Susan Wise Bauer is the author of many classical homeschooling books such as The Well Trained Mind (with a new edition just out), and the Story of the World series. This recent interview is in The Old Schoolhouse magazine.
Earlier this month I attending a presentation at our local homeschool support group with Jeanne of Books and Brownies. North Carolina offers high school students free community college classes in their dual enrollment program. Many homeschoolers take advantage of this opportunity to challenge gifted teens as well as earn free college credits. While I did like the idea of saving all that $$, I could see the potential problems of putting excess pressure on a 16 year old. Our discussion only touched on potential social and emotional difficulties. I was always the youngest kid in my high school class (I turned 18 at the end of my 1st semester of college) and it was apparent to me how much better I would have done academically if I had started a year later. It is nice to see a well-respected and famous homeschooling mom expressing a similar hesitation.
The other thing that I am getting increasingly irritated about is the focus on early college admission. Sending your child off to school at 16 (or earlier) is becoming a mark of prestige. Too many parents are using early college admissions to reassure themselves that they've done a good job. "I must have done something right-my kid is 16 and ready to go to college."
I really hate this increasing tendency to use early college admissions as a status symbol. I would like to see homeschoolers move more towards taking a gap year, a year off before college. We have this enormous flexibility; why don't we take advantage of it? I have taught college freshmen for almost ten years now, and I can tell which ones are 18 and which ones are 19 without even asking. My 19-year-old freshmen are better organized, they get more sleep, and they are happier. Most of all, they know what they are trying to get out of the experience. Emotional maturity can't be rushed; you simply have to live a certain number of years before you develop it.
I am not saying that no one is ready to go to college at 18. Sure, some kids are ready. But many, many kids would benefit from a year off. Taking a "gap" year before college is much more common in Europe than it is here.
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6 comments:
Amen. I honestly hope my boys enlist in the military (at least the National Guard or Reserves - part-time) before going to college.
I agree! I would have liked to have more discussion of the pros/cons of sending your child to college early. Perhaps that sort of discussion was inhibited by the presence of the community college rep.
In our family's case, dual enrollment was just not possible. And I really enjoyed that interview with SWB as well.
I can think of one BIG reason not to send mine to college at 16... the OTHER STUFF they'll learn - the very stuff we're trying to keep them from being exposed to at such a young age - and it isn't taught by professors! :-P
I'm glad you brought this up. The benifit of educating at our own pace too often means faster. Not a lot of peopl talk about how we can go SLOWER with our kids--and that may be a good thing.
I remember so clearly that a "hell day" was 9-3:30 at my college. But after working from dawn to 10 or 11 pm at a hotel in my year off, that hell day was a piece of cake for me.
Life experience give young poeple perspective, and more of a sense of the privledge that college is.
I know this is an older post, but I had a comment I wanted to share. I will be making sure my gifted son does some dual enrollment/dual HS credit classes while he is at home with me, because he is also a special needs child who needs that one on one. I am hoping that this way, he will at least achieve some college under his belt before he 'graduates' from high school. I don't intend on sending him off to finish up a 4 yr degree after he finishes HS, though...I'm with all of you for him to use a year or so of his time to grow up...but it's nice to have that option!
Truly gifted children might belong on a college campus early. However, I have come across home schooled children who are "gifted" only in the minds of their parents, and these children certainly have no business being in a college classromm. They not only do not belong there intellectually and must be "mentored" (aka tutored) by their teachers, but they are constantly needing attention by lecturing the older students who mught not be as bright. The home school environment has not allowed them to develop the social skills they need for a college classroom at an early age.
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