Cynical Dad is talking about parents who deliberately hold their child back from Kindergarten. As it has been explained to him, parents do it because their child is not mature enough for school and starting later will allow them to be more mature and prepared, some other kids have other issues that prevent it to do right in school as a other mental diseases like autism, but now a days there are plenty of systems and plans to educate kids like this they are even toys like the 9 Best Hand Fidget Spinner Toys | ADD, Smoking, Autism. Several of his commenters state the obvious notion that it is often the parents who are not ready. I had a mother explain it to me differently. She held her child back for a year so that her child would be more emotionally mature, physically more developed and able to be at the top of the class instead of just an average student. Since I know another family that deliberately moved to a school with very low achieving students so that their very average daughter would look superior academically, I am nonplussed to this manipulative parenting. Personally, I am still burnt by Noah’s kindergarten teacher asking that Noah repeat kindergarten after forcing him to use his right hand for half of the year, because “children from underprivileged homes do better if they are held back.” I refused to allow it and Noah has gotten grief at the school ever since. Add to that Tommy’s kindergarten teacher telling me that she’s just a babysitter for kids who don’t belong in school and I have a completely jaded disbelief in the entire public school system. The question is, have you been tested? However, since Amy has already told me twice today that she knows everything, she WILL be starting kindergarten next fall.
I know, my kids know everything, too. (“NO dad, you’re WRONG.”) I want them to be in school so they can see that I was right every now and then.
My now-six year old is repeating kindergarten, and for him it was the right choice. He was the youngest child in his grade last year and repeatedly had outbursts and trouble with the simplest concepts they were trying to cover. I can not imagine him, even now, in first grade, but he is having a much better year in kindergarten, he has matured a lot (ha!) in a year and is enjoying it a lot more.
I think for some kids holding them out of Kindergarten or having them repeat is the right choice. But I don’t think holding them back just so they are far superior to the others is a good choice. Maturity and readiness should be the major focus in the decision and I feel strongly that parents should have the last say in their child’s education. Social status should not be a factor in deciding either.
I skipped kindergarden, graduated at 17, and is now a success story!
But how common is it? As far as I can tell, my girl’s KG class (approx. 20 kids) has maybe one child who started the year as a 6-year-old. I don’t think that gave any particular advantage.
Doug’s birthday was after the cutoff date, so he started school “a year late” and excelled compared to many of his peers so since I was right at the date, I waited a year also and did very well. I can’t say if our superior intellect would have carried us through just as well a year earlier, but I can say that our experience was positive with the extra few months to our advantage.
You guys just need to move to Oak Ridge; better schools.