Boy genius will graduate college at age 9

[sarc]

probably still has to do classic gymnastics and live long

[lanika]

I was born in December, the difference between a child born in January and one born in December shows. I have had this conversation with a lot of other mothers, it’s always hard to decide what to do but I’m against it too.

My youngest has the same issues I did with finishing lessons too fast (then she starts fidgeting in her chair, out of boredom, and last parent-teacher reunion the teacher said that my daughter was leaving her seat to teach the other kids what to do - and she had to remind my youngling that SHE was the teacher and this was her job ) but at least nowadays teachers have better tools to deal with advanced kids, even if in my 3rd grader’s situation it’s letting her read a book while the other children catch up.

[DonatellaNobody]

@lanika

So… I was a couple of years younger than my peers. The bullying was horrible when they came through puberty and I didn’t because normal development. It was bad before, but after it became abuse and derailed into assault.

Same here. I was badly bullied growing up, to the point of abuse and assault. I was also a couple years younger than my peers. I don’t know if they were related though. I was probably just bullied because I was weird, which is why nobody said or did anything. In that time or place, it was implicitly encouraged to bully the weird kids, because then maybe they wouldn’t become weird adults.

Yeah, like that worked.

Luckily there are lots of weird adults. Even more luckily, there are open minded adults who don’t care how weird I am, just like I don’t care how weird they are. Maybe times have changed, or maybe I sought out the right people. I’m not sure.

Regardless, I’ve never been a fan of “don’t do suchandsuch, or people who will never like you won’t like you”

@lanika

I liked to talk with adults but I was a very lonely child

I hated that. It was more like I was being paraded around to show how smart I was, which was apparently a reflection on how good parents my parents were, and then quickly hidden away when I started to act weird.

@lanika

The other children disliked talking to me because I spoke “difficult words”

Yep, been there. I had no idea how to code switch.

@lanika

I’m not saying that every child prodigy or gifted child will have problems, but hell, you have to actively work daily with socialization and find peers with who this very perceptive child can talk and BE a child, albeit a very intelligent one - and all bets are off when they become teens. No best laid plans survive first contact with adolescence.

Very true. No different from any other child though.

@lanika

in the same IQ range than me -138/140 (I don’ believe them)

You shouldn’t believe them. Their priorities are all wrong and they’re bragging about things that don’t matter. If it’s not IQ, it’s their penis size or how much money they make. At any rate, it’s both highly exaggerated and completely irrelevant.

You will never hear me talk about my IQ, nor my mile time, nor my high score in Tetris, because these things don’t matter.

@lanika

those guys absolutely SUCK at empathy. They are entitled and creepy (also usually very boring). How do you prevent this and create well rounded individuals?

I wish I knew. Maybe you don’t. Unfortunately some people can’t be reached.

These are just everyday smart guys, if not completely mediocre guys with a vastly inflated sense of self importance. There are plenty of people just as smart who aren’t as wrapped up in how smart they are, because there’s more to them than just their intelligence.

[lanika]

@DonatellaNobody

Luckily there are lots of weird adults. Even more luckily, there are open minded adults who don’t care how weird I am, just like I don’t care how weird they are.

I found my tribe first day of University and I never looked back.

The “good” part about the rejection of my school peers is that I found myself in the “misfits” group and this taught me a lot about empathy and compassion. The black girl, the kid with developmental disorders, the lesbian girl, I learned to see them as people very early, to accept differences and the incredible diversity that exists in “weirdness”.

[lanika]

@DonatellaNobody

You shouldn’t believe them. Their priorities are all wrong and they’re bragging about things that don’t matter. If it’s not IQ, it’s their penis size or how much money they make. At any rate, it’s both highly exaggerated and completely irrelevant.

Peacocking in general is just insecurity about self values. But it’s worrisome that so many young men use it to justify misogyny.

Case in point: Creepy McCreepo here - https://twitter.com/MrJasonLevy/status/1194445298095067136?s=19

[RandomDude]

@DonatellaNobody

If they’re my friends, and if I care about them as people, I don’t pay attention to stuff like that.

Same for me. Its most of society in the US that I dont care for that made me think others dont follow that on the whole. Or at least, a lot of shitty people do.

@DonatellaNobody

Why would he necessarily prefer to learn the opposite sex? What if he’s gay, or asexual?

I meant it only as a phrase of situation. Not intents. More neutrally, love life in general.

[Wally]

I just wish him a happy life, full of math n shit. May he find nerd love in some ivory tower and win ten Nobel prizes and put them next to his Fielding medals and artificial prototypical pancreases.

[tegrat]

I think you mean “graduate from”, unless the kiddo is such a savant he actually graduated the college somehow.

[AlexG55]

@RandomDude

He will basically be completely without normal channels of peer socialization.

I’m not saying this is definitely wrong, or even probably wrong, but typically Dutch kids don’t do all of their socialization at school. For instance, Dutch elementary schools are closed on Wednesday afternoons to let students go to sports or other after-school clubs.

The Dutch articles I’ve read about Laurent suggest that he has a group of friends his age. Apparently he enjoys go-karting…

EDIT: From an article from the Flemish paper Het Laatste Nieuws (Laurent is actually Belgian but lives in the Netherlands), in his own words :

So nothing changes for me on September 1 [when school and university terms start again]. Except that then my friends are back from vacation. Nice, then we can play together again. Sometimes I help them with their homework so they’re free sooner.

And from Dutch Metronews:

Most of Laurent’s friends are a few years older than him and are in Class 7 or 8 [aged 10 to 12]. ''They treat him normally and are used to him going a bit quicker than them. But at the weekend they’re definitely not solving maths puzzles or anything. Then they’re just playing on the Playstation or running after each other with Nerf guns." [His father says]

(My translations, sorry for any mistakes).

[dfaris]

[longtimelurker]

I liked Lemony Snicket

[longtimelurker]

@DonatellaNobody

If he was really that smart, he could have taught calculus to a hamster.

We’re still working on teaching our python trig.

[lanika]

This makes me feel genuinely happy for him! Thank you!

[deltaecho]

Yeah, hopefully the parents are diligent in allowing him to excel in studies and have a healthy peer group to socialize with (which inarguably, is just as important).