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I don't know about today, but in 1966, when I was teaching chemistry and biology at a good high school - Cocoa Beach, FL (Home of Cape Canaveral and many of the rocket scientests and engineers who got us to the moon) I had a girl who in 11th grade had completed 2nd year chemistry, 2nd year biology, 2nd year calculus, and 2nd year physics (don't know if high schools even offer these courses today), and anyway, she quit, and the state refused to graduate her (all she could do her senior year was 1st year home economics, 1st year shop - etc).

She went directly to college w/o hs degree at Stetson Univ in Deland, FL. At that time, it was a highly reputed, small, private University at Deland, Florida - near Daytona Beach.

I don't know what is up today though, and if it is liberal, or good or what. But it is worth checking out.

Many colleges will accept students who do not have high school diplomas. So anytime a high school decides to deny a diploma to a kid for not taking the required "Indoctrination 110", he should check with his college. Colleges are interested in transcripts, not diplomas. Home schoolers aren't issued state diplomas. My brother-in-law went to college without a high school diploma. He's now the vice president of a pediatric health care business.

In my HS graduating class, we had an extremely gifted student who was THREE classes ahead of her age. The problem was - Illinois state law at the time required that all HS graduates needed to pass their HS drivers education course or an equivalent. The girl was barely 15 at the time of graduation and couldn't even get a student drivers permit.

As a result, the drivers Ed. graduation requirement was dropped from the law a year later. The girl graduated on time after receiving special dispensation from the State School Board and went on to study physics at the University of Chicago.

When I drive around Illinois, I still cringe thinking about the possible unintended consequences of changing that law.

jriemer

I had a girl who in 11th grade had completed 2nd year chemistry, 2nd year biology, 2nd year calculus, and 2nd year physics (don't know if high schools even offer these courses today)

Some of them are offered at better public high schools still. It often depends on the size of the school. My HS offered them, but it was a "science and technology" school with 3,000 students (largest in MD). Alot of how far a student can go depends on the middle school, though. My middle school only offered algebra, so I was "trapped" in how far I could go. I had to take Geometery, Alg-II/Trig, and Pre-Cal my first three years of HS. My senior year I opted for Stat instead of Calc (Both were AP classes) There was one girl at my hs who took geometery in middle school, then took math classes over one or two summers. She ended up taking Chaos Theory or something similar her senior year at Maryland-College Park. With Chem, my HS offered Chem, AP Chem, and Organic. I took Chem and AP Chem, and that earned me credit for Chem 103/113 at Maryland. I regret not taking more AP classes now.

Smaller schools simply don't have enough students willing to take advanced classes to offer them. Another hs (actually, my neighborhood hs), a mile away, sat mostly empty with 800 students and a poor record, despite being in a not-so-bad neighborhood. (Most of the good students went to my hs on transfer.)