Kids skipping grades

Andrewsgal · May 2014

Not my kid. I am watching Americas got talent and this kid skipped like 5 years of school. Instead of being impressed I feel sorry for him. It was the same thing when I saw the family of homeschooled kids that all graduated college at 16. So what says stay at home mom? Is this an awesome accomplishment we should be in awe of or something else?

rosesandpetals · May 2014

I'm not a fan. I do think kids need to be challenged though and if the kid is truly 5 levels ahead in a subject then s/he should probably be pulled from a regular lesson to work with a tutor for that class. 3rd graders and 8th graders usually don't go to school in the same building so you couldn't just put them in the higher level classroom.

How do you start a career at 16? Unless they graduated from a very reputable school and not a CC, I don't see that being beneficial at all. Even then, they would have to go straight into grad school.

spring_time · May 2014

As with most things, it depends on the kid. I feel sorry for a child who has skipped multiple grades because of intelligence. They are not socially on par with their peers. For most kids, I feel that the social aspect of school is equally as important as the academic. A child who has skipped a single grade will probably be fine, I worry about those skipping five grades.

honkytonk_kid · May 2014

Obviously it depends on the kid, but I just can't see a kid being so super mature that they could handle skipping more than one grade. One is probably a stretch for most. I would rather do whatever it took to find a more challenging school/set up that allowed him to stay with his age group.

penguingrrl · May 2014

This is totally kid dependent. DH had a very good friend in college who was 20 at graduation because he was skipped ahead twice. The first time was at 12 when he moved to the US from another country, the second was in HS. In the end he has done remarkably well in his career and has done as well as he ever would have socially. But I also think he was the very rare case for whom it was a good decision.

If any of my kids had that recommended I would push not to unless there was a really significant reason to. I would want them to join older classes for certain subjects, as needed, but to remain with their peer group otherwise. There's a lot more to school at any age than academics and I feel the social aspect is too important to ignore even for a significantly advanced child.

zbeesma86 · May 2014

auroraloo said:

I'm more in favor of grade acceleration by subject. For instance, say a 4th grader excels at math, put him/her in 5th grade math, but leave them in 4th for everything else. Rare is it a child is truly ready in all areas (academic AND social) to accelerate by multiple levels at a time.

Why don't they do this?! This is a great idea & should be used!

goillini823 · May 2014

I had a friend that skipped 3 grades. She was 11 when she started high school. She did well in hs, but ended up taking a year off in college because it just had become to much. Her twin brother dropped out if high school.

fancynewbeesly · May 2014

I seriously loved how my brother's elementary school (private though) did it growing up.

Up until fourth the grades were:

K-1

1-2

2-3

3-4

They were split for difference reasons, but this way the kids that REALLY excelled were challenged enough. Or the ones that needed extra help in a younger grade got it. And each class was a good mix/split--maybe 7 & 6 kids; so it wasn't like the one first grader was singled out.

After 4th, it was accelerated by subject. If you were in 5th grade and amazing in math, you were placed in math class with 6 graders. But you were still with your classmates for other subjects, lunch, recess, etc.

Lindsay9911 · May 2014

I'm not a fan. The times I've seen it done the kids weren't socially mature enough and ended up struggling.

ToastieSimons · May 2014

I didn't skip a grade, but I did graduate very young. So unless you have a kid that is ridiculously smart, like insanely smart, those Harvard kids doing hundred step equations.

Being young is an awkward place to be. I wasn't an adult when I went away to college. I was not emotionally mature enough to be there. I would not want my child graduating high school young and going away to college that young. There is so much to high school, more than just classes and education that kids really should experience.

Keeptruckin · May 2014

My daughter will be in a montessori class that includes grade one to three in the fall, par for the course with montessori. We expressly chose that option versus her skipping a grade. The school board made a suggestion of skipping kindergarten this year and heading into grade one at 5. We refused. She is very social and we still had concerns. She is a unique kid. We almost thought for a bit she was a candidate for Asperger's but she was evaluated to be nowhere on the spectrum. She is just an bright kid with odd interests. She is currently reading at a 9 to 10 year level and has a keen interest in math and science. My husband is a scientist so it makes sense. So she is an ideal candidate for grade skipping we were told, no social issues, very mature and ahead of her peers. We still said no. So I can just imagine a kid who is ahead academically but behind socially would have issues to boot. But then again having a kid super bored in class isn't good either. So I can see either side, but one grade is one thing, 5 is another!

Mrs.Hizzo · May 2014

I think this is tricky, because no matter how smart the kid is or how good they are in any given subject, most schools teach by scaffolding. So it's tough to learn 7th grade math if no one has sat down with the child and made sure they are rock solid on the principles of 5th and 6th grade math, and that doesn't always happen. Everyone assumes the child knows X,Y and Z because he tests so well, but really it might be something he's never seen before. And because he's so smart, he can fake it and compensate up to a point, but he doesn't get the full benefit of the higher level classes because he never got the right foundation.

Keeptruckin · May 2014

Mrs.Hizzo said:

I think this is tricky, because no matter how smart the kid is or how good they are in any given subject, most schools teach by scaffolding. So it's tough to learn 7th grade math if no one has sat down with the child and made sure they are rock solid on the principles of 5th and 6th grade math, and that doesn't always happen. Everyone assumes the child knows X,Y and Z because he tests so well, but really it might be something he's never seen before. And because he's so smart, he can fake it and compensate up to a point, but he doesn't get the full benefit of the higher level classes because he never got the right foundation.

I think this is a great point. When DD started preschool at 3 she seemed to be reading quite well. The teachers pulled me aside and expressed interest in testing her. I said yes, the school gave her some iq tests, etc. what they came back with was she was decoding at a 9 year level. I'd didn't even know what decoding was. After they explained it, I said, well that's great but obviously she doesn't understand what she is memorizing right? So let's just focus on enjoying reading together, etc. she still has a fantastic memory but learning is way more than that. So I totally see what you mean.

bumpuser924057 · May 2014

auroraloo said:

I'm more in favor of grade acceleration by subject. For instance, say a 4th grader excels at math, put him/her in 5th grade math, but leave them in 4th for everything else. Rare is it a child is truly ready in all areas (academic AND social) to accelerate by multiple levels at a time.

I went to a magnet school that did this when I was in sixth grade. I was placed in a ninth grade English class. It was among the worst experiences of my entire educational career. Academic aspects aside, a sixth grader has no business trying to assimilate into a class of ninth graders. Group projects were a disaster. I was failing by the end of the first quarter for the first time in my life, and I got demoted back to a regular sixth grade class. I can see it working if you just move up or down one grade level, but any more than that and it's kind of asking for trouble.

I would not want my kid to skip a grade.

kcisthebombdotcom · May 2014

I feel sad when kids are pushed ahead for the social/emotional piece of life and agree with roras suggestion. Heck, I feel bad for the parents of any gifted child because they will likely live through the same social/sensory issues we have here except people will take them less seriously.

blessed2585 · May 2014

I don't have kids yet, but I used to be a teacher. I think that a child should have an opportunity to work on course work that is more challenging so they aren't bored and disruptive. If they are home schooled I fully believe they should work at their lever. I think making sure they are socialized is very important.

cmrand4 · May 2014

I am against this. When I was teaching 4th grade I had a number of parents pushing to have their kids skip a grade into 6th grade. Their main argument seemed to always be, "My kid can already do long division and reads at a 7th grade level." This, in my view, is a very shallow interpretation of all that kids learn within a given school year. Just because a kid can "do" long division, does not mean that they have a strong conceptual understanding of math. That's just an example of why I'm not for skipping a grade. Social skills, organization skills, responsibility are all learned over time and are major benefits of staying with age appropriate peers. However, enrichment and accelerated course work? Go for it!

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