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I started 1st grade in Sept, 1964. After about a month, they realized that I was bored to death with reading "Dick & Jane" and that I could do math with numbers rather than with "the set of bugs plus the set of fruit" and put me into second grade. Good move.
They got the clue about my reading level when I asked the teacher if I could read to the class a story from a book my mother had recently bought me. I don't think that she was expecting that the story was that of the submarine "Turtle" and that it would start with, "David Bushnell was a mathematician and engineer who lived at the time of the Revolutionary War."
We just went through this with my granddaughter, who is in fourth grade. She is in gifted, but it only meets once or twice a week. She said she wasn't learning anything new and was very bored in school. She asked to skip a grade.
My son and DIL discussed this with her school. She was tested - very high IQ and highly proficient in fifth grade work. Their concern (and mine) was the social ramifications, especially in the teen years.
In the end, a decision was made to have her moved to fifth grade math for the remainder of the year. Next year she will take sixth grade math and language arts. Family was told that in sixth grade she could take some courses in the junior high. Once she is in seventh grade, there will be a lot more opportunity for advanced courses.
She seems happy with the decision, at least so far.
My sister, who teaches elementary school and who we consulted about this, had a lot to say about how little we do for the very advanced kids. She believes they should be more challenged every day. While gifted classes help, they are not enough. Unfortunately, the funding isn't there in most schools to give these kids all the stimulation they need and are capable of handling.
My sister, who teaches elementary school and who we consulted about this, had a lot to say about how little we do for the very advanced kids. She believes they should be more challenged every day. While gifted classes help, they are not enough. Unfortunately, the funding isn't there in most schools to give these kids all the stimulation they need and are capable of handling.
Oh, the funding's there, it's just been redirected over the last decade or so to the bottom rung while the average and above average kids have been allowed to mark time.
We had a friend whose kid finished high school three years early years then finished college in two years, then got a PHD in three more. He stared a high status, high paying, demanding job that required 70 or more hours a week at age 20. He never had any kind of life. He worked his tail off in advance classes all through school and did not get out at all. Now he is a science drone who does nothing but work on his science stuff. Sure, he may accomplish something great, but he will never live, never experience being human.
We have several kids born on the cusp meaning we could start them in their late 4s or their late 5s. The first two we started in their late 4s. They were still ahead of their class academically for a large part of their schooling, but they were small anyway and so, being a year or two younger than their classmates- tiny. One classmate used to tuck one of them under each arm and carry them around the playground as a joke. Socially and for general happiness, it would have been better to start them later.
Next one started just as she turned 5. It did not work out and we re-started her the next year. That worked fine.
He brother is 10.5 months younger. We decided to start him in his late 5s rather than late 4s so he would not be int he same class as his older sister. That was the right decision. For a time he skipped way ahead in math (5th grade) and they wanted him to skip ahead one or two grades entirely (we said no) but later he choked in math, so it was good he did not skip ahead. It was also good for him socially and for sports. His body did not mature athletically until late in 10th grade and he is now a state and national champion college/club rower. His dream is to try out for the 2020 Olympics. None of that would have happened if he was a year or two ahead in high school.
What is the rush to push kids into the jobs they will do for the next 40 years? Let them live a little.
I have often heard that while skipping a grade might help academically, it puts the kid at a disadvantage socially, especially since gifted students are often (not always) socially behind their peers (I know I was).
In elementary school, it would likely mean being the smallest kid in class and being a target of bullying. In middle school, it could mean not reaching puberty until after your classmates have. In high school, it would mean not being allowed to drive when all of your classmates can drive. In college, it would mean not being allowed to drink when all of your classmates can drink. Plus, being in college at 17 causes some complications, such as needing parental consent (and often needing them to be present) for scenarios that do not otherwise require such consent. I remember a 17 year old freshman (he didn't skip a grade, but was just one of the youngest in his grade) had a horrible roommate, but unlike 18 year olds, the college would not allow him to switch rooms unless his parents (who lived in another state) physically came to the school to give consent.
I've heard that often, even if it seems like a good deal at the time, it causes problems later down the road, such as the college scenario that I described.
Keep in mind that even if you are 20 and don't mind having a soda when your 21 year old classmates are having a beer, most venues that serve alcohol do not allow under 21 people to enter, even if they don't drink. And your 21 year old classmates will likely want to hang out at such venues when they are 21.
It also seems that you are expected to follow behavior standards of the higher age group, but without getting the privileges of the higher age group, as I said before.
Supposedly in the old days really good students would sometimes skip grades in school when they were attending the grades K-12. From what I know they don't do that much anymore and instead a really good student, particularly in high school, might be taking more advanced classes or AP classes. Maybe they should go back to skipping grades, just a thought.
I've seen mixed results from those who have skipped grades. One was socially very mature and academically advanced. And the fact that his parents had been through revolving door divorces gave him some real motivation to want to be done with his home town early. Another brilliant one skipped a grade and went on to Yale. Unfortunately since then his life path has revolved through depression and a divorce. I sometimes wonder whether his being advanced beyond his maturity level hurt.
Yet another one was from across the country. He didn't enjoy high school. When he was 15 he signed up and passed California's GED test, and then applied to UCLA. UCLA advised him that the GED was for disadvantaged people. His father contacted the school and asked if they wanted to debate that issue in court. So I met him after he graduated UCLA Law School, with no seeming ill effects from being four years younger than law school graduates who didn't accelerate and didn't take any time off.
Moral of these stories; there's no "one size fits all."
In my school this very year we moved two 7th graders up to 8th. It was due to age, certainly not academic ability. Both were mediocre students at best and had been retained a year when younger. Had we kept them at grade level both would have turned 15 about half way through 8th grade.
My son skipped 2 grades of math in junior high. The school started 2 new classes for kids, who tested excellent in math. One class is 1 year skip, another is 2 years. I think it works great for them. My son is not bored, it works for him, managing without problems. There was not IQ tests for the placement, just math tests. Other subjects are only pre AP. Gifted programs are joke here in our school district.
My son skipped 2 grades of math in junior high. The school started 2 new classes for kids, who tested excellent in math. One class is 1 year skip, another is 2 years. I think it works great for them. My son is not bored, it works for him, managing without problems. There was not IQ tests for the placement, just math tests. Other subjects are only pre AP. Gifted programs are joke here in our school district.
The Math skip happened to my oldest son, the school system had to create a special class for him and 8 or 9 other kids in 4th grade.
I think what the OP was asking was not accelerating courses but skipping entire grades.
Supposedly in the old days really good students would sometimes skip grades in school when they were attending the grades K-12. From what I know they don't do that much anymore and instead a really good student, particularly in high school, might be taking more advanced classes or AP classes. Maybe they should go back to skipping grades, just a thought.
I was in grade school in the early 50's and two grades were combined in one classroom. I was in the 1st grade and by the end of the term had also completed the 2nd grade classes. My mom, knowing I needed to be challenged begged the school to pass me to the 3rd grade; her request was denied.
She was right, 2nd grade was a repeat and very dull. Policy was more important to the school than the student.
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