Opportunity to excel: parental involvement and the chance to work at their own speed enabled these two siblings to enter college as junior-level transfer students at the ages of 13 and 14.(EDUCATION)

In this age of falling SAT scores, alarming drop-out rates, and high school graduates ill-equipped for college, Mayumi and Charlie Pierce stand out as admirable exceptions to the rule. Not only are Mayumi, 14, and Charlie, 13, literate and articulate teenagers, they also garnered their high school diplomas before the age of 12 and in the fall of 2005 entered UC Berkeley as junior-level transfer students.

The entire family claims that there is nothing unusual about Mayumi's and Charlie's natural abilities, despite their accomplishments. "We don't think they're geniuses," says the children's father, Wincie Pierce. Nor do the children spend all their time studying--Mayumi says she goes shopping and hangs out with her friends "doing kid stuff," while Charlie enjoys playing card, computer, and video games with his friends. Also, they both participate in youth orchestras on the violin. So, if they aren't geniuses, and they do all the stuff that kids these days do, what is the secret behind their success? "Hard work and the opportunity to excel," says Mayumi.

She and her brother started their schooling in a very traditional manner. For example, Mayumi attended kindergarten and a Montessori school, while Charlie spent a year in the Montessori school. But Wincie says that when the school district refused to allow Mayumi to move directly to second grade, despite her mastery of the required material, it became obvious that "it was our daughter (and all students) who would serve school policy, and not the other way around. This was clearly sub-optimal."

There were a couple of private schools that offered attractive curricula, but logistics made attending these impossible. And as Wincie pointed out, even the best private school entailed separating the children from "their mother's loving care for most of the day.... I was reluctant to relinquish primary influence of the children to strangers for the majority of their best period of developmental guidance." So, Wincie and his wife, Qin Ma, attended a home-schooling seminar in Berkeley, talked with other home-schoolers in the area, and began home-schooling Mayumi and Charlie.

To bolster their home-schooling efforts, the family used local resources such as the library, where the children chose a wide variety of books to read, and the Barnes & Noble bookstore, where they read new books. Qin says that the bookstore is now the kids' favorite place. When Mayumi and Charlie were 11 and 9, respectively, they began attending Contra Costa Community College. Here, they met other students who had also been home-schooled, participated in the college's Center for Science Excellence (CSE), and according to Wincie, "learned how to go to college."

The CSE was particularly helpful, says Wincie, calling it "pivotal in providing a peer group and activities that reinforced their interest in science and mathematics." Other CSE members preceded Mayumi and Charlie to the UC Berkeley campus, so they already had friends on campus when they arrived. CSE also provides information regarding internships, ...