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We tend to underestimate younger kids. A bright 8th grader can do the second year of algebra better than an average high school student. I wish we could figure out how to divide kids into age groups that make better since than the “grades” in schools. For instance, the artifical but convenient thing of setting a date for first graders at say, September 1. The kid. who turns 6 on August 31 is seated next to the turned 6 on September 1st the previous years. The crazy egalitarianism that makes 12th graders abide by the exact same rules as a 9th grader. Schools become procrustean beds. Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until he was 10, Years ago, the Danish schools did not expect students to be up to speed in reading until they were about 8. Our schools get panicked if their child is not reading when he finishes kindergarten. What defeats so many education theories is the simply fact is that kids all grow at different speeds: physically, emotionally, intellectually, morally—even kids in the same family. Set fertlized eggs in a carton in a warmer, and then watch them hatch. Even allowing for the uncertainties of the date of fertilization, note the wide range of hatching dates.