I think it is true for most education systems that elementary school has to be endured, and if possible, compressed in the shortest possible time, but by middle school, things do have to fall into place - options open up, but expectations have to be met. By high school age, most kids are mature enough to find their niches and profit from what there is on offer in a much wider world that works for them including online and higher education, but between, say, ten and fourteen, you mostly have to make school, and classrooms, work for them. Acceleration in elementary can get you in that place faster, and it is the trade offs in that setting I am looking at now that DS is in third - if I had felt the need for another grade skip between K and second, I might have just looked at getting him through elementary with the least damage.
That this is true for a huge number of kids is just so very sad. There is so much that is wonderful and amazing about learning and discovering and being a little kid.
