Anyone else tired of this?

[Takashi]

Anyone else tired of articles like this?

11-Year-Old Graduates From LA College


"I consider myself a regular kid who works hard and does his best," says this only child of a Taiwanese mother and an Israeli father.

When Cavalin started college at the age of 8, he may have been the youngest person in class, but he ended up tutoring some of his 19- and 20-year-old classmates in math and science.

Astrophysics is his passion. Albert Einstein and Bruce Lee are among his idols.

Yet like a twist out of a Hollywood action flick, Cavalin combines his exceptional smarts with fearsome martial arts abilities: The preteen has won numerous national martial arts championships.

Up next for the tireless boy wonder: In the next take six months to a year he plans to devote himself to martial arts, write a book for kids on how to succeed in school, and take up scuba diving.

Not on the agenda: playing video games.

"I feel it's a waste of time playing video games because it's not helping humanity in any way," says the 11-year-old, who wants to use his knowledge to change the world.

11-Year-Old Graduates From LA College | NBC Los Angeles

I couldn't care less if your son is a genius. It also annoys me that it's always asian people, no offence but it's always the same kind of people. Show me someone who's legauly retarded graduate college, now that would be impressive.

 

[Falkio]

Yes, but life is unfair that way.

Just like the gifted Indian boy who plans to eliminate cancer. Why is it always Easterners? I haven't a clue. He can keep his books though, I'll take my video games, and enjoy being relatively normal.

There is obviously a pattern. You don't hear about accomplishments like this from whites, blacks, or Latinos. Something about the Western world must be lacking.

 

[h3g3l]

Something about the Western world must be lacking.

*raises a paw, clears throat*

... ...

Oh, never mind.

*sits back down*

Anyone else tired of articles like this?

Yes, but for reasons probably different than your own. The most glaring example of the reason I'm tired of it, I'll relate in a story:

When I was about 10 or 11, a group of friends and I decided it'd be a good idea to steal another friend's fruit snacks. We were all in a gifted setting, so were encouraged to bring in snacks and sit and think, read, etc. for the first 10 minutes of that class. "Set the tone/mood," so to speak. So friend #2 (also a limey) swipes the fruit snacks, and we sat back to wait. In the interim, friend #1 (Indian; his mother would substitute-teach for the school from time to time) opened up the fruit snacks. As we were in it 98%, we decided, screw it, and each ate a few of the fruit snacks.

Our other friend then returned to her desk and started looking for her fruit snacks. We fessed up because we felt so bad--it was quickly going all wrong, and we didn't intend to make her feel bad. I gave our other friend my snack, and that's when the teacher got involved. We were ordered to EACH buy our friend a BOX of the same kind of fruit snacks.

But these were "Halloween" branded fruit snacks.

And we were in the second week of November.

Our parents were all called into a conference with the teacher. The two limey parents involved pretty much went, "My stupid kid. It wasn't malicious, we know that, but we'll drive idiot-boy around until we can replace the snack." Then the Indian parent spoke up: "My son could NEVER do such a thing! Why, he's in the National Junior Honor Society, I'll have you know!" Apparently my parents countered, "Yeah, so's our kid. And he's involved. Your kid's involved too."

Point being? No matter how awesome you are, or how many academic (or other) accolades you rack up, it is a parent's duty to act appropriately when a minor child is an idiot. It irks me that some parents think their child is all sweetness and light and can do no wrong--and they trumpet Little Prince/Princess as the next Christ.

 

[Shredder92]

Its mainly the Parents of the Eastern world (and also Israelis) who are very PRO academic, and many don't condone ANYTHING that isn't constructive towards making their child learn. I know many religious Jews, and they aren't allowed to have video games because "they don't help them learn" and also I go to a school with about 60% asian people - not really right for a white country?? Believe me, Although this child is obviously gifted with a great mind, the parents' conditioning also leads towards his mentality.


Also if you want White kids who are clever, there was this TV programme on about 1 year ago on the BBC which showed 10 gifted kids from England who all had an IQ of 170 (the maximum mark that is available for the test they took) I think they were ALL WHITE. I'll try to find the link if its on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeOuuE7BjTU

sorry, there are 2 non-white people out of the 10

 

[NoahKokoro]

Personally, I feel sorry for the kid, because by the time he realizes he's missed out on his childhood, it'll already be too late. It's impressive that he's already graduated from college, but do you think he's ever just stopped for awhile to be a real kid? I know it says he does martial arts, and they're fun and all, but in my opinion even in kids classes they focus on discipline too much. He needs to get out and have fun with other kids his age, especially after being surrounded by people twice his age.

 

[ajsco]

Yeah but these people are social retards, they have nos ocial life and no friends, because their intellect is beyond anyone else their age.

Also it is in their countries that if you don't do well you will fail and end up living on the street, so you have to do well, so parents of there are far more likely to be pushy.

 

[Takashi]

Personally, I feel sorry for the kid, because by the time he realizes he's missed out on his childhood, it'll already be too late. It's impressive that he's already graduated from college, but do you think he's ever just stopped for awhile to be a real kid? I know it says he does martial arts, and they're fun and all, but in my opinion even in kids classes they focus on discipline too much. He needs to get out and have fun with other kids his age, especially after being surrounded by people twice his age.

You just hit my point on the head.

It's great there smart but it seems like every time I see something like this I think to myself "The parents must have fucked something up" and they are forcing there child to do all this so they don't make the same mistake or trying to live their dreams through their kids.

 

[h3g3l]

Show me someone who's legauly retarded graduate college, now that would be impressive.

Bush got his degree, does that count?

 

[MixyNyxi]

It's not necessarily your genetics (although that does contribute to it of course). What I mean though, is that in most of these cases, it's the parents and the culture they come from. Many times, families of Eastern descent place much more emphasis on academics. Not always true, of course, but compared to others, it's more common. If anyone studied enough, they may not make it to genius level (that definitely has to do with genetics), but you would certainly be much more outstanding academically. Nothing wrong with it, it is simply a different way of thinking.

Personally, I think there's more to life than studying. Of course you want to do well, but if you study to the exclusion of everything else, it's possible you could experience much too much stress and burnout early. Plus you miss the chance to be a child, which I think is terrible You have to be responsible enough when you grow up and have to hold down a job for most of the rest of your life, you need to enjoy being a kid and just have fun...at least I think. But to each their own.

Plus, I'm tired of people ragging on video games. They are like anything else. As long as you keep it in moderation, there is nothing wrong with it. But that's a different subject.

 

[Siege89]

Bush got his degree, does that count?

yes, oh yes it does

 

[LumpyCustard]

Also it is in their countries that if you don't do well you will fail and end up living on the street, so you have to do well, so parents of there are far more likely to be pushy.

^ This. In countries like India either you become some business guru or you fail miserably and end up living in a shanty town. The parents have reasons to want the kid to become successful, but they're taking it too far. They should have let the child take his own course, have him go to school at the ages that the rest of the kids in his class are, and he would have gotten a proper education over time without having him cram it all into 10 years.

I also agree with Noah; this kid needs to live a little. His parents probably make him stay inside all day if he's that smart. He seems like he enjoys what he does, but there's probably times where he wants to go hang with the other kids.

 

[h3g3l]

He seems like he enjoys what he does, but there's probably times where he wants to go hang with the other kids.

(Emphasis mine)
Aha--now to the more insidious part of this: I don't think that he would want to go hang with the other kids. How would he know to want that? In short, if you don't know that ice cream is great, and you're told that ice cream is for people who have nothing better to do, how much are you going to want ice cream?