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Also many private schools (as in all of them in my area). The prevalent strong sentiment against acceleration is striking and confusing. Perhaps the administrators are thinking (maybe rightly so) if I say yes to this child's parents, all the rest will want their children to accelerate, too! Parents are not always reasonable (present company excepted, of course!).

By the way, another point for discussion with school administrations is the importance of a good work ethic in any pupil. Failure to accelerate where a challenge is not presented by the age-group curriculum positively degrades this ethic, and, in doing so, works at cross-purpose to the pupil's long-term development.

Fitzi - YES! I'm spending the summer working on DS's work ethic. he has no stamina for anything which takes longer than 5min and requires the tiniest bit of effort on his part.

This is key feature of my one-on-one work with DS these days, too. It's tricky finding that limited space within which they can be pushed (or led) without being driven. Children are mysteries, in the best sense.

Hello all...

I'll take the plunge in this thread... For those who do not know me, I've posted an introduction in the general discussions forum.

About acceleration "positives" and "negatives", I do not have a synthetic article to submit on acceleration, so unfortunately I don't think it's something which you can use, but in my country:

- the % of students with one grade skip or more entering an average university is around 5%

- the % of students with one grade skip or more entering the more selective part of the system (which probably serves some 5-10% of the population) is 15%

- I could not find again the % of students with one grade skip or more entering the most selective University, but, if I remember well, it must be around one third.

As for social issues... I think that, if we were a little less strongly set against acceleration, it would be much less of a social issue. In the old times (in my parents' times, around the sixties), in my country, 20% of kids or so were grade skipped... When I was in school, two grade skips were exceptionnal, but one skip was "normal enough", with, in my environment, some 10% of kids who had skipped a grade... Nowadays, it is much more uncommon, with, in many places, something like 1 grade skipped kid every two classes... and then, it becomes more of an issue to have been skipped, because of the environments' prejudice rather than because of the grade skip per se.
Ah, by the way, my parents' generation is well-adjusted enough, despite the high percentage of skips!

Light

Keep in mind that in our case it was a private school that did not get it. Public school was actually right on the ball, maybe even too much as it now turns out...

Re: Scouts... I mentioned this in another thread, but wanted to clarify here. The CUB Scouts do have age minimums for each grade, but individual packs may allow a younger boy to register just under the wire. It's always ok to be a bit older too. They are tied very closely to school grade though, and the vast majority of kids tend to be within 18 months of eachother in a level.

The BOY Scouts are a separate organization. Kids progress at their own pace, and are promoted based on merit. One reason I like my son's new troop is that there's a 15 year old working toward his eagle rank. Some troops will try to hold kids back, but this one allows the boy to go as fast as he wishes, as long as he meets all requirements. A hard working 14 year old just completed training to be a camp counselor next summer- he'll get paid, earn leadership credit, and have fun, all before he can get a "real" job or drive a car!