Posted by katilac on 16:32 Sep 16
In Reply to: Why do teachers discourage me from putting my 4-year-old reader into kindergarten??? posted by Breann
I'm sure it works great for some people, but I don't think it serves most children well in the long run.
First, if you are talking about a child who is gifted, not merely a bit accelerated, going ahead one grade will offer little in the way of increased challenge. Go ahead two or more grades, and you wind up with a fairly young child in high school, and all the issues that entails. Dating, puberty, friends and so forth.
Second, it is very hard to determine an accelerated (as opposed to gifted) learner at this age. Skills are all over the place at this age, and it's about as meaningless as when a baby starts to walk. Just because a child is 'ahead' of pre-school work at 4 does not mean they will be capable of working 'ahead' in future years - - fourth grade is a typical time for the workload to really increase, and even an accelerated learner may not have the maturity level to cope with the increased expectations and increased independence that comes at that time. Maybe they WILL be, but you just can't tell.
So I think that skipping grades is of little use to the accelerated learner in the long run, and is better done in later grades if at all. For the gifted learner, moving more quickly through a standard curriculum is of little or no use, imo. They need MORE, not FASTER.
It can be difficult for a school to work with gifted or accelerated learners, and we have all heard some horror stories about that. But I personally had a fairly good experience with staying in my grade, but doing more advanced work, special projects, etc. It wasn't 'great,' as they/we were pretty much making it up as we went along, but it does show that schools and teachers CAN be willing to work with you. If a parent is willing to do much of the legwork and planning for their accelerated learner, schools are often willing to work with you. When my dd was in preschool, the teacher had students working at a variety of levels, not in lockstep.
Schools ARE an institution, though, and they are only going to bend so far. My guess as to why they won't consider admitting your dd? If they do, they will have a line of parents at their door, insisting that their four year old can do the work. Just one more headache for them, and it's easier to just say no.
for what it's worth, I don't think preschool of any kind is needed, for either the average learner or the gifted learner. my dd went and had fun, and we met some great people, but I wouldn't have hesitated to keep her home if we couldn't afford preschool or we didn't find one to suit our needs.