I hope The Real World doesn’t tarnish her shine! Good Luck, Kiddo! :)
Mass, compulsory schooling wastes a great amount of human potential. Children aren't all alike, and they aren't machines. Sitting at a desk for a certain number of hours doesn't mean that a child will learn anything. It also means that it may hold a child back from doing things that they're interested in.
People don't consider the opportunity cost of forced schooling.
God gave us all different gifts. Developing those gifts is not the chief interest of mass, compulsory schooling.
Carnegie Unit and Student HourThis is typical of the strange history of formalized schooling in the US.These units came about, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, through a series of three disjointed events, all designed to standardize the collegiate educational experience.
Prior to this time (late 19th century) admission to post-secondary education involved comprehensive examination, either by public oral process, or private written process. These processes varied greatly among U.S. colleges and universities, due to the highly subjective nature of these types of examination. Eventually, these methods were slowly discredited due to their poor reliability and validity. Charles W. Eliot[2] at Harvard University, in the late 19th century, devised both a contact-hour standard for secondary education, and the original credit-hour collegiate post-secondary standard. In 1894, the National Education Association endorsed the standardization of secondary education.[1]
Widespread adoption of the 120-hour secondary standard did not occur until the Carnegie Foundation (established in 1906) began to provide retirement pensions (now known as TIAA-CREF) for university professors with the qualification that universities must enforce the 120-hour secondary standard. By 1910, nearly all secondary institutions in the United States used the "Carnegie Unit" as a measure of secondary course work. As part of their framework, the Carnegie Foundation also established that both high school preparation and college "work" would include a minimum of four years of study.
On a parallel track, the Carnegie Foundation also underwrote the work of Morris L. Cooke's "Academic and Industrial Efficiency." Again, the motive here was to standardize educational outputs and faculty workloads. Cooke established the collegiate Student Hour as "an hour of lecture, of lab work, or of recitation room work, for a single pupil"[3] per week (1/5 of the Carnegie Unit's 5-hour week), during a single semester (or 15 weeks, 1/2 of the Carnegie Unit's 30-week period). (The Student Hour would technically be 1/10 of the Carnegie Unit: 1/5 hour per week times 1/2 year = 1/10.) ...
Wikipedia
The Underground History of American Education was written by NY State Teacher of the Year, John Gatto. It took him ten years to write. He then put it online for people to read for free.
My oldest son’s favorite subject is naval architecture. He wants to design boats. My youngest favorite subject is science and my middle son is computer programming.
All home-schooled kids I’ve ever met were extremely intelligent and prepared.
I’d say that most gifted children could graduate college at 17.
Most of their time in school is wasted on trivialities... an accelerated course of study could easily cram 8yrs of HS and College into 4.
Wow, what an accomplished young lady. Oh yea, I’ve known her and her family for years. In fact I cooked the burgers at her graduation party yesterday.
I finally get to be one of those FReepers who has personal knowledge of the subject.