And I am a december baby — truly one of the youngest in my class — and I graduated with honors. That’s still not the point. Of course at some point age evens out. A 70 year old and a 70 1/2 year old are not developmentally different. But at young ages, such as 5,6,7, development happens at such a rapid pace that there is a huge difference between a seven year old and a just 6 year old. It is unfair that we lump them together and tell them both that we expect them to equally succeed. It’s not only about academics. It’s also what we expect of them socially. The older kids in the class are often the ones more self confident in social play while the younger ones are more easily intimidated. It’s rare that you’d find a youngest in the class truly bullying the older kids. Younger boys may want to still climb on the jungle gym while the older ones have already moved on to playing ball. It’s developmentally appropriate for the younger boy to still want to climb and slide, but he’ll be teased as a baby for it. Similarly, younger girls may still want to play house during recess but the older ones are on to jump rope. The house players are deemed “babies”. Grouping kids by age allows kids the freedom to act their age and be accepted for it. That does wonderful things for their self confidence and, therefore, their ultimate success.
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