Meet Henry and Ronya Balogun, the proud parents of David Balogun, who made news at 9 years old as one of the youngest high school graduates in the US. The Baloguns took a new approach to developing David’s remarkable intelligence, deviating from traditional procedures.
When David was just six years old, his parents recognized his exceptional intelligence and decided that standard schooling would not suffice. His parents had to adapt and think differently about parenting.
“Parenting requires a different mindset,” Henry told CNBC Make It. “It’s not always easy when your son keeps asking you questions. You have to continue answering the questions because you do not want to say, ‘Just leave me alone.'”
Henry and Ronya chose to adopt unconventional parenting approaches. But they had one cardinal rule: if the system does not fit your child, fix the system rather than the child. In David’s case, this entailed looking into Pennsylvania’s Gifted Individualized Education Plan law and moving him to the online learning software Reach Cyber during the pandemic.
Despite their academic achievements, the Baloguns admit there is no one-size-fits-all parenting guide. Ronya underlines the need of not forcing David into a traditional social life. Instead, she accepted his introversion, acknowledging the difficulties gifted youngsters have in meeting like-minded classmates.
Furthermore, trust is an important factor in their parenting experience. While they believe in David’s skills, they nevertheless establish boundaries, particularly when presenting hard issues like human reproduction to a curious 6-year-old.
The Baloguns agree that the road ahead is unknown, but they are learning as they go.
“There is no frame of reference,” Ronya explained. “So you know how, when there is no road, you make a new one? Yes, that is what we are doing.
Furthermore, David is currently attending Southern New Hampshire University, where he has received a full tuition scholarship to pursue Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science and information technology. He was the youngest student in the school’s 90-year history.