Secrets of the City

When I was a freshman in high school, there was a fellow freshman who was 13. She definitely did not have the emotional maturity, and she struggled both academically and socially. Last I heard, she did not pursue any post-high school educational opportunities. I can imagine that being a 13-year old freshman in college would be an order of magnitude worse. Sounds like she’ll be isolated from the main population and stuck with a bunch of other home-schooled kids whose parents have pushed them way too hard and feel “socialization is not everything it’s cracked up to be.” That will be a lot of fun.

So, where would I be if I had moved to Staunton, Virginia at age 13. Barefoot and pregnant?

Aren’t most kids considered progeny? Or is this some unholy creature developed in a test tube from DNA culled from the loins of Mike Hatch, Bill McGuire and Mary Tyler Moore?

Of course, she’d still be progeny that way…

Hell, she’ll probably be down at the Staunton Action Park every day, hanging with the kewl kids and making a killing by selling the Boone’s Farm and wine coolers her college buddies are so thoughtfully providing.

It sounds like this program is more like a boarding school than a college experience though — set up specifically for gifted young’uns. I could be wrong, however.

For reasons that I don’t entirely understand in retrospect, I took the S.A.T. in 7th grade. I won some sort of recognition for scoring higher than the average senior in high school. (They gave this award at the high school awards ceremony; looking back, I probably deserved to have my ass kicked just for being there.) I guess that means I was smart enough to go to college–or at least to be home-schooled for a couple of years and then shipped off to a mediocre institution of higher learning. But I know, looking back, that I wasn’t ready for college when I finally went, at 18. If I’d gone to college 13 or 15 or 17 it would have been an unmitigated disaster, and I was a fairly well socialized student at a good-sized public school system.

richg, you are right about “progeny.” The title was a nod to a comic strip. (Calvin: “I guess I’m a child progeny.” Hobbes: “Most children are.”)

I would never homeschool my kids. I grew up next door to some homeschooled children and my cousins were all homeschooled as well. Basically, the parents’ sentiments were fairly close to this idea of a socialization not being “all it’s cracked up to be.” Of course, both sets of kids were in a high-strung religious environment as well.
What ended up happening to both families is some very smart children who were downright creepy to be around. No social skills whatsoever. While they were definitely intelligent and well-rounded in an academic sense, it was like playing with Rod and Todd Flanders on low-grade acid. They ended up with regular middle class jobs and mediocre 3rd tier college educations. Nothing too special.

Meanwhile, my other neighbor who went through “secular” school with me ended up going to Harvard on a scholarship.

Goes to show that there’s definitely such a thing as too much too young and overprotecting your children at the same time.

Hmmm…I don’t remember that one. My memories of Calvin and Hobbes usually center on the horrific things Calvin did with snowmen.

i’m with mike_s. i packed up my car at 17 and drove from NY to Boston to attend college. i was not ready at all. i ended up dropping out and not going back till i was almost 20. and it really was the best thing i could have done for myself. i had three more years of “life experience” under my belt so i was more prepared for college life when i finally got serious about it.

i can’t even imagine how this girl’s mother thinks she’s going to fare well as a freshman in college at such a young age. not to mention that she probably hasn’t had any social interaction with anyone outside her family for the past 13 years.

that’s sad.

weirdo.

I started college at 16 and I loved it. The part that was real hard for me was that i couldn’t climb the climbing wall because i couldn’t sign my own permission slip and my parents were 4 hours away. It was real rough