1. Want to be a Positive Parent? : Click Here
    Dismiss Notice

Can You Please Suggest And Help Me To Take The Decision

Discussion in 'Schoolgoers & Teens' started by VijayaRaghu, Oct 19, 2017.

  1. VijayaRaghu

    VijayaRaghu Silver IL'ite

    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    55
    Trophy Points:
    58
    Gender:
    Female
    My daughter is in fully magnet school and she is 3rd grader. Today we attended parent –teacher conference. Then we came to know (unofficially) from her teacher that , she is selected to be in 4th grade class due to high volume of students in current class. She said, they selected highly performing kids. Along with my daughter 3 other kids are selected to move to 4th grade. Now I am not sure is it a good news or a bad news?


    Me and my husband are discussing about it, but not sure whether to let her go to 4th grade class or keep her in 3rd grade. Yet to get a call from school on this to discuss about more. Before I discuss with them I want to hear from you. Please pass on your suggestions/ comments.

    Thanks!
    -Vijaya
     
    Loading...

  2. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,513
    Likes Received:
    30,285
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Female
    It is a good news, irrespective of what you finally decide. The school considers her qualified to skip a grade.

    Coming to the things to consider when deciding:
    - school is placing these kids in 4th grade due to high volume of kids in 3rd grade, not because these kids are being unchallenged in 3rd grade.
    - it is happening now, quite a few weeks into the school year. Kid has already formed friendships and is established in the classroom.
    - magnet school means academic curriculum is already advanced.
    - kid has not expressed that she is bored in the class.

    My choice would be to thank the school for the opportunity but have child continue in 3rd grade. There is no real advantage if she moves to 4th grade now. There is no "bragging" rights kind of thing. The curriculum in a magnet school can get challenging in 5th and 6th grades. At that time, being the youngest in class can be a disadvantage. Not just understanding the math, science, language content, but overall interacting with kids who are a year or more older than her. And there is the social aspect -- friendships among girls in elementary school and middle school is a complicated business. There are at least 2-3 heartbreaks that happen over trivial things, to do with cliques and all. Dealing with these at a younger age than others involved can be tough.

    Looking further ahead into high school -- the disadvantage of being the youngest in a class gets more pronounced. 11th and 12th grades are quite stressful years. Being younger than needed simply adds to the stress. And even further on, going off to college happens a year earlier.

    There is no advantage that I can see if child is not saying she is bored. But, if she is to skip a grade, then now is the time. Doing it later would be harder.
     
  3. justanothergirl

    justanothergirl IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    3,915
    Likes Received:
    7,188
    Trophy Points:
    408
    Gender:
    Female
    Agree with @Rihana . High performance in elementary schools given the kind of pace in most KG-5th grade schools and the kind of families they all come from is very deceptive .
    After tracking few kids who were pushed into higher grades all the way to college our school district has now decided to completely abandon it. Being the youngest in a class esp high school has its share of issues.
    What we now have instead when we have high volume of kids in a particular grade is combo classes for kids who are fairly independent and work well in a team. Each kid is taught his/her own curriculum but they are put in a class with others . Works out ok for kids with the right teacher.
     
    VijayaRaghu, sindmani and sokanasanah like this.
  4. VijayaRaghu

    VijayaRaghu Silver IL'ite

    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    55
    Trophy Points:
    58
    Gender:
    Female
    Thank you @Rihana and @justanothergirl. I am also leaning towards retaining her in 3rd grade. We informally asked her. She said: if it's on first day of school I won't mind, but now am not ready. I totally see the point what you both are saying. So we are ready to talk to school with our decision.

    As always thank you, you ladies are awesome from pulling me out of confusion.
     

Share This Page