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Holding back my 8th grader
1confusedmom August 28, 2012
My husband is wanting to hold back our son next year. He is a young 8th grader, he turned 13 in June. Grade wise he makes A's and B's but his maturity level is not there. He is also one of the smallest kids in his grade and on all his sports team. My husband also thinks this will help him out in sports, apparrently "late-bloomers" are looked over. Is this enough to hold him back???
sokeeffe September 11, 2012
My son has been in a special eduction environment for dyslexia and lnaguage learning difficulties for 6 years. I have privately funded his schooling because he did not qualify for local services. Therefore I have remianed out of the public mainstream schools and focused only on doing what is best educationally for my son by reading ALOT and working with OT, reading tutors, speech specilaists. I think this is where we want education to go in America, each child should progress but on their own schedule , there should be indiviual differences allowed as we know there is a bell curve for learning and yet we try to put all children into the same grade level. It just does not make any sense. The curriculum that he has been taught my son , especially reading, has always been one grade level lower. We have decided to allow our son to devlop at a slower pace as his brain processes information more slowly. The longer we wait the better and stronger his skills become and his confidence builds. He perservers with homework and projects. I am teaching myself patience and allowing my sons educational strengths to develop when he is ready. The same can be said socially. An extra year will give him more time to develop his inner self and learning style and to be able to advocate for himself when he enters a regular highschool. My son is embarrased about the slower pace , but he is now begining to accept it. He will not be returning to the same school so he knows no one will know he stayed back a year. We need to make judgements based on our knowledge of our children and do what is best for them. In a loving and supportive environment they will be more successful. 80548
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