Something on which I was unclear: once in college, the “need higher grades to stay ahead” rule didn’t exist any more.
That’s a great idea! It would be nice to get the viewpoint of an “educator” (when did they stop being “teachers”?) on the subject as well.
I think I remember that thread as well. Did it also talk about experiences in phys ed? If so, I really wish it was around as well. But even archive.org doesn’t have much.
I think that’s very important. The two girls I know who’d skipped grades (and me, if I had) did so from kindergarten. We’d be reminded that Alma was ahead only for things like her birthday coming up on fourth grade, a teacher (not ours, from another section) congratulating her on “double digits age” and Alma saying “nooo, I’m NINE!” Nobody cared.
Alma was one of the shorter people in the class, but in her case it’s genetic; she wasn’t shorter because she was younger, she was short because she is short.
Seems that many of us skipped second grade.
My Mom was the stay-at-home type and began teaching me how to read when I was four. She made it fun and we made lots of trips to the library and read to one another every night. After I caught on to the reading thing we went on to numbers, addition and subtraction. My Dad was in the military and wasn’t at home much.
At the end of first grade in a public school, I was promoted to third. My parents hadn’t been able to afford the Catholic school they wanted me to attend, but once I’d skipped a grade, somehow found the means to do so. I avoided the “What is she doing here?” thing by changing schools. I was a tall, skinny, cute little kid and although I was younger than everyone else, I kept up with them.
I didn’t have any trauma in changing schools or grades; my Mom made me feel that this was something I should be proud of.
I went from an all girls’ Catholic high school to UC Berkeley at age sixteen.
That’s a totally different story.
Crap. I miss my Mom.
I skipped 10th grade. It wasn’t a big deal, as I had taken 9th grade math when I was in 8th (my Yeshiva was both an elementary and high school), and 10th grade math and science while in 9th. Most of my class left for better high schools after 8th grade, there were four students in my 9th grade class, and one by one they left during my 9th grade year. I was literally in a class by myself. (I was too lazy to look into other high schools, I guess. I didn’t see any reason not to like where I was.) So I was moved up to the 11th grade the following year.
Socialization wasn’t an issue, we knew the guys in the class ahead of us quite well.
I was homeschooled and my mom wouldn’t let me finish school until the year I turned 18. Said she didn’t think it was a good idea for me to graduate too young. I’m only slightly bitter about that decision as academically I could have been done with high school work at around age 14.
I too could read when I arrived at kindergarten. My teacher told my mother " how wonderful that you took the time to teach her to read at such a young age". My mother replied “what are you talking about?”
Apparently, I taught myself to read!? :eek:
So they kept me in K but then skipped me to 2nd grade. I was a bit of an introvert but did make friends and can’t say I had any long lasting effects.
It’s not that unusual, I taught myself to read prior to kindergarten as well.
I’m also from Houston. I skipped first grade; entered public elementary school (Wilson) in second grade. I’ve never heard of anyone skipping a grade much after 4th or so.
My sister and I both skipped a grade in high school. The year I graduated, two people in addition to me had also skipped a year of high school, if not also a year earlier.
Me too. My mom says that I wanted her to read to me constantly, and because she didn’t have time to read as much as I wanted, I taught myself to do it.
I’m the fifth of seven kids, so I’m sure I also got help from my older sisters. I know that I could spell my sister’s name before my own.
West Virginia. I think it was 1987, doing the math. I skipped 4th grade. It was sort of a long time coming. I started way ahead of my class in the first grade–I had been reading avidly since I was two and a half. During naptime in kindergarten I read my aunt’s children’s literature college textbook (I still have that book, nearly 25 years later, but I digress). Other than math, which I was doing at grade level or even a bit behind, I was ridiculously ahead of schedule and completely bored in school. Halfway through the year, I was suggested to be a student in a pilot program at another school–a class specifically for 1st through 3rd grade gifted students, with a somewhat unstructured and child-directed curriculum, lots of field trips and such. I had two great years where I pretty much did whatever the fuck I wanted, scholastically speaking. Those years were great for me, but not great for building necessary skills. Because I was able to direct so much of my schooling, concepts like homework and busywork were alien to me. My mom chose to put me back in regular school and skip me a grade, rather than move me on to the 4th-6th grade class.
I was always a tall kid and an early bloomer, so feeling physically underdeveloped was never a problem. Socially, however, I was a nightmare. Major sense of entitlement, combined with a complete lack of ability to do any sort of hard or boring work. Combine that with moving to a whole new group of peers that year (and then moving to a new school district the year after that, and another state the year after that…) and there was no chance in hell for me to succeed. School was hell for me from there all the way to about my senior year in high school. I still struggle with my work ethic to this day, although I blame the special class more for that. Skipping a grade ruined my confidence (I was behind in math and never caught up) and my ability to make and maintain friendships. I finally made good, lasting friends in high school.
When I have children, if they are talented, I will encourage that talent at home and teach them that school is where they learn to follow rules and do things that they might not want to do just because it’s what’s going to be expected of them for the rest of their lives. I wish I had learned that lesson early and not been given the opportunity to “coast.”
Three months before my brother finished 5th grade (in 1995), we moved in with my great-grandmother to take care of her. My mom homeschooled him for the remainder of the school year, and in the fall he was put in the 7th grade. He now says he wished he hadn’t skipped ahead, and struggled the first two years of high school… gave up on college after 2 years. I know 3 other people who skipped a grade or more, and none of them graduated from college within the first four post-high school years. If I have kids, I don’t think I’d have them skip any grades if given the option to.