Why do so many foreigners and minorities skip their kids?

[Anonymous]

Has anybody mentioned money yet? If so, sorry.

I have noticed among my true friends and mere acquaintances born in other countries that the cost of private preschool and/or daycare is as much a factor as any other in deciding when Jr. enrolls in grade school. It's a frugal-practical thing. The sooner you can stop paying thousands for age-appropriate early childhood development curriculum, the better.

And what's *really* interesting to me is that with one exception, none of these families are struggling with $. They have enough to pay for another year of preschool but they want to stop as early as possible and put Jr. in pk4 (DC) or K (MoCo).

Lastly, I have noticed that the question of the child's maturity, intellect and in one case, mild special needs, just hasn't entered the equations -- at all! It's just: how soon can we get this $ back in our savings? One of my friends (OK, she's Asian) is begging me to help her find a school that will take her JANUARY bday DD as a 4 yr old in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anybody mentioned money yet? If so, sorry.

I have noticed among my true friends and mere acquaintances born in other countries that the cost of private preschool and/or daycare is as much a factor as any other in deciding when Jr. enrolls in grade school. It's a frugal-practical thing. The sooner you can stop paying thousands for age-appropriate early childhood development curriculum, the better.

And what's *really* interesting to me is that with one exception, none of these families are struggling with $. They have enough to pay for another year of preschool but they want to stop as early as possible and put Jr. in pk4 (DC) or K (MoCo).

Lastly, I have noticed that the question of the child's maturity, intellect and in one case, mild special needs, just hasn't entered the equations -- at all! It's just: how soon can we get this $ back in our savings? One of my friends (OK, she's Asian) is begging me to help her find a school that will take her JANUARY bday DD as a 4 yr old in K.

I did mention money earlier in the thread, and I agree with everything you are saying - the families I know who did this are not (apparently) hurting for money. And I really do get it that there are kids who are right around the cut-off, on either side, and I do feel like that merits some consideration, but late October, November, December, January birthdays...come ON. At least in MoCo with the Sep 1 cut-off, that's not even close.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a foreigner and a minority and started first grade at the age of 4. I was always at the top of my class and graduated high school at 16. I do not speak for all foreigners but growing up in my native country, there was more stigma attached to being the oldest in the class than being the youngest. Here in the US, it seems that that the reverse is the case. Parents actually prefer their child being older (6 in Kindergarten). I don't consider my November/December birthday child as skipping a grade because he/she was born in the same year as most of the class and is only considered younger by virtue of an arbitrarily set cut-off date that varies from public to private and from one charter school to the next. Yes. some charter schools in DC still use Dec 31 as a cut off date. In summary, I would prefer that my child be the youngest in the class as opposed to the oldest in the class. If the smartest child in my child's class is only so because he/she is a year or two older than the rest of the class, I don't consider that remarkable.

And this is the reason for my OP. It seems that foreigners don't mind that their kids are skipped. My parents were in the same mentality, skipped my sister two years, she graduated from Churchill at the top of her class. She is in the same place economically as her classmates, yet more frazzled.
BTW, Harvard does not want many 16 year old freshmen.

I am the poster you quoted. Sipping your child two years is not the same thing as having kids born in the same year in a class. If that "skipped" child was in a school with a Dec 31 birthday, you would not consider the child "skipped". I'm not sure what Harvard wants but I'm pretty sure that there are 16 year old freshmen in Harvard. Besides who knows what Harvard will want in 10 years time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a foreigner and a minority and started first grade at the age of 4. I was always at the top of my class and graduated high school at 16. I do not speak for all foreigners but growing up in my native country, there was more stigma attached to being the oldest in the class than being the youngest. Here in the US, it seems that that the reverse is the case. Parents actually prefer their child being older (6 in Kindergarten). I don't consider my November/December birthday child as skipping a grade because he/she was born in the same year as most of the class and is only considered younger by virtue of an arbitrarily set cut-off date that varies from public to private and from one charter school to the next. Yes. some charter schools in DC still use Dec 31 as a cut off date. In summary, I would prefer that my child be the youngest in the class as opposed to the oldest in the class. If the smartest child in my child's class is only so because he/she is a year or two older than the rest of the class, I don't consider that remarkable.

And this is the reason for my OP. It seems that foreigners don't mind that their kids are skipped. My parents were in the same mentality, skipped my sister two years, she graduated from Churchill at the top of her class. She is in the same place economically as her classmates, yet more frazzled.
BTW, Harvard does not want many 16 year old freshmen.

I think with my mom and grandmother that there is a certain pragmatism that is maybe because of economics or from being from a different country. I can imagine telling my mom that I want to be the oldest in my class so I can have a drivers license first. My mom would have looked at me like I was crazy and asked what car did I think I would be driving. Or no that I would be the last of my friends to legally drink. Again, this wouldn't hold up as a reason to remain underchallenged in the classroom.

Yes. I would probably say the same things to my child if my child raised those reasons to me. I think the later they start drinking and the later they start drinking alchohol, the better for us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Besides, no kindergartener is going to be thinking about when they start driving and calculating it (and if they are, I whole-heartedly agree they should be skipping a grade or two). What is so important is being able to socialize appropriately with their peers. I think if you skip grades too early, you deprive kids of that - 4 year olds behave differently to 5 year olds and are interested in different things than 6 year olds.

Socialization involves mixing with kids of varying ages and not just those the same age as you. The Montessori method has been around for ages and involves putting multi age kids in the same classroom. I'm sure all your peers were not born in the same age as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


Besides, no kindergartener is going to be thinking about when they start driving and calculating it (and if they are, I whole-heartedly agree they should be skipping a grade or two). What is so important is being able to socialize appropriately with their peers. I think if you skip grades too early, you deprive kids of that - 4 year olds behave differently to 5 year olds and are interested in different things than 6 year olds.

Sorry. I didn't mean to type in the blue box. Socialization involves mixing with kids of varying ages and not just those the same age as the child. The Montessori method has been around for ages and involves putting multi age kids in the same classroom. I'm sure all your peers were not born in the same age as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Besides, no kindergartener is going to be thinking about when they start driving and calculating it (and if they are, I whole-heartedly agree they should be skipping a grade or two). What is so important is being able to socialize appropriately with their peers. I think if you skip grades too early, you deprive kids of that - 4 year olds behave differently to 5 year olds and are interested in different things than 6 year olds.

Sorry. I didn't mean to type in the blue box. Socialization involves mixing with kids of varying ages and not just those the same age as the child. The Montessori method has been around for ages and involves putting multi age kids in the same classroom. I'm sure all your peers were not born in the same age as you.

Ok, I'll bite. In Montessori, different ages are mixed, so there might be a group with equal numbers of 4, 5, and 6 year olds (correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't sent my kids to Montessori school). However, in a public kindergarten class, most kids will start the year at 5 (assuming Sep 1 cut-off) and turn 6 during the school year or over the following summer. So if one kid starts at 4, that kid will be an outlier, and socialization might be harder. It all depends on the kid, of course, but I would hope that a parent who wants to send their child into a class for which they do not meet the age cut-off takes into consideration whether that particular child is ready, and not just academically.

[Anonymous]

In our school it is not the foreigners or minorities that have their kids start early. The youngest boy who just tuin our DC's class is a wasp. Yes, physically he is smaller but academically he is not behind the kids who are 7 1/2 in first grade.

[Anonymous]

In our school it is not the foreigners or minorities that have their kids start early. The youngest boy who just turned six not long ago in our DC's class is a wasp. Yes, physically he is smaller but academically he is not behind the kids who are 7 1/2 in first grade.