Early start helps! (Score 1)

Rather than have students exposed to advanced mathematics and the sciences only at college, if they were to start earlier, this would produce far more useful engineers. I had a fairly good understanding of calculus, classical physics at a level comparable to a junior at college by the time I was out of high school. It made me a better thinker than my peers in college, better prepared to absorb the density of education that I received in 4 years of a bachelors degree. Much of the concepts taught in college take longer than a semester to really understand and apply in the real world. I think a 6 year college degree starting out at the beginning of high school interspersed with apprenticeship is better than the traditional 4 years we have today. At 13 or 14 you may not have developed the mental ability to grasp the concepts involved but repeated learning of the concepts up until the time you graduate at 21 will surely help in molding your thinking enough for you to be able to apply it for the rest of your life. This is how it was in ancient Greece and medieval schools of learning. I think this was a good system. Identify what you want to do with your life early and follow through with as little distraction as possible.