*12-year-old Caleb Anderson of Marietta, Ga., started reading at the age of 6 months. He’s now a sophomore in college where he’s studying calculus, U.S. history, humanities and macroeconomics.
Anderson loves outer space and wants to be an aerospace engineer.
“I’m fascinated that there’s another world beyond ours. There’s another place. There’s a better place,” he tells NPR.
“You have the heroes that go on the rockets and fly up to space. But the aerospace engineers, they have their life in their hands. And I really think it’s interesting and amazing that they do that,” he says.
Caleb’s mother, Claire Anderson, recognized when her son was an infant that he was extremely gifted. As NPR writes, “When he was just 3 weeks old, she says, he started copying her motions. She got certified in sign language so she could teach it to him.”
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This is AMAZING! 12yo Caleb Anderson is headed to COLLEGE for aerospace engineering. His #BlackBoyMagic is REAL!! Can’t wait to see you going to space one day, Caleb! https://t.co/31MHoAHsn2
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) October 7, 2020
“Because I thought though that he wanted to communicate, but he didn’t have a [means] or a way to do that. Then he started picking up sign language really fast,” she says. “When he was about 6 months old, he started reading. And by 9 months old he was already signing over 250 words.”
Caleb passed the first grade when he was 3, and could have skipped middle school, “But we still decided to put Caleb into the seventh grade to build social skills and just think about the well-rounded child,” said Claire. But being the smartest little guy in the room was not easy for Caleb.
“They looked down on me because I was younger than them. And not only that, the curriculum was boring to me because I learn really, really fast. One day I came to my mom and she asked me, ‘Are you happy here?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m really bored. This isn’t challenging me,’ ” he says.
Caleb is currently enrolled at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta working toward an associate degree. He’s also getting his high school credits, according to the report.
“It’s not my end goal to go to college. My end goal is to become who I want to be. I want to be someone who helps people reach the stars,” he says.
Caleb’s father, Kobi Anderson, hopes his son serves as an inspiration.
“As a teenager, I remember downplaying my intelligence,” he says. “Being a young Black male, there are these negative stereotypes that are reinforced quite frequently. And so the attention is an opportunity to bring another story to light, one that we hope will inspire others to foster the gifts that their kids have.”
