I suppose I am the odd man out. I have a late birthday, October, and was always youngest in my class. Though it sometimes made things tougher, it made me tougher. I developed tenacity and competitiveness by making it a personal mission to beat the kids that were in some cases a full year older.
Second, to hell with grades. There is a time for grades but elementary school is not it. Is your son grasping the information? There is a huge difference between learning ability and work ethic, and grades alone at this age do not equip parents with enough information to differentiate between the two. If your son knows the material but is lazy with homework and doesn’t try on tests, then he probably isn’t being challenged enough. He is probably much smarter than anyone is giving him credit for. However, if he is struggling to keep up and requires a lot of extra help just to get by, then perhaps holding him back is a consideration...but so is busting out some extra effort and working hard to achieve something that isn’t easy.
Unless the child is truly struggling to keep up, is having a hard time grasping the information, and just isn’t in the right spot developmentally, I do not advocate gaming the system and holding them back just for a temporary benefit of being dominant due to age. That evaporates immediately upon high school graduation, where the diligence and confidence built from having to fight and work harder will benefit the individual for a lifetime.
Second, to hell with grades. There is a time for grades but elementary school is not it. Is your son grasping the information? There is a huge difference between learning ability and work ethic, and grades alone at this age do not equip parents with enough information to differentiate between the two. If your son knows the material but is lazy with homework and doesn’t try on tests, then he probably isn’t being challenged enough. He is probably much smarter than anyone is giving him credit for. However, if he is struggling to keep up and requires a lot of extra help just to get by, then perhaps holding him back is a consideration...but so is busting out some extra effort and working hard to achieve something that isn’t easy.
Unless the child is truly struggling to keep up, is having a hard time grasping the information, and just isn’t in the right spot developmentally, I do not advocate gaming the system and holding them back just for a temporary benefit of being dominant due to age. That evaporates immediately upon high school graduation, where the diligence and confidence built from having to fight and work harder will benefit the individual for a lifetime.
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