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Mon 21 Feb, 2022 02:29 pm
For those of you considering accelerating your kid in school, I strongly encourage you not to. Parents who try to rush their kids may ultimately end up setting their kids behind. Unfortunately, my S/O and I fell into this very trap and we learned this lesson the hard way. Our son was born in the last week of December in 1998. Our state had a calendar cut-off, which meant we were allowed to send him to Kindergarten in 2003 at 4, which we did, putting him in the graduating class of 2016. Technically, we didn't grade-skip him, but since most states wouldn't have allowed him to start until 2004, we would have had to grade-skip him in order for him to be in the class of 2016. He was fine until he started college at 17. He had a much harder time adjusting to college than his older classmates, and as a result, dropped out after 1 semester. He enrolled at a community college the following fall, where we were hoping he would be able to transfer back to a university after 2 years. Unfortunately, he didn't get great advisement while at community college, and ended up taking 3 years to transfer instead of 2. He's now a 23-year-old senior, set to graduate this spring. However, if we had given him another year before Kindergarten, college would've probably gone smoothly for him and he probably would have graduated last spring. Trying to rush our son caused him to ultimately take longer to graduate from college.
@nancylaxey,
I think you are simplifying the situation a lot. In any given class, some kids are the oldest in the group and some are the youngest. You are saying if only your child was six months older (or maybe even three) he would have had not issues in college. I doubt that. If he was fine through high school, the age difference wasn't his issue. Some kids just aren't ready for college which is a pretty dramatic change in many ways. You can stop beating yourself up about this.
@engineer,
I agree with this. Some kids are ready, some are not. Some know exactly what discipline they want to study, others don't.
@nancylaxey,
I'm sorry about your experience. Mine was the opposite.
@jespah,
I was accepted to college at 16 and did grat job of flunking out my firt year. I was totally unequipped to engage in the work nd the challenge that an lit school offrs. I cord relly high SAT' scores(800's meant something back then). IQ and "bing clssed as "Gifted" means nothing. Maturity takes mny forms. I spent my tim feeling obviously supported by high SAT's and spent lotsa time playing ping pong and poker. Id help mny othr students in thirw ork but i did NOT attent to mine. I took a year off, went to art school, where I oeke an mase it my FUN. I CAME BACK at 17 and ultimatly graduted in chmistry with honors , i got tired of research analytical chemistry and went to grad school with a series of full boat fellowships and went through 3advaced degrees in 3 years and just because I did some fast growing up . I was mor like a young Sheldon (Without being on the spctrum). Skipping grades (or in my case early collge admissions ) Is not just for the smartest.