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Why do so many foreigners and minorities skip their kids?
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Anonymous
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YES, it IS a stereotype. I am both foreign AND a minority.
I have noticed that the parents who are gearing up to put their 4 year old into K fall into the above categories. If you have a smart child, by skipping them, you steal their thunder and they do not shine as much. I know a family who did this with their son who ended up at a top New England university at 16. He had plans to go to med school, and took organic chemistry right in his first semester of his first year (he got out of inorganic chemistry b/c of the AP test). He got a C in that organic chem class, which was a blow to his ego and long story short, no med school. He was in the same chem class as some 20 year olds! Something tells me that things would have been different if he had waited. I think that talented kids need to be judged along with their age mates. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, they should red shirt them like the rest of us. (j/k). Seriously, though, it's just a different side of the same coin -- rushing them through school in an attempt to achieve even more vs. holding them back so that they are a year (or more) older and can easily be at the tops of their class. |
Anonymous
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We are from Europe and Asia, and find your stereotype untrue, even in 100% Asian families who traditionally drive their children rather hard academically.
But it is true that the whole child has to be taken into consideration when skipping or repeating a grade - emotional and academic development are equally important. |
Anonymous
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I have a child who probably could have excelled in K at age 2. He had already surpassed the benchmarks on the report card at that time. But my goal all along has been to keep him with his age mates. In preschool at 3 and 4, yes, he could read well and he could easily do my 2nd grader's math homework, but what he needed to learn at preschool was how to play, and how to get along with his friends, and how to work with others and be a part of a group. He is now in first grade and is doing great. The teachers are happy to provide him with above-level work and to allow him to read whatever he wishes. He is doing great socially and has plenty of friends.
I think when people try to skip their child to a grade level that will meet their needs academically, they deny the child the opportunity to develop the rest of themselves socially and emotionally at their own pace. It is not important to me that my child be accelerated or exalted. It is important to me that he grows into a happy, well-rounded, and well adjusted adult...not just a highly developed brain in a shell of a person. |
Anonymous
You are fortunate to have your DC at a school that accommodates him. When my DD was in K she was bored to tears with K math. When I asked the teacher if she could have 1st or 2nd grade worksheets she looked at me startled and said "then what would she work on next year?". I knew then that it was time to move out. |
Anonymous
Actually I think that's a fair question. The "extra work" or the "work ahead" is usually worksheets or workbooks from what I have seen. Why is that helpful or fun? What happens when critical thinking is needed but your child only knows how to do worksheets and workbooks? The teacher can't teach the child ahead of the class but can only produce work for them to do themselves. Workbooks and worksheets don't encourage critical thinking and in fact some cases no thinking at all. |
Anonymous
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Mcps doesn't allow children to skip grades ahead, how ever they do allow too many kids to start school later.
Op, what county are you in? |
Anonymous
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Maybe it's because they get the fact that if their child is advanced it is likely a good option. The research overwhelming supports this. Maybe because they are from another culture they are not held by the same US biases.
Here is a ton of information on the subject and a good quote.... "It may be concluded ... early admission to school of mentally advanced children who are within a year of the ordinary school-entrance age and who are generally mature is to their advantage.... There are few issues in education on which the evidence ... is so clear and so universally favorable to a particular solution." (Reynolds et al., 1962, p. 16) Nancy M. Robinson and Linda J. Weimer, "Selection of Candidates for Early Admission to Kindergarten and First Grade," Academic Acceleration: Knowing Your Options, CTY Publications & Resources, Johns Hopkins University http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/kindergarten.htm |
Anonymous
Where did you hear that? There was a child in my kids daycare that started K a year early in MCPS last year. |
Anonymous
And which MCPS school was this? A 4 year old can start Kindergarten as long as they were born before Oct 15th and passed the county assessment for EEK. |
Anonymous
It was given as an option at our MCPS elementary school once our child had started there... |
Anonymous
Sweetie, try to avoid quoting stuff from the 1960's |
Anonymous
| Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. |
Anonymous
The article was written in the 90's sweetie....one of the 30 references used for the article was from a study done in the 60's. http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10123.aspx |
Anonymous
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To get back to the original topic for a moment, I've had numerous people seem shocked that I did not skip my DD ahead at school (she has a December birthday). Nearly half her class started K at 4, all but 1 of those (the 1 whose birthday is something like 4 days after the cut-off) are minorities/children of immigrants.
On the flip side, the one child who was "red-shirted" is also a minority. So it's hardly an across the board thing. The sense I got was that by the time children are nearly 5, the parents don't want to have to pay for daycare/preschool anymore, and for those of us who are firmly (or sometimes shakily) middle-class, paying for an extra year can be a burden. |