Why grade-skipping should be back in fashion

CLASS STRUGGLE
by Jay Mathews
Washington Post

As the second month of school nears, some parents wonder if their children are getting all that they need. The lessons seem too simple. Their kids are bored. If they have been designated gifted, there may be occasional pull-out lessons to enrich what they are learning, but that may not be enough.

I have seen no data to confirm this, but it seems to me that schools rarely consider skipping those students ahead anymore. I have talked to Washington area administrators about this. They are uncomfortable with the approach. They think students who are above grade level learn better--with some extras thrown in--if they stick with kids their age.

A generation or two ago the attitude was different. I run into far more people my age who skipped a grade than I meet friends of my children who did the same thing. My wife skipped second grade in the early 1950s. Her parents had nothing to do with it. Six weeks into the school year in California, after attending a hard-charging school in Kansas, her teacher said, “You can already do this stuff. This is a waste.” She was suddenly a third grader.

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