One Skip Forward, One Skip Back

John Scalzi asked for experiences and insights related to the practice of skipping kids ahead a year. Okay, here's mine:

I started kindergarten at Manlius Elementary in 1962,on a half-day, morning only schedule. My mom was working out of town - I think this was just before she got the encephalitis - so it wasn't terribly convenient that I was home in the afternoon. Halfway through the year, my folks transferred me to Pebble Hill School in Dewitt. The kindergarten there was a full day program. I was already reading a little bit, and as a psychologist who did testing professionally, my mom had already tested my IQ. She consulted with the principal, and they put me into first grade. At the same time, they gave me the option of going to kindergarten at Pebble Hill instead if first grade didn't work out.

I think I lasted one day in first grade that year, but it may have been as much as a week. The class was reading words with silent letters, like "knock." I got scared, because I didn't know about silent k. I was afraid the rest of the class knew more than I did. I think I went to see the principal, and soon I was in kindergarten. Even the kindergarten was more advanced than the one at Manlius Elementary. I liked it.

The next year I was back at Manlius Elementary. Mom approached the principal there, Mrs. Clayton, about putting me in second grade. Mrs. Clayton said she didn't believe in skipping kids ahead, and that was that. I went into Mrs. Livingston's class, and suffered through Getting Ready to Read, long after I was reading. I already wrote about that, but the point here is that I was ill-served by that part of the curriculum, both academically and socially. If Mrs. Livingstone and I had communicated better, or if she had given me a real book to read instead (as a teacher in the same situation did for my friend Evelyn), it would have been better.

Overall, though, I have no regrets about staying with my age group rather than skipping ahead.  I had my chance.

Karen

P.S. In high school, I spent a day sampling classes at Manlius Pebble Hill School. Pebble Hill by then had merged with The Manlius School, a former military academy. Mom and I thoughtthat if I got a fresh start at a different school, I could shed all the years of awkward social interaction at F-M, and get along with kids who didn't know I'd played a skunk in a second grade play. But the kids, while friendly, thought I was crazy to want to go to school there. They all wanted to go to public school. Moreoever, I found myself explaining about being unpopular at F-M. I soon realized I was poisoning the well against myself, and bringing my social problems with me. No.  That wasn't going to work. I was back at F-M the next day.