by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(May 19, 2008) California courts should think twice about outlawing homeschooling in their state, especially while a 10 year-old homeschooled boy from Downey, California is making international headlines as the world’s youngest college sophomore.
While other boys his age are playing softball and video games, Moshe Kai Cavalin is preparing for final exams in advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music at a Los Angeles college.
Moshe was homeschooled until he enrolled in college at the age of eight after his parents tried unsuccessfully to enroll him in a private elementary school. “They didn’t want to accept me because I knew more than the teacher there and they said I looked too bored,” Moshe told the Associated Press.
His parents decided to let him try a college course in 2006. East Los Angeles College agreed to accept him if he enrolled initially in just two classes, math and physical education. According to his intermediate algebra teacher, Guajao Liao, Moshe was tutoring some of his 19 and 20 year old classmates by the end of the term.
“I told his parents that his ability was much higher than that level, that he should take a higher-level course,” Liao says. “But his parents didn’t want to push him.”
Moshe earned an A-plus in both courses and was permitted to expand his studies. Since then, he has maintained an A-plus average in such subjects as algebra, history, astronomy and physical education.
Although everyone else considers him a child prodigy, his parents don’t like to call him a genius. They say he’s just an average child who likes to study as much as he likes playing sports, watching Jackie Chan movies, and collecting toy cars.
None of Moshe’s professors recall ever having a student so young in their class. “He’s the youngest college student I’ve ever taught and one of the hardest working,” says Daniel Judge, Moshe’s statistics professor. “He’s actually a pleasure to have in class. He’s a well-adjusted, nice little boy.”
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