Tim Blair

A ten-year-old who has already figured out that his teachers are insincere burnout cases? Not all that uncommon, I'd suspect.

That's got two-professional parents, high income, Upper West Side overachiever written all over it!

A few more years of this kind of younger-and-younger cognitive maturity, and Calvin & Hobbes will no longer be a wry fantasy!

Nowhere in the story do we see any reference to the real source of these precocious kids: GM corn.

I would say, "...they are doing it of," rather than, "on their own free will."

Puffed up little creep.

Ah, that kid probably used the internet to spruce up her quotation.

.... They're as old as my youngest sister... Yikes!

Good.

This thread reminded me of a citation in a rather interesting book I read. I went back and found the relevant passage. The book is called "Greatness," by Dean Simonton, and it is a study of who makes history, and why. Here is a letter written by Sir Francis Galton (I've left out the age until after, in case you want to guess):

My Dear Adele,

I am...years old and I can read any English book. I can say all the Latin Substantives and Adjectives and active verbs besides 52 lines of Latin poetry. I can cast up any sum in addition and can multiply by 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. I can also say the pence table. I read French a little and I know the clock.

Francis Galton

I copied this verbatim from the book. His age?

Five years old! (Actually the day before his fifth birthday). This can be found on page 224 of the book.

Amazing that a five-year-old could be overqualified for the NYT.

That's nothing, before they cut my umbilical cord I told the gynaecologist he was an arsehole in five languages.

No doubt he replied "And you're the next best thing to a cunt!"