I agree that if the DC is truly gifted, staying or skipping has its rewards and disadvantage.

If however, a bright child (but not off-the-charts gifted) is pushed to skip a grade or start K early, I don't see an advantage. Because the child will be the youngest in the class. Whereas the oldest in class has obvious advantages. They tend to make better grades, better chance in getting into AAP studies. They will get the credit for doing next level grade work.

DC skipped a grade (pre-AAP) and it was absolutely necessary. Still the top of the class, needing more advancement, etc.; I can't imagine how out of step DC would have felt with a cohort and curriculum a year behind.

Other DC, equally smart, did not skip - needed the extra time and social maturity. This worked because this DC is in a school that has mixed-age classes and lots of academic differentiation.

IOW, it depends on your DC. Keep in mind that even if skipping does not produce an ideal result, staying in the current grade might not either. For very discrepant kids, there may not be a perfect solution out there, simply because any institution is designed to meet the needs of larger groups. It's just a risk/reward balance.

Read "A Nation Deceived."

Anonymous wrote:I don't see why this is a big deal, other than it's the norm to segregate by year in public school. Perhaps the rigid age segregation is the very thing that causes the social difficulties.

In contrast, Montessori schools group kids together over a 3 year age span and it doesn't seem to cause such social angst. Perhaps because it's a normal part of the classroom they are just used to it? Maybe the independent work structure of a Montessori classroom forces kids to pay more attention to their own work than that of their peers, so differences are less obvious.

3,4,5 yrs
1st, 2nd, 3rd grade
4th, 5th, 6th grade
7th, 8th, 9th grade

That's out of necessity. .. not enough students. You can make the argument that having entire 12 grades could work too. Like the one-room schools like Little House on the Prairie.

I don't see why this is a big deal, other than it's the norm to segregate by year in public school. Perhaps the rigid age segregation is the very thing that causes the social difficulties.

In contrast, Montessori schools group kids together over a 3 year age span and it doesn't seem to cause such social angst. Perhaps because it's a normal part of the classroom they are just used to it? Maybe the independent work structure of a Montessori classroom forces kids to pay more attention to their own work than that of their peers, so differences are less obvious.

3,4,5 yrs
1st, 2nd, 3rd grade
4th, 5th, 6th grade
7th, 8th, 9th grade