I think that Jewel brings up some valid points. However, IMO most of them seem to point more towards homeschooling as a solution rather than keeping a kid in a grade where they are not challenged at all. Most of those issues would still be issues for a kid in the 5th% with his same age peers. I just don't see how not skipping is going to address bullying, sexting, popular culture etc.
I agree that you are going to run into these issues eventually even when your child is with same-age peers. However, as the parent of one middle school child and another on the verge of middle school, on the one hand and actually running into this both with a ds and a dd - it really can be more complicated to sort through and deal with when there is an age difference among peers - both for boys and for girls, both for the students themselves and for the parent parenting them through it all
I agree that it's unlikely that a parent is going to research all the many middle-school people and situations that Jewel listed in her post and also feel quite honestly that the world (including the actual school situations, and especially the world of technology) changes so quickly that what is relevant now at one specific middle school among one specific group of kids will be likely very different 4-6 years from now when a child who is currently headed into K-1 is moving to middle school. However, I really like her list as a list of all the things a parent should think about and work out for themselves re will I be comfortable with this situation for my child if he/she is skipped.
I also tend to think that a one-year skip for a kid who only really needs a one-year academic skip isn't all that big of a worry - we've had quite an age range in most of my kids' classes over the years simply due to birthdays and kids transferring in from other school districts and parents who hold kids back to give them extra time to mature before starting kindergarten. The age difference seems, just to me, to be more of an issue for a child who needs more than 1 grade level skip - and in that case, I haven't really seen that conventional schools (at least where we're at) offer a good solution anyway, so by the time your child is in middle school you'll most likely be looking at alternatives.
polarbear
