If a kid funks a grade, should he redo the grade or be advanced?

MACKTEXAS said:
There's no kindergarten requirement in Texas. The year a child becomes age 6 by September 1st, is the year they are required to start school, which, at that age, would generally be 1st grade, and continuing education is mandatory from there on until graduation, or age 19, whichever comes first. My daughter left Texas before age 19 without completing school, and sometime after that got a GED.
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By that Texas measure, I started 1st Grade in Cupertino California at age 5.8. California now has a similar September 1 starting date with options. Thus was 4.8 when I started kindergarten and throughout following grades, was always the youngest person in every grade, a significant disadvantage because I was also the smallest male. At that time individual districts decided when kids would start and Cupertino was one of the few earliest. There were neighborhood friends a bit older than me that were in the grade below mine. I, an oldest child without others to talk to, had social and speech problems so didn't catch up with others mentally until the 4th Grade, and by the 6th Grade was put in with advanced students.

In California since 2022, those born between September 1 and December 1 have the option to not start in normal kindergarten but rather a special transitional class mainly to become socially experienced. The next year they enter normal Kindergarten. I would have been far better socially off had I not been put into classes with older kids. 200,000 4 year olds in California are now in that program.

As for the passing those kids who fail grades instead of holding them back, many have issues @Warrigal mentioned while others have disruptive social and attitude issues that at times reflects poor home life and parentage. A web search shows a long list of recommendations on helping such students. I expect not many are helped so maybe due to resource issues, especially in smaller rural areas. Authorities may have more success if such kids were put into regimented schools with dress codes etc that would provide motivation to escape that situation.
 
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Trade said:
When I was in High school we had two guys in our graduating class that were 20 years old because they had had to repeat a couple of grades which was the practice back then. I think the way it worked backed then was after being held back twice you just got socially promoted after that. That way you didn't have 35 year old High School students. They were both still dumber than a bag of hammers but I suppose they would have been worse if they had been socially promoted all along.
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When I started Junior high school(middle sch.) at age 12 there was a guy in our homeroom named Rico Sanchez. He was 16, not excelling academically, but he was a fantastic artist / cartoonist. He drew all sorts of "Rat Fink" automotive cartoons of the day, plus anything else really.
 
I started first grade nearly six months early so I was always the youngest person in my class. Academically I did just fine but all of my male classmates were older and bigger which created problems for me competing in athletics. When I was a senior in High School, I needed a PE class to graduate so I took one with Sophomore boys. Finally I was older than my peers and found out that I really wasn't the klutz I always imagined myself to be.
 

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