Ahead of his class, quite a bit: 15-year-old to get diploma, 2 degrees

Dayton Daily News ^ | May 12, 2003 | Mark Fisher

[mabelkitty]

Ahead of his class, quite a bit 15-year-old to get diploma, 2 degrees

By Mark Fisher e-mail address: mark_fisher@coxohio.com Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | When Harry Drake Jr. finished first grade at a parochial school in Warren County nine years ago, his teacher advised his parents to hold their child back because she didn’t feel young Harry was "intellectually ready" for second grade.

His parents respectfully disagreed.

Harry Drake Jr. was quite "intellectually ready" for second grade — and for just about everything else thrown at him academically in the succeeding nine years. So ready, in fact, that this spring, Harry Drake Jr. of Dayton will, at the age of 15, graduate simultaneously from high school and from Sinclair Community College, with a diploma and two degrees. He’ll enroll at Wright State University this fall as a 16-year-old college junior. Oh, and on the side, he writes computer programs for Sinclair’s chemistry department lab.

Even first-grade teachers can make mistakes.

Harry’s parents, Anne and Harry Drake Sr., ignored that teacher’s advice nine years ago, choosing instead to pull their son out of school so that Anne could teach him at home for a few years. Harry devoured the home-schooling curriculum and advanced quickly.

The family moved from the Springboro area to Harrison Twp., and Harry attended Meadowdale Elementary for sixth grade and Fairview Middle School as a very young seventh-grader. But as an 11-year-old going to a middle school with 13- and 14-year-olds, the going was a bit rough. His parents again pulled him out in favor of a couple of years of an Internet and home-schooling curriculum.

"Then we had a very young 10th-grader on our hands who was 13 and about 5-foot-4," Harry Sr. said.

"I was small and young," Harry Jr. said. "And I had a mouth that got ahead of my brain."

Harry and his parents ruled out enrolling him at Meadowdale High School and instead took advantage of the Post Secondary Enrollment Option that allows student to get simultaneous high school and college credits. He started at Sinclair and "goofed off my first quarter," he said, but soon settled in with his older classmates.

There were a few bumps along the way.

A Sinclair prof last year asked English 112 students to write about a first in their lives, such as getting their first driver’s license, going out on their first date, first time going into a bar, etc. The professor didn’t know Harry was 14 and hadn’t experienced any of those firsts just yet. Harry wrote about his first class at Sinclair instead.

In three years, Drake amassed enough credit hours to earn two associate’s degrees, and he’ll graduate June 14 with a 3.0 grade point average. He’ll also be awarded a Meadowdale High School diploma even though he never attended a class there. In the fall, he’ll move into an honors dorm at Wright State.

"I’m excited about it," Harry said. "It’ll be a different campus experience than Sinclair. I’m a bit apprehensive, too, but hey . . . it’s college."

His parents say they’re confident the now 6-foot-3-plus teenage son can handle the transition to a university campus. "And he’s close enough to home that he could call, and we could be there in 30 minutes," his mother said.

Often, there’s an assumption in such accelerated academic cases that the parents are pushing the children relentlessly. Not so in this case, say child and parents.

"My parents let me make the choices," Harry said. "It was my decision."

"If anything, my kids push me," Anne Drake said. "I’ve pulled them back at times and asked them to take a break."

What Anne Drake did do was teach her children to read at a young age — 3 or 4. She has studied chemistry and music, while Harry Sr. has a background in engineering and liberal arts, so their children were exposed to a wide variety of books and conversation topics.

Their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, also utilized the PSEO program to earn college credits, at Miami University’s Middletown campus, and will graduate this spring from the University of Toledo with two degrees. She is 21.

And Harry has a younger sister, age 6, who — yes — just whizzed through second-grade curriculum.

Contact Mark Fisher at mark_fisher@coxohio.com or 225-2258.

[From the Dayton Daily News: 05.12.2003]

[mabelkitty]

I was reading the Ohio blames Homeschooling thread, and thought this would make you smile!

[CFW]

Thanks. A common theme in these stories is the fact that the children were taught to read, at home, at a early age. Learn to read and you can learn to do anything.

[twigs]

This is a great story. Too many times, these students who are academically ahead in years have problems adapting socially. These parents seem to have their feet on the ground and handled their son with care and wisdom. Sounds like he's not only intelligent but normal. Good on all of them!

[Txslady]

ping! Another great Home School story - you might enjoy reading. :o)

[farmfriend]

Home School ping.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This kind of dumbing down thinking by our "educators" happens more often than you think. My son's vocabulary didn't match his age or handwriting so the school wanted to have him work with a couple of school psychologists who had nothing better to do. It took the threat of a lawsuit to put a stop to them.

[Lost Highway]

Bravo to the child and the parents on a job well done.

[gulfcoast6]

And this is the reason my gd starts homeschooling next year, the grade schools are holding her back and she is bored as can be in the public schools.

[George from New England]

No mention of this...

These are the kids that the Public Schools try to put on Ritalin; all in the name of control.

This kid is one of the few success stories in today's society. Most of tomorrow's Einsteins are drugged when young and will never make it the way God planned for them.

[2Jedismom]

Ping!

[hsmomx3]

Yes, thank you.

[Paul Atreides]

Yeah, but what about his self-esteem? I'm sure that his horrible parents told him that he got a question wrong, or that 2 + 2 doesn't equal 3, somewhere along the line. Think of what they had that child reading! I bet he read about all of those evil dead white men, all of that Eurocentric literature, and all of that gobbledygook. Did he get to read about homosexuals? Did he get to study radical feminism? Did he get to learn about Heather and her two mommies? I don't know why you are so cheerful about the abuse heaped on that poor child. </sarcasm>

[DannyTN]

Thanks, I would love more information on this or other approaches to gifted children.

I have a 6 yo daughter who is completing kindergarden. I bought her a computer at two even though I was unemployed at the time. She was reading well at three. She now reads at a fifth grade level and math is probably at a third grade level.

She had a good teacher in Kindergarden who let her do presentations to the class and challenged her with specialized work. Her reading advanced from 2.5 at the start of the year to 5.1 at the end.

Consequently, she enjoyed kindergarden and wasn't bored. I know because I must have asked her every week. But I remain very skeptical that the local school can pull it off again next year. I hate to skip grades because of the social implications. I'm not sure my wife is really up to homeschooling, although the computer really makes learning fun.

[Pure Country]

Thanks. A common theme in these stories is the fact that the children were taught to read, at home, at a early age. Learn to read and you can learn to do anything.

Our daughter (home schooled) absolutely detests reading. She will do anything to bypass it. Guess she's doing okay though. At sixteen she just finished her first semester of college with a 4.0. Not bad for a non-reader!

Her profs never knew how old she was until the end of classes when something about age was brought up in class. The other students were more surprised than the instructors. By the way, she took things like Chemistry and Western Civ (she wanted to take auto mechanics and welding--HEY! She's a farm girl).

[ican'tbelieveit]

I was one of those bored kids in grade school in the late 70's and early 80's. By the time I graduated highschool, several of my teachers knew I felt my public school education had been a waste of time. One of them went so far as to write on a paper I had written to not give up on public schools yet.

I knew then I would not let my kids suffer thru the public schools. Especially if they were anything like me. They are happily homeschooled. In June, they will have completed 2 full grades this year (first time I have done that, usually let them finish one year and call it a rest until the next year).

There is nothing more fulfilling than to sit with my kids and have them go over what they have learned. They have so much excitement about learning, it is the hardest thing to describe unless you experience it.

[dfrussell]

Unless you have no alternatives, do not put your children
in a public school.

[ican'tbelieveit]

You would get a kick out of my son, he is more conservative than me on some things. He doesn't have an FR name yet, but he reads articles and has me come and look at them. Great stuff.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Danny, I would suggest you spend a couple of weeks studying the homeschool curriculum now available. It is unbelievable what some of these companies have put together. And if your daughter reads as well as you say, she will find it a breeze. The other thing... it doesn't take 8 hours a day to homeschool. Especially not with one child... couple of hours. Mom would have the rest of the day to do fun stuff.

[dfrussell]

Sorry, you're wrong.

Smoking pot *is* illegal.

He isn't a hypocrite as gambling isn't illegal or
immoral... stupid maybe, but stupidity is legal.