Posted on 05/10/2015 4:30:04 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Grace Duval, like most seniors, is getting ready for a big day. She's graduating tomorrow.
"I'm so excited. It's been a long road getting here. I've worked really hard. I'm happy that I'll finally have that little piece of paper."
Grace plans to attend Penn State in the fall and study French.
"I'll miss my family, but I'm so happy that I'll be at Penn State living in my own apartment studying what I'm really passionate about."
Grace has been one of the top students at her school, Christopher Newport University. She's only 17.
"I originally started taking English at Thomas Nelson Community College when I was ten. Being home schooled helped me accelerate in subjects that I was really passionate about, and to have more attention and more time to study and to read and focus on school and not so much the social aspect," says Duval.
She'll graduate from college suma cum laude with a Bachelor's in French.
She's going to Penn State to get her Masters where she'll also be teaching undergrads or students her own age.
(Excerpt) Read more at ipad.aol.com ...
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.
Great accomplishment
I notice she said she'd be living in her own apartment, so they either have apartments for grad students, or she's living off campus.
Living off campus would be my choice, as a parent, I think dorm living would be a shocker to a homeschooled 17 year old.
Our kid took a similar route (not as young though.) He graduated college at 19, and had his Master's at 21. He also was a TA (great thing about that is your tuition is paid.)
But he lived at home the entire time, we're blessed with 3 universities with just a 30 minute commute. In that way he maintained the same friends who had the same core values and was not subjected to the raunchiness and distractions of dorm living.
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.
How interesting! There is a school here on Long Island that specializes in Naval Architecture. Have you looked at The Webb Institute? It is a very small school, but I understand it is extremely competitive, academically, and you do graduate with a degree in Naval Architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webb_Institute
Regards,
All home-schooled kids I’ve ever met were extremely intelligent and prepared.
We homeschool our sixteen-year-old daughter. She has been ready for college intellectually and academically for several years. We decided to wait so that she starts with her friends and typical high school class in 2017. It’s difficult to know how to handle a child with a genius IQ. We have attempted to keep her childhood as normal as possible. I continue to look for ways to challenge her and help her develop the gifts God gave her.
I’m not certain we made the right decision to wait for college. I can’t imagine two more years of home study, but I also can’t imagine her a part of the social milieu of college either. She would excel academically, but I fear she would be isolated socially. I started college early and to this day my parents would be shocked if they knew what I encountered the very first week. I don’t want that for her, so I readily admit part of the decision to wait on college was fear-based. Her younger sisters are also homeschooled and extremely intelligent. We haven’t wanted to break up their shared childhood by having their big sister head off to college.
“I hope The Real World doesn’t tarnish her shine! Good Luck, Kiddo!”
I doubt it. Certainly didn’t with my kids - the parents simply have to prepare the kid, which is likely the case.
And once she has her college degrees, no one will ever care about her high school education, so some leftist boss in her future won’t even think of asking. She’ll be fine.
“I think dorm living would be a shocker to a homeschooled 17 year old.”
...and possibly quite dangerous. I agree. I lived in a dorm decades ago, and I can only imagine what it must be like now, especially when parents aren’t looking. If there’s a way to avoid putting your kid in a dorm, then DO IT! I nearly failed out because of dorm life. Once I figured out that was the problem (and got an apartment well off campus), I did much, much better. In this case, she has no connection to the high school degenerates that will be populating the dorms, so it’s better if she never steps foot in one.
...and like you (I’m sure) your kid never missed dorm life, not even for a day.
Dangerous indeed. I’m about to turn 50, but my memories of dorm life remain crystal clear. In the room next door to me my freshman year, an idiot was making moonshine at night in his homemade woodfired still. His dad was a congressman, so when he was caught he quietly left rather than being kicked out. There was a bookie who made thousands a week on sports betting. There were dope smoking potheads who watched soaps and played electric guitars non-stop. There were thieves who would steal anything not nailed down or padlocked. Girls were easily snuck in for insane sex parties too filthy to describe. All of that and much more is largely why my daughter is still homeschooled instead of starting college early.
Yep...we’re getting old, but at least those of us that lived in dorms are now able to understand what they have become. Back when our parents went to college (if they did), many decades ago, dorms were segregated by sex and run like a military camp. Our parents likely had no clue as to what they had become by the time we went - and if they had known, many would have looked at other options. These days at least some of us do know.
By the way, we had a guy that was so into sports betting (not sure if he was a bookie or not), that I named him “Point Spread” and EVERYONE called him that afterwards - as that seemed much more important to him that which teams won or lost.
Yes, and the home-schooled students are usually very mature and poised.
Maybe usually, but my 17 year old granddaughter just finished her first full year of pre-nursing courses with a 3.5 gpa. She has her first 25 credit hours towards Nursing school acceptance and her Nurse Aide certification. But at home with Grandma and Grandpa she is still a 17 year old gamehead that yells at her xbox and computer games like when she was 15, so poise and maturity at home is right in her age bracket LOL.
I think you are making the right decision. When I was a child, there was no advanced placement programs, and homeschooling didn’t exist. The only option was to skip a grade. I was skipped two grades. I was miserable and clueless my entire public school career, being two years younger and socially immature compared to the other children in my classes. I couldn’t tell when the others were making fun of me, which was often.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.