A gifted boy has already started his sophomore year, majoring in aerospace engineering at Chattahoochee Technical College. He is just 12 years old.
He learned sign language before he could verbally communicate
According to 11Alive, Caleb learned sign language even before he could start uttering words to communicate. By nine months old, he can already do sign language of more than 250 words, his mom, Claire, said. He was just 11 months old when he already learned to speak and read.
Caleb's dad, Kobi, explained that as they started interacting with other parents, and after having other children, they realized how exceptional Caleb was given that they had no other frame of reference.
By the age of two, he can already read the United States Constitution. Caleb then continued to amaze his parents, milestone after milestone. At age three, he learned other languages - Spanish, Mandarin, and French, and he also qualified for MENSA.
He would not join MENSA, though, until he was five. He would then be the youngest African-American boy to be accepted to the program.
"I'm ready for college"
Caleb is indeed special, moving quickly from elementary to middle, and then high school. The fact that it became so easy, it started to bore him. "Mom, I'm bored," his mom recalled him saying, "this is not challenging." He thinks that it is not helping him grow in his learning and that he thinks he is ready for college.
Thus, at 12 years old, Caleb started his sophomore year at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta, Georgia. When asked what it was like being a college freshman at his young age, he said that it was exactly how he expected it to be like If he were 18 or older.
His dad accompanies him on campus because Caleb is still a minor. Thus, it felt like going back to college for Kobi, too, although this time, he is not his son's study-buddy. Kobi said Caleb far surpassed him in math that he can't help him anymore. "Seriously!" he exclaimed, "He is in calculus two now."
Not many gifted Black-American students get the opportunity
It appears that being gifted really runs in the Andersons family as their two other children, Aaron and Hannah, are also following in Caleb's footsteps. However, Claire's concern is that some people have a negative perspective when it comes to African-American children. There are more like Caleb out there than other people might think, she said. Sadly, these children don't have the same opportunity or resources.
In an article published by The Conversation, black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in gifted programs. U.S. Department of Education data says that black and Hispanic students makeup 40 percent of public school students across the U.S. but makeup only 26 percent of students enrolled in gifted programs.
The report first points to the differences in academic achievement across demographic groups as the possible reason for the low rates. However, another study revealed two other contributors. First, black students tend to be less likely to attend schools that offer gifted programs than white students. Second, black students assigned to a white classroom teacher tend to be less likely to be assigned to gifted programs than those assigned to a black teacher.
You can read more of the study here.
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