Sun Tianrui, a 13-year-old boy from northeast China's city of Changchun, who scored 645 in this year's Gaokao, or college entrance exams, has been enrolled in Beihang University. [Photo: New Culture View]
A 13-year-old boy in northeast China's city of Changchun, who scored 645 in this year's Gaokao, or college entrance exams, has been enrolled in Beihang University, China top institution of higher learning on aviation and space technologies, the New Culture View reports on Tuesday.
Sun Tianrui, the 1.82-meter-tall boy chose Beihang over other top institutions such as Peking University because of his favorite subjects in aeronautic and astronautic engineering. After seven years the youngster plans to graduate with a combined Bachelor-Master-Doctor Program.
Sun enjoyed reading from an early age and polished off China's four most famous children's novels when he was just four years old. The following year when he started at school Sun read more than thirty masterpieces. In grade three of primary school, Sun gained full marks in Chinese and Maths, allowing him skip to grade five. Later, in grade two of junior high school, Sun again skipped ahead of his fellow students and went straight into senior high school due to his excellent scores.
When asked about his study methods, Sun said it is very important to concentrate in class and not feel pressurized when learning. Sun often completed his homework within half an hour and did what he liked after school such as reading books, playing chess and table tennis, all of which were encouraged by his parents.
"As parents, we didn't deliberately set out to create a wonder child at all -- we just tried to make a good environment for our child's growth." Sun Feng, Sun's father said.
Sun's father summarized three important points to consider when educating a child. First, the parents should help the youngster develop a good speed-reading ability to help enable self study. Secondly, the parents should learn to develop with their child and respect his or her likes and dislikes; and thirdly, the child should be encouraged to acquire good habits from an early age.
Sun Feng thought that Sun, regarded as a brain-box among his classmates, is good at forming relationships and is able to deal with most problems by himself. Therefore, they are not concerned about any problems adapting to college life.
Many parents look on with envy at the success of a wonder child like Sun. However, psychological experts suggest it may be best not to single out exceptional children for individual treatment.
In an interview with New Culture View, one psychologist said a child who adapts to adult's environment too early could face great mental pressure. For example, when Sun's classmates at university start to fall in love, it will not be healthy for Sun's development without necessary guidance because, at the end of the day, he is still a child.
