Posted on 05/30/2010 4:41:07 PM PDT by JoeProBono
ORLANDO, Fla.- Parents of a home-schooled 13-year-old Florida girl say they are filing a complaint because she's being denied entry to college because of her age.
The retired engineer parents of Anastasia "Annie" Megan say they have gone as far as they can go in educating their daughter. She's almost completed her high school education and they've applied for Annie to take dual-enrollment classes at Lake-Sumter Community College in Leesburg, Florida, but they've been turned down by college officials, who say she's not ready to be in classes with older students, the Orlando Sentinel reported Sunday.
The parents have filed an age-discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights against the college.
"If she meets all the qualifications but for her age, then why not let her in?" asked her mother, Louise Racine. "What's the worst that can happen, honestly? If a child does pass these tests, don't you think they should be allowed to continue their education to the next level and continue to let their minds grow?"
Although college President Charles Mojock would not comment specifically, the Sentinel said, he talked about the freedom of the college environment.
"Anyone basically can walk onto our campus," Mojock said. "So we've got a very different environment (than a high school). … And we have many adult students having adult conversations on adult topics and that may or may not be suitable for some young students."
"It's a shame to see the (college) administration taking the go-slow approach to a bright student who wants to continue to learn," Annie's father John Megan said.
Both my mother and my sister entered college at 15. Both reached the top of their fields.
A pity the 13 year old can’t go to Hillsdale or another of the better conservative colleges.
More of a pity she can’t get enough advanced courses the way she did with her secondary education.
Both my mother and my sister entered college at 15. Both reached the top of their fields.
A pity the 13 year old can’t go to Hillsdale or another of the better conservative colleges.
More of a pity she can’t get enough advanced courses the way she did with her secondary education.
Had either a 14 or 15 yr old Young Women of India Heritage in an evening accounting class and she was stellar in terms of grasping the material and her grades. Obviously admissions didn't have a problem with it.
Try another school....
Home school ping
Why doesn’t she take online college classes? I agree putting a 13-yr old into classes with normal collage-aged students, especially one that has never attended formal classes may be a problem, for her , as she has been homeschooled? I am not saying she should not be admitted, but there is some concern for her, on my part.
I was not going to post further on this thread, but find the premise I think you are positing is a faulty one.
The sex and drugs behavior all too rampant on all too many campuses is hardly restricted to colleges. Thanks to “OuR Bill” the walking, talking Klintoon, oral sex is now commonplace in secondary schools.
Not forget, drugs, vaginal sex, and teachers pushing other varieties of sex best not detailed (my dinner is NOT beyond the point of no return) being all too common in middle schools, high schools, and even in some 5th and 6th grade classes.
An early teen told her mother that oral sex was normative on dates to the movies (middle school girl, remember!).
Why? According to the 13 year old niece, if you do that on the way to the movie, you can watch the movie without your date groping you all during the movie.
The uncle of that girl was Chief of the School Police Unit in a huge urban school system. I verified the story with “Da Chief”.
As a Jesuit once said, “Give me the child until the age of six, and I will not fear for the soul of the child thereafter.
With good parenting, the school need not fear any “ban influences” from the older children.
However, given the far better socialization, and more rapid maturation of home schooled students, she might inhibit some of the socialist and perverse tendencies of the other students.
The Horror! The Horror!
;-)
ORLANDO, Fla.- Parents of a home-schooled 13-year-old Florida girl say they are filing a complaint because she's being denied entry to college because of her age.
The parents might as well let the girl work at a bar ... she would probably learn just as much there ... LOL ...
While I can’t think of a legal reason for her not to go to college, I really don’t think it’s a very good idea. Regardless of her intelligence, there is still a lot of emotional development that happens between 13 and 18. However, the parents should be the ones to decide. I know that a lot of colleges have postsecondary kids in there and they are usually around 16 or 17, so I’m not sure what the college’s big beef is (I didn’t read the full story though).
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I'd bet this girl could out perform your average public school graduate in her sleep.
I agree with you. I’m sure the parents think their daughter is mature but putting a 13 year old against a bunch of kids in their 18-19-20’s.... I don’t know.
I know people in similar circumstances. Not the same couple, for sure, but their kid went to college at that age and also finished masters work very young.
Now has a very lucrative job at an age that some kids are still trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up.
Exactly. Not only that, but I can say that some of the material I had to read/study for my college classes was pretty intense and I would not want a 13 year old in on those discussions. No way. I will give a specific example. I had to read the novel, “Push” by Sapphire. The novel was made into a very popular movie called Precious. I told my professor that I thought that book was pornographic and I was sorry I had to read it.
However, given the far better socialization, and more rapid maturation of home schooled students, she might inhibit some of the socialist and perverse tendencies of the other students.
LOL ... that's got to be the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. Yeah, sure... a 13/14-year-old is going to inhibit some of the tendencies of those 18/19 to 24-year-olds ...
I don't know when the last time you were in college was, but I can assure you, no 18-24-year-old is going to inhibited by a 13-14-year-old ... :-)
I can think back to my own college and there would be a big yuk-yuk going on if any 13-14-year old was trying to say anything to someone 18-24 years old. Talk about a good way to give a kid like that an inferiority-complex would be to send them straight into a college environment with the types of attitudes that are there these days. It would be "smack-down-time" for a kid like that ...
If the kid commutes, you miss all the nonsense that goes in in college life. You’re on campus for classes and home after that.
Living there is a different matter completely and that’s where the problems come in.
There is always a risk though. No matter how strong that girl is and how grounded, after all is said and done, she is a girl, after all, and a minor. I would also say that some homeschooled kids are very naive in many ways. They are smart about academic matters but not street savy.
Thanks for some common sense on here.
I’m sure the parents think their daughter is mature but putting a 13 year old against a bunch of kids in their 18-19-20’s.... I don’t know.
Yep, those 18-24-year olds can twist that 13-14-year-old into circles, with their social-skills (and those can be quite abusive social skills, too...). She might have some good head-knowledge and be "fact-smart" and intelligent that way, but she'll be beat down and whipped around socially.
You know, what's interesting about your comment is that one of the criticisms against homeschooling is that the kids are too sheltered, they don't have enough real life experience, they don't have classroom experience, etc.
And yet you're advocating that they shelter her even more?
When, exactly, would she then get that experience. Sometimes you just have to go and do something to learn how to do it and community colleges are great places for that.
sure, not your decision or the governments’
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