Category: 
June 20, 2007
Parents choose to hold their 5 year olds back for an extra year from Kindergarten. I can understand parents holding their children back if they may be a little developmentally delayed or if the child has been ill a lot that year but one mother in the video is holding her son back because of his height! He is in the 10th percentile and she wants him to be closer to the height of his peers when he begins kindergarten. I think this is a silly reason, my daughter is below the 3rd percentile for height and she acts older than a lot of other 15 month olds. I certainly wouldn’t hold her back in anything because of her height.
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Horaayy..there are 9 comment(s) for me so far ;)
Please do not use Keywords for your name.Believe it or not, this is not something that’s new. Height is a factor that is considered when retaining a student. It’s not the only factor, but it’s one of them. They take into consideration of course the academic, the height and maturity. A lot of the “smaller” children are very immature and sometimes need that extra year to catch up.
It’s not always true, but it’s very common.
Maddy is in the 98th percentile for height and weight. I know that this will of course change as she grows. I, personally, would not hold her back if she were smaller.
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There was a kid in Mikaylas kindergarted class (and now in her grade two class) that his mom held him back year because he was smaller than other kids his age. He’s now only a little bit taller than Mikayla (who’s also in the 3rd percentile) but almost a year older.
I did read an article in the newspaper that stated that 20% of children who start Kindergarten when their 4 (if their birthday is before the cut-off) end up failing classes.
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Hmm…I wonder who is it that they interview for those articles. Debbie started school at 4. A few weeks before the cut off date, and she hasn’t failed. On the contrary, she’s a gifted student.
I think these studies are made to put blame on something…on anything, really. Excuses, excuses. That’s what they sound to me.
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Debbie really is very intelligent for her age. I started kindergarten a couple weeks after I turned 5 and both of my little sisters were 4. My brother started at 4 and then was held back for a year but he was really sick that year and in the hospital.
I’m not really sure how accurate that article is as if you look at my brother who was held back and my sister who wasn’t, they are both fairly academically equal. Well my sister would do a lot better if she stopped skipping….right?
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Just to clarify the study was done by the school board of the city I live in so I thinks it is a pretty credible stat; however, we don’t know what other factors may have been included as well …. maybe that 20% would have failed anyways even if they did wait a year. I think it is important to note that it is 20% … 80% are still passing their classes or even exceding their classmates.
I thought it was also interesting to note that something like 70% of children in government care are failing or drop out of high school so that deserves more attention.
As for our brother and sister I don’t know if you can really judege that as they are both better at different subjects, they both skipped school alot and for “our sister” she saidteachers took off marks because she talked back to them which she was wrong but I think its good .. part of going to school is learning how to function in the real world and that includes getting along with people and respecting your elders and those above you (ie. boss).
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which she *thinks* was wrong
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Just wanted to add also that parents should use their best judgement. If their child is still 4 when Kindergarten starts and will be 5 before the end of the year they should decide if they think their child is ready for kindergarten or if they think waiting a year would benefit them.
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I was thinking about the 20% thing last night and I think 20% of kids failing classes sounds like the average anyways. Did they include the stats for children who start when they are 5?
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this was my experience when I was teaching. Note: of course there are exceptions. Boys were usually more immature than girls and did not start really love learning and reading until 51/2 or 6. The girls I taught usually liked to read and learn at 4 1/2. I read at four, and Victoria who is 4 1/2 is starting to read. Jon Jon could care less. He can name all of the Star Wars characters though. My brothers are all smart and doing well now. It evens out eventually. If the child was a younger child, sometimes it took longer, as their elder siblings did all of the thinking for them.
As for the mother who held her son back, she should watch the show on TLC “Little People, Big World”
For children’s abilities I say the sky is the limit. Never limit your child because of some label.
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