They call him ‘genius’

  • Melissa Slager<br>For the Enterprise
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:31am

James Song may stand in the shadows of most of his older classmates at Jackson High School. But the 13-year-old is head and shoulders above most of them academically.

“They always call me ‘genius,’ ” James said.

There’s reason to believe them, too.

School administrators and his parents call James “something special.”

James skipped eighth grade at Heatherwood Middle School to start taking classes full time at Jackson High in the fall. He had already been taking classes at the high school part time during the sixth and seventh grades.

It’s an academic gift he displayed at an early age. Jay and Jenny Song say their son knew his ABCs by his first birthday. By age 2, he was beginning to read books and was adding and subtracting.

When he was 4, his mother quizzed him on his multiplication tables while he watched cartoons.

He was assessed at a third-grade level before he entered kindergarten. And in elementary school, he scored a 148 on an intelligence quotient test, showing extraordinary intellect for his age.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time I couldn’t get the answer,” James said.

That is, until he hit honors English.

The first few months of high school were hard, James admits.

“In middle school, I could slack off and get a 4.0,” James said. “Now, I have to study really hard.”

First semester was a time of adjustment, when he earned his lowest grade ever – a B-plus in honors English.

He’s now acing that class and other high-level courses as well, including pre-calculus and Advanced Placement physics and biology.

High schools are cautious about allowing early entrances, said Dave Peters, an assistant principal at Jackson High. But James was “a no-brainer.”

“They don’t come along that often with those kinds of skills at that age,” Peters said.

Being a freshman is exciting, James said. “I know a lot of the seniors, because I used to have lots of classes with them in middle school.”

At first he worried about being bullied. He earned a black belt in tae kwon do as “insurance.”

But “everybody’s been nice,” he said.

Maybe it’s because some of his older classmates want to get on his good side at homework time. James’ parents say he gets about 10 calls a night from classmates seeking answers to questions on assignments.

On the preliminary SAT, typically taken by high school juniors, James scored in the top 1 percent for math, in the top 20 percent for writing and in the top 24 percent for reading.

Prestigious colleges and universities – including Stanford, Harvard, MIT and Oxford – already have bombarded him with e-mails and letters asking him to think of them when he’s ready to apply for college.

James already has taken a class at the University of Washington through the Robinson Center for Young Scholars. He took an algebra course last summer – one year of college work condensed into five weeks – and earned a 97 percent.

“I got nightmares from that,” James said.

For now, James plans to graduate his junior year and pursue a career in bioengineering to help find cures for diseases.

“It’s how the world works, and also saving people’s lives,” he said.

He’s also pragmatic: “It’s a really big and growing field. And also, you get a lot of money.”

James speaks Korean at home, his parents’ native language.

Jay Song has lived in the United States since he was in middle school. He owns a business doing house inspections. Jenny Song was a math teacher in Korea, which she left 14 years ago.

In raising their son, the couple said, they have struck a balance over the years between Jay Song’s American-style drive for a boy who can hit a home run and Jenny Song’s Korean-style drive for one who can solve a harmonic mean, a method of calculating averages.

They’ve kept James in public schools and with his peers as long as possible.

“Study is forever. But a kid’s childhood is only 12 years. Social life is very important for James’ life,” Jenny Song said.

Now that he’s a teenager, they let him make his own decisions.

“I think he can succeed whatever he wants to do,” his father said.

James’ sister, Anna, 11, also is very talented. At age 5, she was first string violin with the Everett Youth Orchestra. She said she looks up to her brother. “I think he can do anything,” Anna said.

James also has plenty of interests typical of people his age. He loves bass fishing with his dad and tending to his tomato and watermelon garden. He looks after his three pet frogs, Brownie, Soda and Pharaoh. His bedroom is decorated with Ichiro Suzuki posters, and “Harry Potter” is on his bookshelf.

And he’s a nice kid.

“Every time I see James, he always has that big smile, ready to go,” said Peters, the assistant principal.

One has to wonder whether James ever finds himself overwhelmed by his talents.

He shakes his head with a shrug. “I’ve been like this my whole life,” he said.

Melissa Slager is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.

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