12-year-old college student raises mixed concerns

In 2009, the 12-year-old girl Li Yan, who is known as a wonder child at her hometown in Hunan, entered Hunan Normal University, with a National Entrance College Examination result 16 points higher than Hunan Province's minimum passing score for key science universities.

On Hunan Normal University's campus on October 25, the reporter met Li for the first time. Wearing a white short sleeve T-shirt with decorative patterns and a pair of blue jeans, 160 cm tall Li seemed tall and slim, and is half a head taller than her classmate Wu Litao.

12-year-old university girl Li Yan

Although Li had been interviewed by many reporters before, she was still very shy. She was just standing off to the side with her bag, and only when her tutor Lu Jun said hello to her did she come and sit uneasily on a chair.

Li is the youngest student Hunan Normal University has ever accepted, and when she came to the university to enroll herself, she carried two plush toys with her, a bear and a goat. Although many schoolgirls also did this while entering university, Li still attracted a lot of attention because of her special age.

How did Li Yan, the 12-year-old girl, manage to quickly finish all the primary and middle school courses in several years and get into university?

Her mother: Never trying to train her as a wonder child

Before they moved to the provincial capital of Hunan, Changsha, Li and her mother Zeng Qiaoling lived in Xianchaqiao Town Central Primary School, which is about 10 kilometers away from the Shaodong County seat. Zeng, who graduated from Shaoyang Teachers College, was the head teacher of the primary school's sixth grade. Their home was a three-room house, where three other pupils whose homes were far from the school also lived with them. The furnishings in her room were quite simple: a bed, a TV set, a computer and an old electric fan.

"I was busy with my work then. When she was one and two years old, she always played alone. I didn't have too much time to look after her." Zeng said that she never tried to train her into a wonder child. However, the early intelligence of the child surprised her: When Li was just two years old, she was already able to sing 30 children's songs and had mastered addition and subtraction below 20; when she was three, she had mastered over 200 frequently-used Chinese characters; when she was four, she started to study the courses of grade one of primary school, and then she learned all the phonetic letters in a week and could read the new Chinese characters in the text books. Meanwhile, she also mastered addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Li recalled that she suspended her schooling for six months in first grade of primary school, and during the time, her mother taught her at home. When it was time for her to enter grade two, Zeng found that Li's knowledge had already reached the level of grade four or five. Thinking it was unnecessary for Li restudy the knowledge she had mastered, Zeng came to talk with her colleagues, and tried to convince them to let Li skip grades. The head teacher of grade three thought the child was too young, but the head teacher of grade five had strong confidence in Li, and agreed. So, five-year-old Li skipped three grades, and directly entered grade five from grade one. Then, Li learned the frequently-used English vocabulary, phrases and sentences that were assigned and also memorized the classical Chinese articles that have been selected in the text books from junior middle school. After Li finished grade five, Zeng thought that the child was too young and had weak self-control, so she brought the child home and taught her personally. Zeng taught Li all the courses of grade six, and also some courses from middle school.

While talking about this period of education, Li said that some media reported that she had fully read the novel "The Romance of The Three Kingdoms" and independently studied all the text books of "Xu Guozhang English" in this period, but this in fact was not true. It was actually her mother who advised her to study English ahead of time. First, she found the text book "Hong En English" very interesting, and then, she also studied the first four text books of "Xu Guozhang English." When the reporter said that people paid close attention to her strong comprehensive ability in reading classical Chinese, she emphasized that what she read was not "The Romance of The Three Kingdoms," but "Outlaws of The Marsh," and she also asked the reporter, "Is classical Chinese so difficult to understand?"

In 2004, Zeng was transferred to the Xianchaqiao Town Central Primary School, and she also sent Li to the middle school of the town. When Li was still less than 9 years old, she had already graduated from junior middle school. Although she didn't get into the top 200 in the high school entrance examination of county in the year, the Shaodong First Middle School decided to matriculate her as an exception. After Li entered high school, she had to live independently at the high school which was located in the county seat. Since she was less than 10 years old, her mother worried about her a lot and came to see her every week. But Zeng soon found that Li could look after herself quite well. A teacher of Li once worried that Li was too small to get the hot water, and told her to come the teacher's home to bathe. But Li never came even once. She perfectly solved all of her day-to-day problems by herself.

In 2009, she was admitted to Hunan Normal University with 550 points.

Is it because she is a "whiz kid" or thanks to her mother's correct educational methods?

Li disapproved of the nickname "whiz kid" and says, "I am not actually the so-called 'whiz kid,' it's just that my intellectual resources are earlier developed than that of my peers." It is said that when Li was just turning one year old, her mother found that when the child was crying, she would become quiet as soon as the teaching videos were playing. At one year and three months old, Li could already recite nursery rhymes.

In order to meet Li's thirst for knowledge, Zeng bought many story books from bookstore, and read and told the child stories whenever she was free. When Li was nearly four years old and going to be in the first grade, she had done well in Chinese, and could read three or four pages of extra-curricular books a day. Within one week, she was also caught up in Mathematics.

Some people may have asked, "Were there any obstacle skipping from first grade to fifth grade?" Li said that with her mother's teaching, she did not think it was difficult to study.

When she entered middle school, her mother helped her to adjust her study methods, in accordance with her own strengths, to focus on Chinese, English and Mathematics and bone up on the other minor subjects before exams.

For this reason, Li's English grade was obviously better than that of other students while her grades in the minor subjects were a little worse, and overall she had average scores in her class. Li said that her results were not very good when she was in the second grade of senior middle school, but they improved after entering the third grade.

Being different from other students, Li had a set of unique study methods of her own, which attached great importance to efficiency. When in the third grade, Zeng was once worried that Li would fail in the college entrance examinations, so she often mentioned to Li that a child of one of her friends was admitted to a famous university because the child studied very hard and often read books until 1 or 2am. Li, however, did not follow the example of the child instead she often talked back to her mother. In her weak subjects, however, Li was very persistent: During the second term of the third grade, her mathematics grade stayed at around 70 points. "I decided to bring it up, so in the next few months, I would find time to do mathematical problems every day. A period of time later, I did not improve my mathematical grade greatly, but I did not give up. As an old saying goes, 'Success belongs to perseverance'! And finally I got 106 points in mathematics on the college entrance examinations."

Li said that before she only studied in school because she simply "went by the rules," and ordinarily she loves to read a variety of novels, plays table tennis, listens to music as well as participate in all kinds of physical exercises. "I think that only if we maintain abundant physical strength and energy to study can our study time be used efficiently." Even during the busy senior middle school period, Li did not forget her favorite "Detective Conan," saying, "I have seen all the theatrical versions of it, and the reasoning process behind it is really very wonderful."

In less than two months after entering Hunan Normal University, Li actively signed up for the school sports meeting and ran the 4x400 meter race. Wu Litao, one of her roommates, told reporters that Li ran very fast and won first place during the tryouts for their class. She also likes playing tennis and has taken tennis classes as an elective course. "She always cannot help stopping when she passes by the tennis courts and she often does not want to leave. When seeing a fierce competition, she will laugh with 'ha-ha'."

Youngest college student is able to do laundry and cook

As Li Yan is a fast talker, quick-witted and logical, her mother had hoped that she might major in law and become a lawyer in the future, but Li's first choice of major in her application for admission to Hunan Normal Universy, Hunan University and Anhui University was life science.

However, when Li entered the university, she was selected by the chemical engineering and technology department of the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Leaders of Hunan Normal University finanlly agreed to respect Li's own choice, helping her tranfer to the life science department of the College of Life and Science.

After two months in the college, Li discovered that college life is much different from what she had imagined. "The study here is busier but more interesting," she explained. Her study at a senior high school in Shaodong County was under strict management, while she attended some student organizations shortly after entering the college and currently acts as an administrative secretary of the campus life service department of the student union. She organizes some activities such as helping other students buy train tickets prior to holidays.

The study schedule for freshmen college students is so busy that there generally are courses every evening. However, Li still enjoys the college life. "I can take care of myself as I am able to do laundry and cook," said she lowering her head and smiling, "but the college does not permit us to cook."

This summer vacation, 12-year-old Li specifically bought a book "Dear Andreas" for her 36-year-old mother. Zeng said that her daughter used a unique way to remind her that they should communicate equally and freely just like Lung Ying-tai and her son Andreas do. Li said that she loves her mother, yet feel there is a "generational gap" between them in some aspects such as thinking and their favorite songs.

Wu Litao, who comes from the same town as Li and is also her classmate and friend, said that students do not pay too much attention to Li's age. "She is simply a companion at a similar age to us who loves sports and has a lively and cheerful personality," said Wu to reporters, "On Li's thirteenth birthday, her father bought her a big cake. She saw it and cried, "You all come and eat the cake," Wu added,"Several roomates celebrated her birthday for her and she was so happy."

The teacher Lu, however, is a little bit worried. He said that the college at which Li is studying, is a key part of Hunan Normal University and her class is a "base" class at the university, so the competition among students is fierce. As half of her class will be sent to graduate schools without attending qualification examinations due to their excellent academic performances, students in her class were chosen strictly through examinations before they entered the class. "Students from other colleges said that students at the College of Life Science are excellent, but the students in the 'base' class are even more excellent." According to Lu, Li has a strong thirst for knowledge and good learning methods, and she can also consciously improve herself in every aspect. But Li is too young and it is a big test for her to physically and mentally withstand such intense studying and competitions.

"As a teacher, I feel very proud of her, but at the beginning I really did not hope she would join the class, because I mainly worried about her ability to take care of herself and deal with emotions, studying and her interpersonal relationships," said Lu. Reporters learned that When Li first came to the university, the president and secretary of the CPC Committee of the College of Life Science visited her and her mother. The college president Xiang Shuanglin hopes that Li can understand her role and adjust her mental conditions well in order to achieve her goals. He said that Li, who was admitted by Hunan Normal University at the age of 12, has a high intelligence quotient (IQ) and she should also improve her emotion quotient (EQ) in her college years. Duan Wei, secretary of the CPC committee of the College of Life Science, said that the college will try its best to help Li to grow in a normal and quiet environment and will also arrange a teacher to give her more help in daily life.

Translated by LOTO