This 10-Year-Old California Girl Taught Herself to Read, and Now She’s Just Enrolled in a College Class While She’s Still in Elementary School

Ten-year-old Honey Cooper spends part of her day learning about fractions and the solar system as a fourth-grader at Kimbark Elementary School — and the rest as a student enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College, where she takes a college-level art class.

“It’s very, very, very cool,” Kimbark Elementary School Principal Brittany Zuniga told a local TV station. KTLA. “She’s dedicated. She’s passionate. She loves to learn.”

The youngest of five children, Cooper taught herself how to read early and quickly became an outstanding student at her school. She’s taking seventh-grade math and reading on par with high school seniors, according to her mother. Cooper has also begun to narrow her career horizons, looking to a future as a surgeon, artist or fashion designer.

She said one of the biggest differences between her classes is the size — 33 students in elementary school versus just 12 in college — but she has found a rhythm that keeps her grounded.

“It’s really a lot, but if you really balance it, things can go really smoothly,” Cooper said. KTLA.

According to her mother, Honey’s home life is relatively typical, with one exception. While she struggles to keep her room clean, she… Stays away from screenspreferring physical books instead. This puts her in direct disagreement with her peers: Children between the ages of 8 and 18 in the United States now spend an average of seven and a half hours a day watching or using screens, according to a report published by the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“One of the beautiful things that I think this whole story really illustrates is that when you lift students up, they will reach it,” Zuniga added. “And they will blow your mind past it.”

If she stays on the traditional timeline, Cooper will graduate high school in 2034 and college in 2038.

Reading is on the decline, although it remains the number one habit among highly successful people

Cooper’s preference for books is over YouTube That already puts them in a shrinking minority.

Last year, two out of every five Americans I haven’t read a single bookRates of reading for pleasure have declined by 40% over the past two decades. However, many of the world’s most successful people consider reading essential to their curiosity, critical thinking, and leadership. A A JPMorgan survey was released last year Among more than 100 billionaires, they found that reading is the highest-achieving habit of the elite, and it is common.

Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is one example. He spends two to three hours a day immersed in audiobooks (he switched from physical books after he discovered AirPods). He typically moves between history, biography, and material on new subject areas such as artificial intelligence.

“If nothing else. I’m always listening for something,” Andersen said.

Add it all up, and Andreessen logs nearly a full 24 hours of learning every week—shaping the way he invests, builds, and thinks.

Allison Taylor, a professor of business and society at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said good, in-depth reading has become something of a luxury good, rare, valuable and impossible to fake.

“Having intellectual credibility, being well-read, etc., is definitely something that money cannot buy, so it is the ultimate status symbol,” she previously said. luck.

Generation Z and Generation Alpha are falling behind their parents, and technology may be to blame

A 10-year-old taking college courses has always been an oddity, but Cooper’s story falls at a fraught moment for American education. Mounting evidence suggests that Generation Z and Generation Z Alpha are as well They fall behind their parentswith many students performing below pre-pandemic levels.

One in three eighth graders scored “below basic” in reading in the past year National Assessment of Educational Progress Report– The largest share in the history of the exam, which extends over three decades. Among fourth graders, 40% reached that lowest level, the worst performance in 20 years. Math grades followed A’s Similar downward trajectory.

For years, educational technology has been positioned as a solution, with school districts across the country Distribute laptops and tablets to students. But according to neuroscientist and former Jared teacher Cooney Horvath, this approach may have backfired.

“This is not a debate about technology rejection,” Horvath said in testimony before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation earlier this year. “It’s a question of aligning educational tools with how human learning actually works. Evidence suggests that indiscriminate digital expansion has weakened rather than strengthened learning environments.”

Artificial intelligence adds another layer of uncertainty. While its use is increasing among students and teachers alike, it is uncertain whether there are appropriate guardrails for learning.

Modern Found the Brookings Report The specific risks of AI—including cognitive atrophy, “artificial intimacy,” and the erosion of trust in relationships—currently overshadow the potential benefits of technology in education.