Comments on: Accelerated learning comes to Court

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:43:50 +0000

“Socialisation” is mostly a crock. Speaking from personal experience, some of the socialisation kids learn at school are the laws of the jungle. Might is right, bullies rule the roost. I learned my moral behaviour from my parents.

I just think that if you are significantly younger than your cohort, you are going to have more difficulty than usual making friends. I also think that when you get to university, you won’t be old enough to enjoy it properly.

What’s the hurry? Why do it all particularly quickly? You might find that you’ve lost some of the positive aspects of childhood by pushing forward so fast. Also, boredom is not necessarily a bad thing – I often compose blog posts while in the doctor’s waiting room at the moment. Sometimes our brains need time to idle.

By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:45:23 +0000

I didn’t like much about Plato’s Republic, but his observation that wisdom — as opposed to mere learning — does not start to turn up until after 25 seems to me to be pretty much on the money.

Speaking only for myself, I found most of highschool to be very tedious. I hear a lot about socialisation, but how much can children really learn from each other about social behaviour? Surely the adults in their lives are what give them the role models they will ultimately emulate.

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:48:20 +0000

Yes, that is a difficulty – if the local High School is generally geared towards the lowest common denominator, and given the area the LCD is pretty low, then she would be bored. Still, I’m not sure acceleration is the answer. The problem is that the school has to cater for such a broad range of abilities, and it’s impossible to do that in classes where there’s a huge spectrum of ability.

I think I would have had a miserable time at school whether I was accelerated or not. But it took a long while for my emotional and social development to catch up with my intellectual development. I think it all only clicked when I was about 25. If I had gone to uni too young, I would have been a right royal pain in the bottom, and I would have been totally socially inept.

By: skepticlawyer

skepticlawyer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:49:33 +0000

I think it really depends on the kid. I went through school at the normal pace with a 148 IQ and had a fairly miserable time, but I really don’t know whether acceleration would have fixed that. School is pretty hit or miss as to whether you have a good time or not – it probably depends both on the cohort and the school.

I think what makes this case difficult is the geographical location – the girl’s mother is clearly based near Ipswich (a poor area with poor quality state schools). I’d imagine that if the primary school she attended is a feeder school for Rosewood High, then a kid that bright would have been bored out of her tiny mind in short order.