Comment by evook | Hacker News Reader

Comment by evook | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah for sure... I attended a school for gifted kids. Those who where a lot younger than the rest of us where always pushed by their parents and their parents always told they where not pushing.

And that is a first hand experience watching 42 gifted smart young children pushed in our education system and over their interessents on behalf of their parents. I attended this school for 6 years.

It was a pain, and as if school wasn't boring enough ( school is mandatory where I live ) you had to consider every word you wanted to say as a 16/17/18 year old when there where 9/10/11 year old depressed and ADHDish, but extremely smart kids around you the whole time.

In the end I am a hundred percent sure every kid can study MIT classes at every age. Most of the stuff is rational trivia. Also beeing gifted has nothing to do with your grades or your ability to follow classes or lectures. Because that's something your parents could've pushed on you, but for sure you are allowed to be happy that they didn't.

"I am a hundred percent sure every kid can study MIT classes at every age." Every kid can {Watch a lecture: sure, Study: perhaps, understand: Nope}. Humans have varying levels of intelligence and Ahaan is far more intelligent than most. Disregarding his capacities does both a disservice to him and to everyone else.

>school is mandatory where I live

Do you mind if I ask where you live? In most of the US school is "mandatory", but pretty much anyone can homeschool if they want.

There are a lot of state-by-state laws around homeschooling. Basically, some states make it easier than others as far as what rules apply. Some parents have to have their curriculum approved by a state board, others have mandatory checkins, and some have no requirements at all.

"Most of the stuff is rational trivia" --- rational trivia, I like the word.

I don't know if you're beeing sarcastic or not. If so, excuse me please. Anyway you are probably right. I am still not sure about that phrasing. What I wanted to refer to, is that the Stuff you get teached at MIT still isn't any harder or easier than the stuff you can read or maybe already have read in books anyway. When I started college my profs where constantly referring to Tanenbaum, Dijkstra and co. Texts I have read and understood 5 years before I finished school.

Perhaps you shouldn't extrapolate your experience to that of students at MIT (or other universities outside of your country you've not attended, for that matter)?

I'm in the U.S., and I can tell you that having gone to a good, but regular state university for undergrad, and then to much more prestigious university for grad school, the difference between the two was striking. I went from being one of the smarter students in the class, to one of the least smart (or at best, the middle). I expected this university to be better, but it was quite a shock just how much better it was.

Is it possible that what they teach at MIT might go beyond the "trivia" or rote memorization that you describe being taught at your country's schools?

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