Too smart for school?

            I recently picked up the December issue of the Rolling Stone magazine. Having the interest of reading who this magazine touted as being the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (which I didn’t completely agree with) on the cover, I didn’t know what I was in for. The real headline that caught my eye was “What happens to a kid who’s too smart for school?” The person’s name is Santiago Gonzalez. Santiago’s IQ scores are off the charts. He’s so intellectually gifted that one test told him he’s on the level of a student who’s going into their third year of graduate school. Did I mention, he’s 11.

            I have mixed feelings about this situation. If you can excel in college at 13 years old, I say go for it. This kid, in fact, feels the need to be challenged and to learn. Only a college education could get the job done. This may be great, but there are some downsides to it also. As a child, you should do well in school, but you should also have a life, and have friends. Maybe even play some games, play in the park, play a sport. Santiago doesn’t have any of this. All he has is his superb mind. In a way, he’s wasting his childhood. Being in college at such a young age means he isn’t interacting with people his own age at all. I feel bad for him, it must be a lonely place, but that’s what happens when you’re a prodigy-your mind isn’t thinking like other people your age. He even has to sensor what he says around kids his own age, and even some adults because he knows how it puts them off. This is just sad to think of the level to which he doesn’t fit in. Is this what it’s like to be a prodigy? Because if it is, I’m happy that I’m not one. It would be cool to be so elite at something, not even having it be your environment, but if I’d have to deal with all the other baggage it comes with, I’d give it up in a heartbeat.