[ColoradoTree]

I wonder how long the list of students is that (1) repeated eighth grade, but then (2) graduated from a highly-regarded high school in just three years.  

Due to his apparent academic abilities, I assume holding him back in 8th grade was to give him a better chance in sports, which I find distasteful.  We're not talking about the decision about when to start your child in kindergarten (my younger son is an August birthday, so we're leaning towards holding him back for maturity and developmental reasons, and so he'd graduate from high school at 18 rather than 17, not because we want to get a leg up on his high school sports career).  We're not talking about a kid who had a learning disability and could have benefited from another year in middle school before starting high school.  We're talking about taking a kid who presumably did perfectly well in eighth grade and was age-appropriate for his level (he is apparently a February birthday, so will graduate at 18, even though it's a year early), and deciding for athletic reasons that you want to hit pause on starting high school.  That feels gross to me.  

I mean.  It worked for them, I suppose.  But it feels wrong.  If he'd never repeated 8th grade, we'd be here in likely the same situation--the kid graduating this year after three years as a starting QB and heading to SC.  Not sure what the manipulation accomplished the kid here. (Was playing 8th grade football for a second year really better for his development than heading a year early to Mater Dei and sitting behind the starter?  It's basically the same choice now, and he argues that he thought Darnold was coming back, so his decision to reclassify and sign early was premised on the assumption that he'd be sitting for at least a year at SC.  Now he's arguing that going a year early to SC and sitting behind Sam would have been better for him than another year of high school football, but he/they made the opposite choice four years ago.)

[ColoradoTree]

I wonder how long the list of students is that (1) repeated eighth grade, but then (2) graduated from a highly-regarded high school in just three years.  

Due to his apparent academic abilities, I assume holding him back in 8th grade was to give him a better chance in sports, which I find distasteful.  We're not talking about the decision about when to start your child in kindergarten (my younger son is an August birthday, so we're leaning towards holding him back for maturity and developmental reasons, and so he'd graduate from high school at 18 rather than 17, not because we want to get a leg up on his high school sports career).  We're not talking about a kid who had a learning disability and could have benefited from another year in middle school before starting high school.  We're talking about taking a kid who presumably did perfectly well in eighth grade and was age-appropriate for his level (he is apparently a February birthday, so will graduate at 18, even though it's a year early), and deciding for athletic reasons that you want to hit pause on starting high school.  That feels gross to me.  

I mean.  It worked for them, I suppose.  But it feels wrong.  If he'd never repeated 8th grade, we'd be here in likely the same situation--the kid graduating this year after three years as a starting QB and heading to SC.  Not sure what the manipulation accomplished the kid here. (Was playing 8th grade football for a second year really better for his development than heading a year early to Mater Dei and sitting behind the starter?  It's basically the same choice now, and he argues that he thought Darnold was coming back, so his decision to reclassify and sign early was premised on the assumption that he'd be sitting for at least a year at SC.  Now he's arguing that going a year early to SC and sitting behind Sam would have been better for him than another year of high school football, but he/they made the opposite choice four years ago.)