In the old days I actually saw children left back a grade when they were incapable of meeting the required standards.
Remember that was back when there werent pthe public unions that overrode the good of the children for maximizing teacher pay and minimizing teacher work.
Its more that ‘rigid’ systems of standards are NOT being enforced (including for the education of the teachers themselves).
I had a friend whose youngest was on the young side of the cohort he started first grade in. He struggled, and his parents bit the bullet and decided to have him repeat first grade. After that he was mature for his new cohort - and excelled in schooling and in sports, all the way through school. My friend said it was the best decision he ever made.Remember that was back when there werent the public unions that overrode the good of the children for maximizing teacher pay and minimizing teacher work.So that can be a good choice, if you bite the bullet in first grade and absorb the hit to your child’s morale, forcing him into a change of friends. But why, in principle, must that “failure” occur in the first place? In a one-room schoolhouse, for example, it wouldn’t be as obvious a distinction.
If you ever hear me saying something positive about a teacher’s union, check to see if I have been abducted by aliens who have replaced me with a doppelgänger.