So you think your kid is smart.

He's a first-year medical school student at the University of Chicago, where he's the youngest ever to attend one of the university's professional schools.

If he weren't also getting his Ph.D. along with his medical degree -- thus, pushing his age at graduation to 19 or 20 -- he'd also be on course to become the youngest person to graduate from any medical school. According to Guinness World Records, a 17-year-old graduated from medical school in New York in 1995.

................

Yes, he has an IQ over 200. And yes, he graduated in three years from Chicago's Loyola University, summa cum laude. But for him, going to school is about learning as much as he can.

.................

From early on, his mom says it was apparent that Sho was gifted.

His mother recalls trying to master a waltz by Chopin on the piano while 3-year-old Sho played with toy trains below her. Frustrated, she went to the kitchen to take a break -- and a few moments later, hurried back in amazement as she heard Sho playing the piece.

By age 4, he was composing. And by age 7, he was doing high school work -- taught by his parents because they couldn't find a school that could accommodate him.

By age 8, he scored a 1,500 out of 1,600 possible points on the SAT and started college at age 9.


www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/08/25/sprj.sch.wonder.kid.ap/

its a shame this kid is going to miss out on being a kid.

I knew a guy that did the same route MD/PhD although he was a bit older. Guy was smart beyond belief but totally socially dysfunctional.

Yup

Its always the parents pushing the kids, never letting them be kids, always wanting them to be something they couldn't be in their youth.

hopefully the kid is happy doing what he's doing.  

Too many parents of gifted children don't realized that their gifts can be cultivated without forcing them through childhood at warp speed.

I hope he can deal with the nickname "Doogie", because he's going to get it!

I don't care how many degrees someone has.  If they're not old enough to drink I don't want them to be my doctor.

He's a top candidate for burning out early, too.

Whe he will need in order to become a well balanced individual is for him to dedicate a reasonable percentage of his time to non-intellectual recreational activities.  

When he gets old enough, he MUST go to spring breaks and get dragged kicking and screaming into a good party scene.   Socialization is key to being well rounded.

CJ

There's no substitute for being a veteran of life, I don't care how smart someone is. I'm gettin smarter as I age, I seriously mean it. I've learned more and more about life as I age. Experience can't be learned, you learn a lot by experience.  

With that being said, I agree with one of the other posts. I don't want that kid to be my doctor.

 Very fricking intelligent.

 Gifted children like this will miss being a child, but it's a price of being an extremely gifted kid.  Think about this:

 It would be so boring to go to classes, listen to all the lectures that he already knows, and do homeworks that would take minutes for him to do.  In effect, the environment in typical school has nothing to offer him academically.
 He is at a level of his own, and deserves to go as far as he can.  

Exactly Mojo, a balance needs to be struck between the intellectual stimulation and challenge they need as well as the chance to develop social skills.  Its possible, but not easy.  Then again, giving a kid a childhood is worth the effort.

[b][/b]

 No rebuttal from me, HR.

 I'm sure some parents also realize the balance is the best route, but it seems like most or all geniuses don't have a very good social skill or have to develop later in life.  
 Why is that?
 Is it because of the parents?
 Is it because the kid says that he rather reads  books than go outside and play and interact?
 Is it because he is so superior, academically, than his friends that they stay away from him?
 Kids tend to play, interact, enjoy other kids at their own level.  Anything over their head, they stay away.
 So in effect, whose fault is it?

I was exactly in such a situation.   My intellectual capacity (My IQ rating has been as low as 145 and as high as 165, depending on what test was used) was mismatched to the low rate and low level at which almost all teachers taught the classes I was in.     My intellect was severely underdriven in school.   Result:  Utter boredom.  Total disinterest in all things school, and grades that reflected that.   Despite the fact that I could ace tests on chapters that hadn't even been taught yet,  I didn't bother to do the routine work and my GPA suffered for it.

The stupid fucks in school administration, including and especially the school board's prized student psychologist (What a stupid cunt she was!), never ever caught on to this simple truth, that I was spectacularly undermotivated by the pathetically slow pace of teaching that was the norm.    Not being bright enough to see the problem, they certainly found no good solution for me, so they tried to stuff me into the catch-all for the square pegs like me known as the "specific learning disabilities" class, even though one thing I was always excellent at was LEARNING...when something was presented to me TO learn, of course.  Which was rare enough in the regular classes!

I gave them a couple weeks of spectacular academic performance, just for spite, in their abysmal SLD environment,(I completed the year's full curriculum in two weeks)  just to show them that they'd fucked up and still didn't GET IT,  and FINALLY that was all they needed.  They realized that they couldn't provide a program that suited my special talents and need for information delivered at an incredible rate, so they handed me my diploma early by administrative action and pretty much kicked me out of high school.

If I'd been the highly motivated type to start with,  I'm sure I'd have gone into college a few years early,  but I've always been relatively unmotivated if not downright lazy.    However I do soak up knowledge like a dry sponge.


CJ

I read a book once.

While not quite in this kid's league, I had to deal with what I call being a "terminally bright child." My clearest memories of grade school are of being penalized for being smart; being called a liar by teachers who just couldn't believe that a 4th grader could read and do math at a college level. Got suspended in high school repeatedly for cutting classes, almost got expelled for getting all of the answers right on a calculus final in 10th grade, in 20 minutes, without providing the proofs for each answer (wierd conceptualization issues; I can give you the answers to math problems I understand, but cabn rarely do the proofs required to earn grades).

Started a "five years and you're a doctor" program when I was 16; two-three years younger than the next youngest kid in the program. Fortunately by 17 I was 6 feet tall and had a full beard, so I actually looked older than most of the 20-somethings in the program.

Did a couple years in that program and decided I didn't want to be a doctor.  Had a varied and checkered academic career after that. FInally decided what I wanted to do with myself when I was ~ 30.

All of that because no one bothered to ask me if I was challenged in school. They just labelled me a chronic underachiever and told me I "wasn't living up to my potential."

It takes more then intelligence to be a doctor. You can be academically gifted but dont have the manual skill youll make a bad surgeon.  Same with bedside manner. Its something has to be experienced.  He will make a good pathologist or researcher but I bet you a million dollars he will make a shitty clinician.

You fellows who are blaming the parents for pushing this kid are way out of line. In fact you are quite clueless.

There IS NO WAY for a kid that gifted to have a NORMAL childhood PERIOD. There is no way other children can relate to him, only SOME adults could relate to him. If the parents did not give him the stimulus he needs he would not be a NORMAL child he would be a very troubled delinquent child, at high risk in later years for depression, drug addiction, and suicide.

[b][/b]

 Hope you turn out the way you want it, CJ.

Doing rather well, actually, and I'm far happier on a daily basis than most people I know, and doing it by doing what I choose to do, on my own.

CJ

I'm with ArmedLiberal on this one.  Anybody that bright isn't going to be a kid in any meaning of the term.  The literally cannot play with other kids on equal terms.  

Don't tell me you don't remember what kids do to other kids that are "different"?  

Having a genius IQ at the age of 4 means that you'll never have a chance to be just a normal kid.  Is it a shame?  Well, I don't know.  He'll be able to do things that 99.99% of the population won't.  Is that a shame?

Wow, smart kid. Hope all goes well for him...

At first I thought the title of this thread was a joke....12 year old kid begins medical school...caught with neighbors kid playing doctor.[;)]

[lol][rofl][rofl2]

Damnit!  Now I gotta clean soda off the laptop.

The last thing I want is a 12 year old kid telling me I have cancer or whatever.

This is a bad idea, no matter what.

[b][/b]

 You know.  I would have no problem if he's my doctor.  Besides the social skills and bedside manner, I know he's perfectly capable doctor.

 If I have a terminal Dz, and he's the best doctor for the job, then I go to him.

Fo Sho...

I am fifty, if I knew back then what I know now I would be your king. [:)]
What I am saying is, somethings come with age, things that only time will teach a person, not books or learning.

12 is just way to young, your still dealing with a undeveloped mind, I do not care what it is able to retain.

It doesn't matter. This kid will burn out and/or is a social reject. He won't be able to see patients because he won't socially be able to handle the situation. I have people around me that are older than this guy, but in somewhat of a similar situation and they suck ass when it comes to dealing with the PERSON but they are great at understanding a disease.

This kid will end up locked in a closet making sculptures out of his own shit by the age of 25.

but does he know how to shoot guns [:D]

Let him get a PhD where he can study, write papers, work in a lab, then let him go to med school when he's older if he wants to.

I strongly object to people sending minors to medical school.  Nobody wants a rectal exam, at least no one on this website.  And especially nobody wants a rectal exam from a freakin' 13 or 14 year old kid.  Holy crap.  Where do these people get these ideas?  I'd kick him out of my exam room and demand a grown-up for a doctor, not some pimply-faced prom reject.