The playing field is never level ..or is it?

A

atreides

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I learnt this sad but true fact a few years ago when I was a TA for a physics prof in his sophomore level physics based calculus class. This prof had his 8th grade kid attend class, and do all the homework and exams, and remarkably this kid always had scores in the top 15% of the class.

Of course, the kid later took some more advanced mechanics courses which he flunked, but I bet he learnt a lot of valuable life lessons in the process.

I always thought this kid would be a genius in college because by then his classmates will be seeing the same material he met and conquered almost four year back.

So the question...is it ever a level playing field out there?
 
He would only be a "genius" if he kept up with physics over the next 5 years. It could be that he really is very smart, and would in fact do better than most of his peers in college. However, I doubt that it's because he did well in a single physics course.
 
Of course it's not.

One word: PARENTING

Some people have excellent parents that'll drill the kids on math and turn them into comparative geniuses, but most don't.

Case in point? Sergei Brin.
 
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