I've been reading recently about how a 13 year-old who is going to graduate school in math at the University of Virginia after getting his undergraduate degree this spring.

This is great-- more power to him, especially for a person who was "solving math problems at 14 months," but it has gotten me thinking.

We occasionally hear about the meteoric rise of some children through the education system by superior achievement in math or, in fewer cases, in the sciences (a la Doogie Howser, MD). But how many examples have there been of similar young prodigies doing the same thing (like going to grad school on their 14th birthday) in the social sciences or humanities?

I have my own theories about this, but I just wanted you to think about it.