Parenting often means meeting your children where they are. Instead of forcing a square peg into a round hole, it’s our job to nurture their interests and encourage them to think outside the box, even when it comes to traditional education. Or, if your child happens to be “profoundly gifted” like Ronya Balogun’s son, David, you have to be willing to smash the box to bits and forge a new path forward!
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David was in third grade when his teachers told Ronya and her husband, Henry Balogun, that David was blowing by their usual academic metrics and advancing much faster than his fellow students. They recommended moving him up a grade level or two. David’s family decided to have his intelligence tested in 2020, and they were amazed by the results.
“That’s when we found out he was actually not just gifted, but profoundly gifted,” Ronya explained.
David admits that his biggest problem with his old school was boredom, plain and simple. He needed more of a challenge, and he found it when he enrolled in online high school. David enrolled in the Reach Cyber Charter School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2020. Just three years later, the young scholar completed his course of study and graduated.
Did we mention he’s still only 9 years old?
David has a thirst for knowledge that may take a lifetime to quench. He says he’s just getting warmed up when it comes to earning degrees, and he has already finished a semester at Bucks County Community College. Next, he and his family have their sights set for an Ivy League university. Ronya has already reached out to The University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Princeton.
“My favorite subject is learning new things,” David said. “Whether it’s art, math, science, English, social studies. I’ll be happy to learn something new. I wanted to do astronomy, engineering, and software development.”
He may have already moved on from high school, but David hopes his story inspires other high-achieving students to break out of their boxes, too.
“I think there are a lot of kids like me out there who could graduate at the age of ten or eleven,” he said. “But, they don’t always have the resources and the support that they need to use their full potential.”
“I literally had to break the box to be able to take care of my son the right way,” Ronya agreed.
David is already a member of Mensa, the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world, and he hopes to become an astrophysicist some day. We have no doubt that he’ll be a success no matter what line of work he pursues. Congratulations, David!
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