I . . . didn’t speak much English having arrived in America the summer before starting school. Nor had I had any preschool or kindergarten attendance . . . [but] I didn’t start first grade till I was just three months shy of turning 7 . . .Players born in January were the most over-represented among the top hockey players in both countries. As young boys, they would have just missed the selection cut-off for that year and would have had another year to grow before the next selection date.Obviously a boy born the day after the selection date would be virtually a year older when the next selection date came around, compared to a boy born the day before the selection date, even though they were both officially the "same" age, competing for places on the same elite hockey teams.
That kind of difference in age-- at a very young age-- was a big advantage, in terms of size and physical maturity, among boys in a very physical sport. Being tracked into elite hockey teams, early on, allowed that initial advantage to be parlayed into an ever larger advantage of experience and training with elite teams over the years.
[So] I’m an outlier. . . . School studies and its regimen came effortlessly for me while younger kids struggled.
Later, as a teacher myself, I have noticed this outlier effect again and again. Simply put, children start school at too early an age.
A friend's son was just on the wrong side of the "outlier" point, and struggled in first grade. He and his wife bit the bullet and had him repeat First Grade, "falling behind" his "peer group." He said later that it had been a fabulous decision for his son, who subsequently breezed through school and excelled in athletics.It's enough to make you wonder if, in large school districts, there shouldn't be half-year age cohorts instead of the full-year ones which we take for granted. But then, the optimum obviously would be individual instruction/grading which would obviate the need for invidious comparisons between "two pieces of fruit," which are in fact one apple and one orange. A natural strength of parental tutoring, a.k.a. "home schooling" . . .
A less usual case was of the parent who told me that her younger son's teacher noted in conference that her boy, who had been set back in school by having lived in Mexico for awhile, bossed around the younger kids. She said she replied, "He bosses around the older ones, too - he tells his older brother what to do all the time!" LOL!
My two oldest granddaughters, at least, won't have that trouble in reading - the oldest entered school as a reader, and the younger one is reading at age 4. So that's one less thing to worry about.
I was held back in school, and it made all the difference for me.
>>But then, the optimum obviously would be individual instruction/grading which would obviate the need for invidious comparisons between “two pieces of fruit,” which are in fact one apple and one orange. A natural strength of parental tutoring, a.k.a. “home schooling” . . .<<
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
My little one “volunteered” at the school with my me in her big sister’s kindergarten class. The teacher let her have papers that the other kids were doing. She was three and was helping the five year olds.
She also has a March birthday.
We started homeschooling in December of the next year. Both girls went at their own pace. My hubby insisted that the little one “have the same advantage” as the older one and go to Kindergarten. She was 5 1/2 because of her birthday. In class she was “learning” colors and shapes. At home she was doing consonant blends and two digit addition. Needless to say, Kindergarten didn’t last long.
Children need to learn at their own pace. My nephew was born on Oct 29 and was 14 days over the limit to enter Kindergarten with his peers. We fought to get him in. He did just fine.
Homeschooling is the perfect solution.
And thanks for the ping!