A downside to a grade skip may be the willingness of some people to deny accelerated children their earned awards.
One example may be the presidential physical fitness award. This program has been around for decades, a mainstay of gym classes, and was recently revamped. In both the old program and the new version, scoring performance tables are provided BY AGE.
I'm aware of children who exceeded published AGE criteria and were looking forward to award day with great anticipation to receive their earned awards, subsequently feeling stung when they were not acknowledged/awarded along with their friends and classmates. Upon exercising great composure in self-advocacy, being told that the school chose to acknowledge/award only those students exceeding the standards for average age for the grade level. This favored red-shirted kids, was fair for grade-level kids, and was punitive for accelerated kids. At least one child was told that since the school assembly and ceremony had passed, it was a moot point and therefore the student was being perceived as petty for inquiring.
Parents may wish to be prepared to obtain their child/ren's scores and advocate for them to receive their legitimately earned awards. Parents may also choose to expose those who strive to "shame" a child into silence.
