People comments are very interesting have a read long post 
Teen maths prodigy offered Cambridge place
A 14-year-old maths prodigy has been offered a place at Cambridge
University which, if he accepts, would make him the youngest student there
for almost 230 years.
Arran Fernandez, who lives in Surrey outside London, passed exams set by
the university last year and he now only needs to pass his A-level physics
exam to enrol.
In the British educational system, A-levels are commonly taken by
18-year-old students, but Arran Fernandez - who was home-educated - has
already passed the exams in maths and further maths.
His father, Neil Fernandez, says if his son takes the place at Fitzwilliam
College, he will be the youngest undergraduate at Cambridge since William
Pitt the Younger studied there aged 14 in 1773 and went on to become prime
minister.
“Fitzwilliam College decided to make Arran a conditional offer after
considering his application very carefully,” said David Cardwell, who will
be teaching the boy.
“The college looks forward to welcoming Arran in October 2010 should he
meet his offer, and to helping him develop and fulfil his considerable
academic potential.”
Arran first hit the headlines in 2001 when he took a GCSE maths exam -
normally taken by 16-year-olds - at the age of five.
“Maths has been my favourite subject for as long as I can remember,” said
the teenager, who aspires to become a research mathematician.
“There are a few things I want to work on,” he said, adding that he would
“like the solve the Riemann hypothesis” - a theory about the patterns of
prime numbers that has baffled the greatest mathematicians for 150 years.
- AFP
Tags: education, human-interest, united-kingdom, england
ABC (Moderator):
08 Jan 2010 9:03:58am
Are 14-year-olds too young to go to university?
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
OurCognitiveSurplus:
08 Jan 2010 9:11:59am
Go for it. What else is he going to do if he has passed school?
I can't think of anything better than going to uni.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Dad:
08 Jan 2010 9:12:39am
No. Good on him. He could be the next Einstein, Feynman or
Hawking.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
ingenuous:
08 Jan 2010 9:14:36am
Mathematics is full of harmless cranks. University is a
generally nicer place than the real world. I say "Good on him!"
and hope he gets in. He will thrive there.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Tim:
08 Jan 2010 12:16:23pm
Exactly. If there is any field where a prodigy can
flourish while being young it is in mathematics. It lacks
the social pressures of other courses and allows the
academically hyper-focused to concentrate on their study.
Given that most major theorems have been discovered by
men under 25 it's a field for the young more than any
other.
But only time will tell whether or not he makes a huge
impact or not. Just because you can learn early and
quickly does not mean you have the depth of understanding
to unravel the big mathematical problems.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
pabs:
08 Jan 2010 9:15:47am
I think he might be too young. It depends whether he is
emotionally and socially mature enough to endure university
study. But then, if he is that bright he might be wrapped in
cotton wool, protecting him from a potentially harsh
environment. Good luck to him!
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
spin sick:
08 Jan 2010 10:55:35am
While I agree with the emotional concerns.... whats the
alternative? Holding him back is clearly not one of them.
I just hope that his parents and the university help him
to learn the social and emotional aspects of life.
If you have the talent it must be nurtured and allowed to
advance. I notice that we have just had a 15 playing in
the Hopman Cup for England and there is a 16 year old
circum-navigating the planet - maybe kids playing in the
adult world is more common than we think!!
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
M:
08 Jan 2010 11:12:10am
I think child prodigies are still rare. We just
hear about them more these days thanks to mass
media and the Internet.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Gilligan:
08 Jan 2010 9:15:55am
He obviously has the academic smarts but most likely will lack
the social savvy to really benefit from all that a University
has to offer.
Education is more than academic brilliance and will be wasted
on this youngster, sad really.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Arthur:
08 Jan 2010 11:11:22am
Of course if he is at Uni for 10 years or more he will
have matured quite sufficiently to have some good
immature grown up fun.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
scotto:
08 Jan 2010 12:07:42pm
There are plenty of older people whom lack 'social savvy'
too...
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Jake:
08 Jan 2010 12:08:57pm
Of course he's too young to waste half his time at uni at
the bar so he'll probably do very, very well and have
shining career prospects by the time he's old enough to
have his first drink to celebrate. Good on him.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Realist:
08 Jan 2010 2:20:18pm
Note that mathematics isn't arts, so therefore by doing a
real degree he will have no time nor need for
socialising.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Gilligan:
08 Jan 2010 3:44:49pm
I wonder why the responses all assume that I thought he
might be sitting at or in the bar? Says a lot about
people does that... but what about sports, drama, liberal
arts, philosphy and the classics, thats really where I
was alluding to him not having an opportunity to spread
his wings and grow as an individual.
Maths is great and he is obviously a very talented kid,
envy is my middle name, but unless he can see outside of
that sphere then we may not benefit from him, nor he
himslef benefit, as much as he might with a wider social
savvy!
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Leaping Antidote:
08 Jan 2010 9:31:30am
Don't know, depends on the individual I suppose. However I DO
know that in the 1930's my father at 16 was refused entry to
study engineering at Birmingham University on account of his
age....seems silly now.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Roy G Biv:
08 Jan 2010 10:16:13am
It's been said that, in the field of mathematics, most trully
original work is done before the age of 25, after that people
tend to just build on their previous achievements. It's not
laziness, just that as the brain matures it may lose a certain
plasticity that suits original mathematics.
So this kid could effectively double his peak working life.
Reply Agree (2) Alert moderator
Lucy:
08 Jan 2010 11:57:30am
A brain like that should not be wasted.
He'll have social issues anyway being that smart with success
so young. So he may as well make the most of talent and live
his own choices, rather than dumb himself down to be able to
make a couple of friends his own age that will loose touch when
they head off to uni.
Different things come to different people at different times.
We owe it to ourselves to take the opportunities when they
present.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Arsenio le Voyeur:
08 Jan 2010 12:11:14pm
Well if parents are prepared to pack them off on solo trips
around the World what's wrong with University?
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
meg:
08 Jan 2010 9:14:23am
Socially - Yes.
Academically - of course not.
If the appropriate support structures are in place to assist this
young person on a social level -
university seems to be the best possible place for this gifted young
person. If he has the emotional intelligence required to exist in
adult world, success will be his on all levels. Good luck to him (if
this is what he really wants)
Reply Agree (2) Alert moderator
Mr Burns:
08 Jan 2010 10:49:43am
It seems that 230 years ago it was right but our industrial age
education system has made it wrong. Some children are held back
a year because they don't get it. Many many more children are
disadvantaged because they are not advanced when they do get
it.
08 Jan 2010 11:10:57am
having a high IQ and a talent for maths does not exempt one
from the usual trials of adolescent hormones
there are many child prodigies who never lived up to their
potential for these kinds of reasons
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Steve:
08 Jan 2010 11:33:23am
I agree, and find comments about social 'maturity' even more
amusing given what many undergraduates actually get up to.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
R See 1:
08 Jan 2010 11:07:52am
I was at Uni at 15 although turned 16 early in the academic year. It
was no big deal. I probably did not have as serious a dose of the
smarts as he has, so I say - go for it.
Uni will help him expand his horizons..........it tends to do that to
most individuals!! As others have said - Uni is not just about
academic achievement, it is also about [ hopefully] exposure to
ideas, thinking and a wide array of people, even some sport and
recreation.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Katie C 14 Years Old:
08 Jan 2010 11:14:21am
Good on him! WOW what a accomplishment, if he is that smart then he
might be bored at school, so why not, well done Arran!
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Frustrated:
08 Jan 2010 11:43:14am
14 is not too young. Why do people want to prevent someone else's
opportunity?
Of course in Australia any such opportunity is entirely Verboten by a
nanny state bureaucracy. My own son, 8, is prevented from even taken
maths at the next grade level by the over zealous (or possibly plain
lazy) ACT education bureaucracy.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Another angle:
08 Jan 2010 1:46:54pm
I was offered to go up a year level at my school but my mum
didn't let me. I was angry at first, but looking back I
couldn't be happier. My fort was maths as well and I don't know
how many good experiences I would have missed out on if I
hadn't have had a bit of time to "waste" while others worked.
It was my social skills that needed to developing not my maths
and maths classes became the perfect platform for me to chill
out and talk to people. Obviously to get away with it you need
to be more or less talking about maths and so I just naturally
went into teaching my class mates. There are a lot of dodgy
maths teachers out there and I often ended up teaching myself
and then my friends. Teaching the concepts helped me to
understand them better, I made life-long friends and it added
to my confidence. Even more importantly than that though, it
introduced me to the high of doing things for other people.
So why is it that so many people think it is a great idea to
rush through education. Taking it as it came gave me so much!
Childhood is a part of life many would go back to if they could
and as school is the last fortress of childhood in our society
why cut it off at the knees?
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Catch22:
08 Jan 2010 12:13:15pm
Considering the previous person holding the record went on to become
prime minister, I can't see that it would be a problem.
Reply Agree (1) Alert moderator
Carl:
08 Jan 2010 12:43:04pm
No way should he go! Whoever said he's mature is insane! He's smart,
no doubt, but intelligence is not wisdom or experience... Every kid I
know who went up a single year at school had massive social problems.
He's skipping 4 years and entering an adults world! What an absolute
waste of a great mind to be thrown into something so specific before
his mind has a chance to broaden. The poor guy won't get a chance to
taste life!
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Liz:
08 Jan 2010 1:30:48pm
I suspect that behind this child is a pushy ambitious parent who has
protected him from having to mix with a normal school population in
case of behavioural contamination. Most child prodigy's were
conditioned by an over zealous parent from an early age . Is this
really in the child's interest?
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
More Frustrated:
08 Jan 2010 1:34:08pm
I was offered to go up a year level in my school and my mum didn't
let me. I was angry about it at first but looking back I couldn't be
gladder. My fort was maths as well and I don't know how many good
friends I would have missed out on if I hadn't had a bit of time to
"waste" while other people worked. It wasn't my maths that needed
developing it was my social skills and Maths classes became a
fantastic opportunity to just chill and talk quietly with others.
Obviously to be having a chat in your maths class you need to be more
or less talking about maths (lest the teacher gives you detention)
and so I just got into teaching my fellow class mates. There are some
crap maths teachers out there and I often taught myself how to do
things and then went on to teach my friends. Teaching the concepts
helped me understand them better, I made life long friends and I was
able to start tutoring people in maths for good money the second I
left school but even more importantly than that it introduced me to
the high of doing something for someone else!
So why is it that so many people think that rushing through your
education is a good thing? Childhood is a part of our lives many of
us would go back to if we could and as school is the last stronghold
of childhood why cut it off at the knees?
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
WS:
08 Jan 2010 2:02:37pm
It would depend on the 14 year old, of course. If I were considering
Arran for candidacy, I'd ask for an interview to check that he could
handle the social environment with everyone being years older than
him, and the pressure that a degree at a university like Cambridge
can place on someone. But otherwise, sure.
I would suggest that there would be some way for him to associate
with people his own age, but that's up to him and his parents, not
the university administration.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
Angela:
08 Jan 2010 2:11:13pm
No he is not to young not with the talent he has, he is interested in
Mathematics which for most of us is a challenge, well done to this
young man and I wish him all the best.
Only a small minority have this kind of talent who are we all to stop
them going and starting out earlier.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
wayne:
08 Jan 2010 2:44:38pm
I just think it was odd to see a mathematical mistake in the article.
Here's to study!
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
trog:
08 Jan 2010 3:00:14pm
all very good, but a girl from my school won a scolarship in
history/english to either oxford or cambridge (it was a looong time
ago) at an early age and did have some problems coping with the
environment. last i heard, she was doing some relatively mundane job.
Reply Agree (0) Alert moderator
gazza1:
08 Jan 2010 3:26:29pm
If Arran Fernandez is really a boy-genius, he would be wasting his
time through the standard schooling system.
Go for it, mate and good on you!