OP - He won’t be with much younger children if he repeats 8th grade — he has a late September birthday and is actually younger than some 7th graders. Think of all the summer birthday boys whose parents decided to wait a year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to people who want your kid to fail because they are perpetually in competition with everyone. You only get one shot at high school and no do overs. Set him up for success and give him the time he needs.

This take is insane. Being held back is the real failure, even if you are part of the rich set who switch to private school where half the boys do it and call it by the euphemism "reclassing." These schools do not have a good culture and new problems will crop up as you attempt to correct one very minor problem.

He's being held back. They never should have let a boy start kindergarten at 4. That's insane. He's being allowed to catch up to his actually peers.

If he's held back, he's not with his peers as that new grade level is much younger.

No, he's not. I have an early September birthday kid and our private school wouldn't let her start K at 4. September birthdays are the oldest kids in the class in 95% of the country. If she holds him back he will be with his peers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to people who want your kid to fail because they are perpetually in competition with everyone. You only get one shot at high school and no do overs. Set him up for success and give him the time he needs.

This take is insane. Being held back is the real failure, even if you are part of the rich set who switch to private school where half the boys do it and call it by the euphemism "reclassing." These schools do not have a good culture and new problems will crop up as you attempt to correct one very minor problem.

He's being held back. They never should have let a boy start kindergarten at 4. That's insane. He's being allowed to catch up to his actually peers.

If he's held back, he's not with his peers as that new grade level is much younger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop playing games with numbers over a few weeks. September birthday means 14 year old freshman and 18yr old in college. Lots of kids in this situation.

Losing a whole year of education is a far worse problem.

No kid wants to be a 17 year old freshman.

I'm pretty sure actual 17 year olds feel differently.

^not being held back^

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to people who want your kid to fail because they are perpetually in competition with everyone. You only get one shot at high school and no do overs. Set him up for success and give him the time he needs.

This take is insane. Being held back is the real failure, even if you are part of the rich set who switch to private school where half the boys do it and call it by the euphemism "reclassing." These schools do not have a good culture and new problems will crop up as you attempt to correct one very minor problem.

He's being held back. They never should have let a boy start kindergarten at 4. That's insane. He's being allowed to catch up to his actually peers.

Anonymous wrote:OP - he’s not an elite athlete but he does care a lot about his sport. Another thing that’s messing with my head is that he’ll be 17 as a college freshman. Now that it’s getting closer it feels like the wrong move to send him off to college when he’s still a child.

I am also a late September birthday and turned 17 as a freshman and did fine. If he seems unready for college as a senior, have him take a gap year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop playing games with numbers over a few weeks. September birthday means 14 year old freshman and 18yr old in college. Lots of kids in this situation.

Losing a whole year of education is a far worse problem.

No kid wants to be a 17 year old freshman.

Both myself and my sister didn't turn 18 until November of our freshman years of college. It was a complete non-issue. I was also the only freshman who lived on my floor in the dorm so I was extra younger than everyone else and again, it was not a problem at all.

This isn't a thing much anymore as birthday cutoffs have moved earlier than Dec 31 now. Times have changed.

+1 most of the country follows a september cutoff for grades k-12.

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to people who want your kid to fail because they are perpetually in competition with everyone. You only get one shot at high school and no do overs. Set him up for success and give him the time he needs.

This take is insane. Being held back is the real failure, even if you are part of the rich set who switch to private school where half the boys do it and call it by the euphemism "reclassing." These schools do not have a good culture and new problems will crop up as you attempt to correct one very minor problem.

Anonymous wrote:The largest public school system(over a million student), NYC, has a birthday cut off of December 31st. Lots of freshman coming out of that system will enter college at 17.

They are a small fraction of the college population and an even smaller group of them have those end of calendar year birthdays. It's rare to be a 17yr old freshman.

The largest public school system(over a million student), NYC, has a birthday cut off of December 31st. Lots of freshman coming out of that system will enter college at 17.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop playing games with numbers over a few weeks. September birthday means 14 year old freshman and 18yr old in college. Lots of kids in this situation.

Losing a whole year of education is a far worse problem.

No kid wants to be a 17 year old freshman.

Both myself and my sister didn't turn 18 until November of our freshman years of college. It was a complete non-issue. I was also the only freshman who lived on my floor in the dorm so I was extra younger than everyone else and again, it was not a problem at all.

This isn't a thing much anymore as birthday cutoffs have moved earlier than Dec 31 now. Times have changed.

Agree. It’s super rare to be a 17 yo freshman NOW.

I wanted to do this for my middle schooler who isn’t even a summer child, his birthday is in May. He was dead against it though. I would have done it in a heartbeat otherwise. 9th grade was fairly challenging (he has executive function deficits though undiagnosed).
If you end up not retaining him, my advice is don’t put him into higher level classes in 9th. Honors bio was the bane of our existence last year. Now he is in regular chem and doing well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop playing games with numbers over a few weeks. September birthday means 14 year old freshman and 18yr old in college. Lots of kids in this situation.

Losing a whole year of education is a far worse problem.

No kid wants to be a 17 year old freshman.

Both myself and my sister didn't turn 18 until November of our freshman years of college. It was a complete non-issue. I was also the only freshman who lived on my floor in the dorm so I was extra younger than everyone else and again, it was not a problem at all.

This isn't a thing much anymore as birthday cutoffs have moved earlier than Dec 31 now. Times have changed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop playing games with numbers over a few weeks. September birthday means 14 year old freshman and 18yr old in college. Lots of kids in this situation.

Losing a whole year of education is a far worse problem.

No kid wants to be a 17 year old freshman.

Both myself and my sister didn't turn 18 until November of our freshman years of college. It was a complete non-issue. I was also the only freshman who lived on my floor in the dorm so I was extra younger than everyone else and again, it was not a problem at all.