I have been hoping my DS6 would have a grade skip next year (in Oz, the new year starts end of Jan). It looks like it could be possible except for some apparent "social issues". When I enquired about the exact issues, I was told my son has a lack of empathy; my son doesn't empathise with the struggles of his classmates that he is supposed to help!! A couple of the older kids have trouble with maths, so his teacher asks my boy to help them. He starts to help but gets frustrated (you know, his lack of a teaching degree makes it hard to teach) and doesn't want to help them anymore. This is an apparent lack of empathy.
There have only been three kids who have grade skipped in the past five years, and these kids have been advanced socially, as well as academically. My son has been hanging out with one boy because he has no friends and my son feels bad for him. I feel that that is empathetic. My son finds his age peers annoying, but has still managed to make many friends. But, my son does prefer older friends- and this is bad.
I'm wondering if the school is nitpicking to find an excuse. Admittedly, the school is considering the skip without any test results (purely based upon his teacher's reports), and they will actually pay for testing next term (!). I imagine they know my son will pass, so they probably want to have an excuse in place. No question, really. Just wanted to vent!
