In this video Audrey French speaks about how she experienced grade skipping. She entered a year ealry in kindergarten and skipped a grade in elementary, so she was two years younger than most of her peers.
I would like to comment this video precisely because it's the opposite of the articles about acceleration and grade skipping that I've been posting so far. I think it's important to not be blinded by our own opinions (in my case, that acceleration is positive) and to listen and judge every fact and story there is. That's why I chose this video.
Audrey talks about feeling insecure being surrounded by older kids, she talks about being bullied and about feeling always alone. This would apparently support the "popular" idea that grade skipping is bad for the kids and that it won't help them socialize.
My opinion about it is the following: She is one case, she is not a study, we cannot know if her personality and other aspects influenced in her being uncomfortable in a class with older kids, we don't know if she was simply forced to skip a grade without looking into other acceleration options... Which is to say, she can maybe be taken as an example of how important it is to choose the correcte type of acceleration for each kid. Maybe she would have been better off with subject acceleration, or with combined classes...
In conclusion, this video shows a personal experiencen with grade skipping, but with it we cannot rule it out as good or bad. So, it's of very high importance to take into account all 18 types of acceleration to choose the best one for each kid with high capacities.
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