12 year old kid starts medical school

Cnn.com ^ | Aug 25, 2003 | CNN special report

[CanadianLibertarian]

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Sho Yano's mother hands him his lunch for school in a brown paper bag -- a turkey sandwich and cookies included.

"You don't need any bones today? No bones?" Kyung Yano asks her quiet, spectacle-wearing 12-year-old, who shakes his head "no" as they head out their apartment door. She wants to make sure he isn't supposed to take his samples of spinal bones and a human skull to class, where he's learning about human anatomy.

[CanadianLibertarian]

OK, I'm speechless and stunned. Has an IQ over 200? Bull, this kids IQ is incalculable, no scale has a score for this kind of prodigy.

[Huck]

My father had an IQ over 200. This boy seems to be using his more effectively than my old man did. Best of luck to the young lad.

[bedolido]

When I was 12 I played doctor... never thought of opening a school though... this kid's way ahead of most of us.

[krb]

Well, you might as well be comfortable with 200. I mean, 200 is way the hell up there; it might as well be the infinity you are looking for.

[bedolido]

My IQ is also "off the charts"... unfortunately, it's off the bottom of the charts.

[CanadianLibertarian]

Over 200...wow. What hapened to him? And what about you? Did you inherit? My own is about 160, and I find it causes a host of emotional and social hassles. This kid seems to be very well-adjusted though, I think it comes from a calm, supportive Mom and high standards. I've always had the latter, but not the former.

[krb]

LOL!

[theDentist]

My father always seemed to know when I got into his bottle of Vodka. I still haven't figured out how. His IQ must be staggering. Father's are natually brilliant that way.

[Sloth]

By age 8, he scored a 1,500 out of 1,600 possible points on the SAT and started college at age 9.

That is amazing. I beat him on the SAT, but not by much -- and I was more than twice as old.

[CanadianLibertarian]

LOL...you get a gold star for courage! Admitting a lil kid beat ya on the SAT! :-)

[Loyalist]

He may be intellectually capable enough to handle the course of studies. But is he emotionally mature enough to deal with the moral and ethical issues of medical practice?

[martin_fierro]

My IQ is also "off the charts"... unfortunately, it's off the bottom of the charts.

Huh? I don't get it.

<|:)~

[Huck]

They said it was 220 or so (my dad's.) He didn't graduate school at 12 or anything. He was in college at 16. At 18 he volunteered to go kill krauts in WW2. Came back a coupla years later. He worked in research labs. His specialty was navigational systems. He worked on AWACS and later on the space shuttle. But he had real poor health, heart attacks, bad temper, and some other failing character traits that made it uphill all the way. Never owned a home. Never got money saved.

As for me, I didn't inherit much to speak of. No college for me. But I learned from his mistakes. Hopefully I have a 200 common sense IQ.

[CanadianLibertarian]

Wow dude, that is a fascinating story. It really resonates with me. See today neurologists could have told your Dad that often this sort of superpowered intellect is accompanied by extraordinary emotional and mental sensitivity, so often the genius feels life's pain so much he can't cope with it.

Sounds like romantic nonsense, but there is hardcore evidence for it. Rapid and constant use of the intellect for many people becomes a sort of drug-like high, an addiction. This burns out your supplies of neurotrnasmitters (serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine etc) and puts the body under chronic high stress. Also found is cingulate inflammation in the brain and limbic hyperactivity leading to a host of neuroses and even psychoses.

Ever find after using your brain too much, like rapidly reading large technical books or philosophical works one after the other, you feel weird, compulsive and unfocussed? People with super-hi IQs do it all the time unless they learn not to and focus on one thing at a time.

The kid in the article seems to have got it down fine.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Hopefully I have a 200 common sense IQ.

Trust me when I say that that can carry you a lot further than the 200IQ. I've seen a lot of people who don't have common sense, and they're part of the world's problems, not the solutions.

[muir_redwoods]

No 12 year-old is qualified to practice medicine. Bright enough? maybe but there's more to medicine than intelligence and training. There's judgement that only age and experience will bring. Will this kid be qualified in 5 or 6 years? Not to work on me.

[.38sw]

You make a good point. The boy did say he might like to find something big, like a treatment for cancer. He might find himself a good position in medical research. Perhaps when he gets older after working in research, he could then go on to practice medicine.

[Bonaparte]

It sounds like he'll be a research MD. Probably won't be treating many patients except in residence under his chief's watchful eye. Besides, how many adults want a 15- or 16-year-old diagnosing and treating them -- no matter how smart he may be?

[Mike-o-Matic]

HEY!! Doogie did it first!!

Of course... that was fiction...
ah, nevermind.

[LadyDoc]

In some states, you can't be licensed for medicine under age 21. I know, because one of my classmates was barely 21 when he graduated...

Being a doctor is not all book knowledge: IT takes maturity and empathy. So he may be a "doctor" but be a lousy physician...