oldest or youngest in your grade - how did it impact YOU?

[Anonymous]

I was among the youngest (late Nov. birthday) and it was a non-issue.

[Anonymous]

i was the youngest at an elite private school. i was super smart and had great grades and went to a good college, but man, i was BEHIND socially. i never "got" what was cool, never understood how to fit in, and just didn't have very many friends. my mom always said she wishes she had held me back one year around KG... i actually agree with her.

while the most obvious things were that i drove much later than everyone else and went to college at 17 and couldn't go clubbing until i turned 18, the social aspects were really major, and underestimated by my teachers and counselors, who thought that since my grades were good, that i was ok and appropriate for the grade level.

both my kids are late fall birthdays, so will naturally be on the older side for the grades on mont county.

[Anonymous]

I was the youngest and did well academically (4th in class of 300 or so), athletically (swimming when younger, varsity tennis in HS, didn't play NCAA), and socially. The only time age was an issue was being the last to drive in HS and drink in college.

[Anonymous]

12:13 again: after medical school and residency, i took a year off before starting fellowship (worked, but wasn't in training) and I swear, my mother finally breathed a sigh of relief and said she was so grateful that i'd now be on a more "normal" track and not accelerated...

[Anonymous]

I was the oldest (cut off was December 1 and my bday was in November - I started a year late). Honestly I didn't even know I was the oldest until maybe middle school. It just didn't come up. Academically I did above average and socially I was shy. I think it was my nature and would've been the case no matter when I started.

[Anonymous]

I was one of the oldest. August birthday, September cutoff and my parents decided to keep me home the extra year. If you talk to my mom, she will say it was the best decision she ever made and allowed me to "mature". I didn't seem to have an issue and especially liked being one of the first to drive! Now that I'm older, the downside is I'm "older" than my friends!

[Anonymous]

Another November birthday with no issues. The only parts that stunk were being the last to drive, the last to turn 18 (for nightclubs) and the last to turn 21 to (legally) drink. Now that we're getting up there, I love being the youngest of my school friends

[Anonymous]

I was on the younger side, female, august birthday. Not sure what the cutoff were back then. Academically I don’t think it made too much of a difference. I was socially mature so I think that helped. The only thing I hated about being on the younger side was that while I made the school cutoffs, I didn’t make the cutoff for some other programs like town summer camps and sports. So in summer camp the cutoff was July 31. Which means I was always stuck in the group with kids who were a school year behind me versus in the group with the majority of my friends. Same went for some sports like softball. I have no idea why these things didn’t have the same cutoffs as school or place kids in groups by grade versus age.

[Anonymous]

One of the oldest and lazy. My sibling was the youngest and a superstar. Has greatly impacted my views on the silliness called red-shirting.

[Anonymous]

I was among the youngest and smallest - October birthday and a mid-October cutoff in our system. I always excelled academically with little effort and was a little behind/awkward socially, especially in the preteen years. I don't particularly attribute that awkwardness to being the youngest, but it probably didn't help.

I know the school raised the possibility of me skipping a grade and my parents declined. Probably for the best. Skipping ahead may have accentuated my social immaturity at the time; being held back would have been absurd under the circumstances. The school did for awhile provide me special instructional material; since I was reading at a 3rd-grade level in kindergarten, they just supplied me with books. I continued to excel academically through grad school and caught up on the social stuff really around high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the oldest and lazy. My sibling was the youngest and a superstar. Has greatly impacted my views on the silliness called red-shirting.

I don't think it is silly. I think it is very individual. In our families case - I was held back a year and did very well academically and my sister who was one of the youngest really could've benefited by waiting another year. Of course, I also think that to some degree our personalities were set and I would've done fine going on time and she may still have struggled even if she waited a year. Its really hard to say - and I don't think you can make a generalization either way.

[Anonymous]

I was always the youngest. Started school at 4, learned to read then. Graduated at 17 and started college at 17. Published in an academic journal and graduated college at 21. Started grad school then got doctorate at 26 and purchased my first home then too.

and I was mildly popular. I'm now the VP of a Dc based non-profit and make crazy money after a childhood marred by poverty.

Very similar story to a point...here -- I started college at 16 and graduated at 20, but you seriously have done better than me in life! Wow.

But feel like our motivation was the same, to escape a bad life. Not sure how that impacts oldest/youngest, etc. when you introduce such a huge driving factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the oldest and lazy. My sibling was the youngest and a superstar. Has greatly impacted my views on the silliness called red-shirting.

I don't think it is silly. I think it is very individual. In our families case - I was held back a year and did very well academically and my sister who was one of the youngest really could've benefited by waiting another year. Of course, I also think that to some degree our personalities were set and I would've done fine going on time and she may still have struggled even if she waited a year. Its really hard to say - and I don't think you can make a generalization either way.

Of course it's all anecdotal but I've seen enough anecdotal evidence over the years (including in my own family) to come to the conclusion that red-shirting in all but extreme behavior cases is silly.

[Anonymous]

My brother was the youngest, and it didn't affect him in school (academically, socially, athletically) but when he graduated and moved away, he couldn't legally do a lot of things, like sign a lease. He had a December birthday, but graduated and moved to New England the summer he graduated. My parents had to take care of some 'practical' things for him since he wasn't a real adult until after he had lived up there for 6 months.

[Anonymous]

I was probably one of the originally red-shirted kids almost 30 years ago. Our cutoff was Dec. 1 at the time and I have an early August birthday, so started K when I was 6 and a month old.

I was already a good student, so the extra year just put me that much further ahead of some of my classmates who were still 4 for the first 3 months of the year. I was bored. Every fall my mother would get a call about me reading under my desk with exasperated teachers complaining that they thought I wasn't paying attention. However, when they tried to catch me, I could always answer their questions.

By the time we hit middle school, I thought my classmates were immature and by the time sophomore year of high school rolled around I was over school. My friends were always a grade or 2 above me, it sucked when they all left for collge and I was stuck behind. I didn't date, thought high school boys were a waste of time, and couldn't grasp the obsession with boy bands my peers were gaga over.

Admittedly, I graduated top of my class, went to an Ivy, and from there to a top law school. However, I think it's quite possible that would have happened even if I started on time.