Held Back A Year

Anybody been held back a year in school? I was held back in Year R. I think it had something to do with my lack of educational development due to Hydrocephalus, but also I am born on August 31st, so the day before the next academic year starts.

Do you think children should be held back a year at all?

Reply 1

Muttly

Not at all - you will be the youngest in your year group and have many advantages because of this. Just work your hardest and focus on what you can achieve to max out your learning to make up for lost ground.

Perhaps your school intensifies academic fact learning for the brighter IQ cohorts at the top of each class irrespective of age? If they focus on specialism teaching for students at this level then you won't lose out either way.

Reply 2

Euapp

What about emotional maturity ?

Reply 3

Muttly

Original post by Euapp

What about emotional maturity ?

What about emotional maturity - what do you think?

Reply 4

Euapp

I think that there is no one answer that fits all. Whilst a child born on the 31st of August or 1st of September may find his place intellectually and emotionally in a class of elder children, another may be able to follow the academic work but find himself marginalised by his/ her classmates due to a lack of maturity. Teachers will pick up on any problem related to the intellectual abilities of a child but if they only have that person for a couple of lessons a week will be unlikely to notice any psychological suffering.
I’m neither against children being kept down or jumping classes, but I think if this is to be beneficial then it should be accompanied by an educational psychologist. Without this, a child who repeats a year will see it as a punishment or the proof of his lack of intelligence and won’t do any better the second time round.Whereas if correctly presented, redoing a year can be a real opportunity to anchor educational principles solidly. Similarly, some children are intellectually and emotionally in advance of their classmates, and whilst for most of these children teachers can adapt the workload in a way that will keep them occupied and in some cases challenged, there are some rare cases where the child is so intelligent that the teacher can not even begin to imagine the thought processes of that child. In these cases the child will just stop making an effort, will see school as a supplice and will most likely pass for the class dunce having completely ceased all participation in the class activities. He/ she may then be asked to re do a year which will only make the problem worse and most likely lead to disciplinary problems. Hence, I believe that any child that is failing in todays school system should undergo a full check up with a qualified neuro paedo psychologist before any decision is made as to jumping or repeating a year. But find the budget…..

Reply 5

JDINCINERATOR

Original post by Muttly

Don't you mean you'll be the oldest in your year group from being the youngest? Of course being born on August 31st made me the youngest in my academic year at the time, but when I got held back, I became the oldest in the year group.

We are speaking 25 years ago by the way, this is by no means a recent occurrence.