Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school? | Hacker News Reader

Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school?

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8 pointsjamessun12 comments

There's actually a third path: put smart kids in college early.

I went to a program at a state school in Southern California. It was pretty amazing. I was with about 120 peers (20-30 students per class year), who ranged from 12 to 18. We had a common room to go to between classes, so it ended up as a hybrid between high school and university – the more challenging courses of university, but with the peer group and social experience of a (very small) high school.

> But the tech community may be different from other industries. Degrees are not necessarily seen as a hallmark of achievement and programmers are judged on their ability to type lines of code. You are what you create.

That is the key here. It is reasonable to not focus on education if you wish to pursue a lucrative, high-demand career in an industry that tends to care about actual skill a lot more than education.

But as the article mentions, the odds are still much better for high school grads (and even better for college grads), so on average keeping kids in school makes more sense.

God Bless America, is what I say. If you can make your fortune without years of study, why not.

And the title argument is ridiculous. Nobody 'lets' somebody else choose their life.

It really is, isn't it? "Comrade, American economy needs you!"

I think the key here is that school is actually obstructing, not aiding, the "years of study". Extraordinarily gifted people can often be autodidactic - very good self-directed learners. When that hunger for knowledge exhausts the ability of the public school teet to supply, it becomes either a matter of starvation or fending for oneself. Staying in school in these cases can actually hamper learning via distraction and peer pressure to conform to the "norm".

I dropped out of high school after completing the advanced, senior-level math in my sophomore year. The school had interesting classes, but there were no more classes to intellectually challenge me. It was the right choice, and I immediately enrolled in college. You are right on track, exarch.

If I may ask, how did you manage to enroll in college without a HS diploma?

More than one university tried to recruit me before I'd even started high school, based on the results of an SAT test I was asked to take in 6th grade. I didn't go, but mostly because no one offered a full-ride, and my family was poor and couldn't afford to pay tuition and put me up in another state.

Sophomore year, I scored highly on the ACT. Before dropping out, I was given conditional acceptance, as long as I completed a GED.

From someone who has tried to pursue this path: The answer is no. If your parents have it ingrained in their minds that college == success, and the idea that there are no alternative routes has set in, enjoy your mental starvation with a side of busywork.

The situation is even worse when one wants to work with computers. Minors plus computers OBVIOUSLY equals someone staying online every hour of their life, playing video games where you violently kill kittens. </sarcasm>

High schools are like prisons to smart kids.

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