A nine-year-old child has dropped out of his electrical engineering program at the University of Eindhoven as the institute wanted to delay his date of graduation.
Laurent Simons, from Belgium, is not your everyday kid. The nine-year-old was taking a degree which is considered extremely challenging even for adults.
Since the prodigy wasn’t able to be the first-ever graduate under 10 years of age, his parents decided to take him out from the institute.
The university told Laurent’s parents that he had several exams left and due to this reason, it would be difficult for him to graduate on the previously decided date of December 26.
The young boy was offered a delayed graduation date in summer 2020 at the age of 10 years, but his parents didn’t admire the idea.
Laurent’s father Alexander Simons told a media outlet in the Netherlands that he was severely criticized by the university for the excessive media coverage his son gained during his educational journey.
In an interview with Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant, Laurent’s dad said: “If a child can play football well, we all think the media attention is great.
“My son has a different talent. Why should he not be proud of that?”
A photo of the email sent by the university in which they suggested Laurent a delayed graduation date was also shared to an Instagram account under Laurent’s name.
The photo was captioned: “Liar liar pants on fire!!!”
When the Eindhoven’s University of Technology was brought to question on social media, they issued a statement saying that it wasn’t suitable for Laurent to rush through courses when he’s in the process of developing ‘insight, creativity and critical analysis.’
They argued that pushing him to meet a challenge or deadline can affect his academic development seriously.
While the university warned at putting ‘excessive pressure on this nine-year-old student,’ they made their statement controversial by admitting themselves that Laurent miraculously possesses an ‘unprecedented talent.’
Replaced!