Well, I think you’re missing my point entirely, but that’s as likely my fault as yours.

Regardless of the stated academic goals of high school or college (or pre-school, middle school, graduate school…), a LOT of the value is actually in other realms, unrelated to academics. I’m thinking mainly of socialization—for better or worse—plus developing work habits, learning to be productive in groups, and forming the networks of friends and peers which tend to shape much of later life.

Any smart kid, presumably including yours, can accelerate to at least 300 or 400% of normal high school pacing once they get motivated. The difficulty is not about learning the subject matter—it’s more about growing up. I’ve seen 15 year-old kids in college, and many (I was going to say most, but I’m trying to understate my case) remain 15 developmentally despite verging on 20 intellectually. That’s not necessarily a healthy thing for them.

I’m also drawing on my own experience—accelerated to the point where I was perpetually socially immature until I took a couple of decades off—and that of my parents, who were accelerated 2 and 3 years respectively, displayed their immaturity in their disastrous marriage, and never quite managed to figure things out. They, at least, were very good students even while much younger than the other students, proving that there’s more to life than being smart and jump-starting a career.

Of course there are exceptions—lots of them. I hope I’ve clarified what I meant to some extent, but in any case I’ll bow out of your thread, which originally was about something else. Besides, I don’t want to give the impression that I’ve anything nice to say about standard secondary educational systems, about which I can rant angrily and incoherently for hours on end.