760 sat scores, with enough AP credits to enter college as a Junior.

The US's high school system is terrible. I nearly dropped out myself to go to college because I knew I was wasting my time when I went to class. The only reason why I stayed was because my mother forced me to. At the time, I told her it doesn't matter if you drop out of high school when you have a college degree (and I was right).

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't know, I was thinking it was brilliant! Now I'm trying to figure out who has an 8-year-old I can borrow to plant in my classes with all the answers to my questions.

I always thought it would be fun to be a gag writer for Candid Camera. That would be a great one!