re: how in hell do you repeat 3rd grade
At one time elementary schools were divided by semesters. 2 semesters per grade. i.e., A1 might be the first semester of grade 1 (sept to Jan) and A2 (Feb to June) might be the second semester of grade 1 OR a child could enter A1 in Feb and pick up A2 in Sept. So children could enter school in either Feb or Sept. — they needed to end that so that all grades began in Sept. You can see that the former was very confusing and costly.
At some point (on West Coast in 50’s for me) they wanted to get rid of any semester beginning in Feb and all beginning in Sept So to do this this it was necessary to advance (skip) a child to begin in Sept OR make a child repeat a 1/2 semester (hold back) to get on correct Sept to June track for a grade. It worked and with very little disruption and all classes began in Sept. FYI I skipped last 1/2 of Grade 2 to get on track to begin 3rd grade in Sept. (had to throw that in).
I think I’ve made this far more complicated than it was.
When you’re born in the summer and you’re really bright, it means you’re smarter than the kids around you, but somewhat smaller and less mature. It’s a bad combination and school was not a lot of fun for me.