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We homeschooled through the 9th grade.

His high school years are being spent at college. He has lots of friends at church, many are in the same program and attend some of his classes at college. He doesn't seem to regret skipping high school. He comes and goes from classes and has so much more free time than his public high school friends.

We saw an oral surgeon (wisdom teeth extraction time, LOL) the other day and he asked my son why he hadn't started back to school yet.

My son explained the dual enrollment program to the oral surgeon, and the oral surgeon said, "You're so lucky. High school was the biggest waste of time for me...and I was valedictorian of my class."

I graduated from high school in 1973 at age 16. That effort started just after 8th grade. Two sessions of summer school each year. High school was 10th grade and 12th grade with full senior privileges. The catch was that I petitioned the school board to define class standing by credits earned...standard procedure in colleges. Twenty other students expressed a desire to follow my lead. We all graduated a year early...with full privileges.

I was remiss in not applying to UCSD in time for the Fall 1973 quarter, but my application was accepted for Winter 1974. I filled in the summer with a microbiology class and the Fall semester with 16 units of math, chemistry, English and PE. At UCSD, I took 18 to 22 units every quarter and double summer school sessions again. I graduated with a BA in Molecular Biology from Revelle College, UCSD in June 1976 at age 19. School is a time to work your butt off to get ahead of your peers.

The GED option was not an option in 1973. UCSD had a bunch of requirements that were satisfied by specific courses completed in high school. American history and government classes in particular. The high school German classes just were not up to snuff for the Revelle foreign language proficiency. That requires a score of 680 or above on the SAT II in the language plus a verbal interview with native speakers. The interview starts with a requirement to read an article in a current magazine, then discuss it with the interviewer.

I'm not sure the GED is necessarily the road to success. It is a short cut out the door. If you have the personal discipline to continue studying the necessary material to move ahead academically, then it is probably OK.

I should have pursued a double major in electrical engineering and computer science. That wasn't the preferred route to medical school. The affirmative action quota systems and medical malpractice suits and insurance caused me to re-evaluate my career direction. Barnes & Noble, HBJ, Amazon and others deserve credit for making the necessary computer science and electrical engineering books. I'm doing what I should have done now.