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Belgian boy Laurent Simons heads off to university aged 8.

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Kjelt:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on November 19, 2019, 11:31:10 am ---No normal child is doing university level math at age 5. They would only be doing that because their parents pushed them to.
They might still enjoy it of course, but no 5yo kid is going to give a natural rats arse about solving integrals.
--- End quote ---
You are right, I don't think these genius kids are "normal".
They are the extreme rare exceptions. One in a hundred million perhaps.
Normally if they are lucky they encounter math problems after age 10 and then get noticed, but if a kid already shows interest in a younger age and excels in some puzzles/problems why not stimulate ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

SerieZ:

--- Quote from: VK3DRB on November 19, 2019, 12:22:14 pm ---
5. Why I believe private schools are waste of money.


--- End quote ---

I do agree with most points you've made but I simply have no Idea how anyone can have Faith in something such as Government implemented Public Schools.
Personally I have been in several public schools during my child-teenhood thanks to travelling Parents and I can only attest absolute and utter incompetence in anything Governments do wherever you go (even Switzerland) except raking in Tax Dollars.
True waste of Money.

VK3DRB:

--- Quote from: SerieZ on November 22, 2019, 10:29:24 am ---
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on November 19, 2019, 12:22:14 pm ---
5. Why I believe private schools are waste of money.


--- End quote ---

I do agree with most points you've made but I simply have no Idea how anyone can have Faith in something such as Government implemented Public Schools.
Personally I have been in several public schools during my child-teenhood thanks to travelling Parents and I can only attest absolute and utter incompetence in anything Governments do wherever you go (even Switzerland) except raking in Tax Dollars.
True waste of Money.

--- End quote ---

It is probably different in Australia (well, certainly in Victoria). Many of our government schools are amazing and our teachers hard working and very dedicated. I know, being on a school council for a few years. One reason why foreigners try to move here... quality education for their kids.

My kids went to a government public secondary school nearby. In final year of high school, one got a perfect score (only 3 student in the state achieved this) in Systems and Technology, earning an award personally presented by the then Premier of Victoria, and he was one of the top students overall in his VCE (final year). The son was the top student in Engineering and Computer Science double degree in University and was awarded a trip to the Apple conference in the USA.

Another did not want to do maths in her final years, but I convinced her it is good to do maths as it will help develop a logical brain; and maths ability will be useful throughout her life. She was crying because it was so hard at the start of Year 11. But at the end of Year 12, she was one of the top students in the state in maths, getting her name in a major newspaper for a near perfect score in the subject. In Year 11, she had won a full scholarship to an exclusive private school, and attended the private school for only two weeks before rejecting it, promising she will do just as well in the government school, if not better. The daughter then did a few undergrad degrees and completed her PhD at Melbourne Uni in record time, then moved to France where she did a masters in International Relations at the University of Strasbourg.

As for me, I went to a reputedly one of the worst government high schools around. My widowed mum could not afford to send me to the nearby "exclusive" local private school. But I got though and entered university to study engineering. No private school needed.

Many government schools here are excellent, and a student with good attitude and aptitude and supportive parents will do just as well in a public school as a private school, and usually better at university if they choose that path because at university they are not hand-fed information just to get marks. The old boys club from private schools means nothing in this country any more. It's in the past when some level of class distinction from English culture existed here, and is fortunately now gone. However, some parents still send their kids into exclusive private schools for the prestige, ie: to save face. A lot of these private schools have a Christian facade, but the reality is they they will accept anyone with money. Even atheists with money send their kids to these schools. In advanced academia, the old boys club means nothing.

Some private schools here cost >$40,000 per year per student; and many are around $35,000 per year. Government schools cost no more than $2000 per year as a contribution. In engineering there is no way of telling whether an engineer went to a private school or a government school.

Hence why I believe private schools are on the whole, a waste of money. It might not be the same for other countries or states.

SerieZ:

--- Quote from: VK3DRB on November 22, 2019, 02:17:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: SerieZ on November 22, 2019, 10:29:24 am ---
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on November 19, 2019, 12:22:14 pm ---
5. Why I believe private schools are waste of money.


--- End quote ---

I do agree with most points you've made but I simply have no Idea how anyone can have Faith in something such as Government implemented Public Schools.
Personally I have been in several public schools during my child-teenhood thanks to travelling Parents and I can only attest absolute and utter incompetence in anything Governments do wherever you go (even Switzerland) except raking in Tax Dollars.
True waste of Money.

--- End quote ---

It is probably different in Australia (well, certainly in Victoria). Many of our government schools are amazing and our teachers hard working and very dedicated. I know, being on a school council for a few years. One reason why foreigners try to move here... quality education for their kids.

My kids went to a government public secondary school nearby. In final year of high school, one got a perfect score (only 3 student in the state achieved this) in Systems and Technology, earning an award personally presented by the then Premier of Victoria, and he was one of the top students overall in his VCE (final year). The son was the top student in Engineering and Computer Science double degree in University and was awarded a trip to the Apple conference in the USA.

Another did not want to do maths in her final years, but I convinced her it is good to do maths as it will help develop a logical brain; and maths ability will be useful throughout her life. She was crying because it was so hard at the start of Year 11. But at the end of Year 12, she was one of the top students in the state in maths, getting her name in a major newspaper for a near perfect score in the subject. In Year 11, she had won a full scholarship to an exclusive private school, and attended the private school for only two weeks before rejecting it, promising she will do just as well in the government school, if not better. The daughter then did a few undergrad degrees and completed her PhD at Melbourne Uni in record time, then moved to France where she did a masters in International Relations at the University of Strasbourg.

As for me, I went to a reputedly one of the worst government high schools around. My widowed mum could not afford to send me to the nearby "exclusive" local private school. But I got though and entered university to study engineering. No private school needed.

Many government schools here are excellent, and a student with good attitude and aptitude and supportive parents will do just as well in a public school as a private school, and usually better at university if they choose that path because at university they are not hand-fed information just to get marks. The old boys club from private schools means nothing in this country any more. It's in the past when some level of class distinction from English culture existed here, and is fortunately now gone. However, some parents still send their kids into exclusive private schools for the prestige, ie: to save face. A lot of these private schools have a Christian facade, but the reality is they they will accept anyone with money. Even atheists with money send their kids to these schools. In advanced academia, the old boys club means nothing.

Some private schools here cost >$40,000 per year per student; and many are around $35,000 per year. Government schools cost no more than $2000 per year as a contribution. In engineering there is no way of telling whether an engineer went to a private school or a government school.

Hence why I believe private schools are on the whole, a waste of money. It might not be the same for other countries or states.

--- End quote ---

I believe you, but to me that is Anecdotal at best.
What my (Anecdotal  :-DD as well) Experience is that the Politician who advocate for more Public School end up sending their Kids to Private ones and are only interested in looking good/pushing their Agenda onto the youngest.

I wonder why?  :-//

Rick Law:
I think we are conflated a few related issues into one.  High-IQ genius vs child prodigy, and learn vs do.

By definition, a child prodigy merely means they can do certain things at a much younger age than average.  A very young kid performing say piano at concert quality is a child prodigy.  That kid probably also have higher than average IQ but not necessarily so, and certainly not necessarily a genius level high IQ.  Whereas, the kid who went to college at 8 probably has a high IQ.  The one who is about to graduate at 9 has an IQ of 145 per the linked article.

Drawing from the knowledge of Jordan Peterson (Clinical Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at U of Toronto) and from his on-line youtube lectures:
(A) One with higher IQ learns faster, but doesn't mean doing it any better;
(B) Higher the IQ, slower the maturity - both mental and physical;
(C) While IQ changes during the life time, but it is largely determined by genetics.  Absent brain damage of some sort, the high-IQer would stay a high-IQer in his/her life time.  (That is assuming no deprivation during development - such as not enough nutrition during early stage which will prevent one to develop to the level suggested by one's genes).
(D) Absorbing knowledge and absorbed knowledge are different.  Once the knowledge absorbed, the person can have a physical damage slowing him/her down in learning but that will not affect already absorbed knowledge at all (unless that part of the brain is also damaged).
( PS: Please do not debate the other thing Jordan is famous for - his out outspokenness on his objection to the Canada C16 law as compelled speech.  That is not relevant to this issue at hand. )

The rest are not directly from Jordan but from what I surmised after learning from his on-line lectures and other sources:
 
Child Prodigy (without an associating much higher than average IQ) merely means that he/she started playing violin as good or better than other concert violinist very young, but as time goes on other younger kids with good violin aptitude will catch up.  Often, at that time the child prodigy as grown-up got depressed that "I am no longer special".  That "no longer special" situation is very difficult to get over and is one of the reason why child prodigy doesn't always result in a happy and successful adulthood.

On the other hand, kids with exceedingly high IQ will (on average) be able to learn faster than others with lower IQ.  The higher-IQer are "running faster".  Thus, as long as that higher-IQ keeps running, the lower-IQer can never catch up because they cannot run as fast.  The delta will just keep getting bigger.  That said, while the higher-IQer learn (say EE) quicker than average, it doesn't mean he/she designs better than average.

Here is where nature is playing a cruel game on us.  If you are very high IQ, you can go to college at a very young age with the older and more mature kids.  On average, you are not even as mature as people in your own age group and now you are up against the older and more matured college age kids...   But if you do manage to get there (there being your goal) even if immaturely, you can stay ahead and get further than others.

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