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Editorial: To skip, or not to skip, that is the question
Illustration by Joy ShapleyPublished: Monday, December 22, 2008 - 11:01am
SEVEN YEARS. THAT'S the age difference between the youngest and oldest students at Uni. That’s a big age gap for a “five-year high school.” All of the students at Uni are intellectually capable, and certainly book-smart enough. But does that necessarily mean we are socially mature enough to handle a high school environment?
One of Uni’s unique characteristics is that some students may skip a grade, entering Uni from the sixth grade. As a result, every grade level can have an age gap of almost three years. While it's true that ages differences between grades can sometimes be no more than a month or two, a year of schooling can still make a huge difference in a student's development. Are students who skip a grade expected to grow up too fast? What negative impact does this have on the student and the Uni community as a whole?
You can’t deny that social maturity impacts a student's well-being and academic performance. An important part of education is social growth. It’s one thing to be able to solve quadratic equations and fill in bubbles on a standardized test, but it’s an entirely different matter to know how to interact both professionally and socially with adults and peers.
Because of Uni’s academic rigor, students need to know how to cope with stress and ask for help. Uni also requires a certain level of maturity because it allows an unusual amount of freedom. Because Uni has an open campus with the University of Illinois, students need to have the ability to coexist with the rest of the university. This year alone we’ve seen the Siebel Center closed to us due to rowdy behavior, and in years past Uni students have been banned from the Grainger Engineering Library. While a certain amount of wildness can be expected in any teenager, it’s important for students to understand that our freedoms come with responsibilities.
While academics are important, relationships and dating are a key aspect of holistic education and social development, especially in high school. At most high schools, students usually, but not always, date within their grade level. This is most likely because students within the same grade level usually are around the same age and therefore have relatively similar maturity levels.
At Uni, students still generally date within their grade levels, but that's almost despite rather than because of the age factor. Just within the senior class, there are students who just turned 16 and students who have been 18 for almost six months. Society recognizes that age levels of development go hand in hand. There are reasons that you can’t drive until you’re 16 and that you become a legal adult, able to make your own decisions, at the age of 18.
While an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old may be in the same class, both applying to college and preparing to leave home at the same time, does that mean they could have a healthy relationship? At the same time, students are inherently discouraged from dating students in other grades, even if they may be the same age. There may be 16-year-olds in both the senior class and the sophomore class, but they hardly ever seek out relationships with each other.
Then consider sports. Compared to many of the athletes they compete against, Uni students are younger, and therefore often shorter and less developed. This may be an advantage for female runners, but it hurts most of Uni's other sports. Size and strength aren’t always the determining factors of a good athlete, but they certainly help. Uni's athletic programs could be even better if students were at the same developmental stages as their competitors at other schools.
No student is going to lose anything by not skipping a year, by completing seventh grade in a regular middle school. If anything, you’ll be even smarter and more prepared. Once you’re at Uni, you’ll be on the same track to success as you would have been a year earlier, and you won’t be forced to grow up any faster.
Older students at Uni are expected to accommodate younger students. In many ways, we feel that older students are being held back in terms of maturity by the impact of the younger students on the school environment. It seems as if Uni has fallen into a middle ground. Older students are prevented from fully maturing while younger students are expected to grow up too quickly. This isn’t good for the students or the school itself.
Uni parents often have a reputation for being "pushy," for pressuring their children to get perfect grades and test scores and to eventually get into top-ranked colleges. Based on our own observations, parents of students who skipped a grade tend to be the ones who most fit this description. This kind of pressure is not good for the student's learning and development; this adds to the burden of being forced to grow up too quickly in a rigorous high school environment.
School policy is also affected by the age gap. Take, for example, Uni dances. Because of the presence of so many young students, grinding, the usual preferred way of dancing at most other schools, is not allowed. Students can't leave the dance early without permission from mommy or daddy. That makes perfect sense for an 11-year-old subfreshman, but not for an 18-year-old senior. If you’re allowed to drive home after the dance without permission, why do you need permission to drive home early?
Uni is primarily preparation for college and for successful future careers. With students graduating at the age of 16 or 17, where does this leave them? If they go on to college the next fall, which most of them do, what kind of college life are they going to have, at least for freshman year? They may be academically prepared, but there's a lot more to college than academics.
We’re not saying that all sixth graders are not ready for high school. We think that some are and some aren’t, and there needs to be some way to measure how ready a student is for a high school environment, specifically one as unique as Uni’s. Our suggestion is that future subfreshman classes be composed of almost entirely true eighth graders, with a few exceptions. Any student wishing to apply as a sixth grader should go through a more in-depth application process, including an interview with Uni students and faculty for the most qualified candidates.
Incoming Uni students need to be able to communicate with adults and peers alike in order to thrive in any learning environment, which is a skill that can’t be demonstrated on paper, especially not on a simple standardized test. The interviews wouldn’t be about finding out which students can give the most intelligent answers, but how they communicate and interact.
Assistant Director Sue Kovacs has many years of firsthand experience in dealing with Uni student behavior.
"I feel that the average sixth grader at the age of 10 or 11 is probably academically very able to come in and compete, but maturity-wise, they have not achieved nearly what a seventh grader has," Kovacs observed. "Most sixth graders, after five years of elementary school, are loosely developed. They're little. They need the next year, too. Then there are other kids who are able to walk in and be perfectly fine."
Not only does the admittance of a lot of sixth graders into the subfreshman class create an unusual environment for a high school, it also takes away spots that could be given to seventh graders who won't have another chance to apply as subfreshmen. Being more selective with the younger students could allow more qualified candidates to be admitted.
An interview process could help determine who is most ready for Uni. As the norm, subfreshmen would enter Uni after their seventh-grade year, except for the select few sixth graders who could demonstrate their readiness to the satisfaction of the interview panel. Just these few changes to Uni's admissions process would, we believe, not only maximize individual students' potential for success, but they would also have a positive impact on the entire Uni community.
EDITORS NOTE: Of the editors who wrote this editorial, two of the editors did not skip, and the third editor did skip. These editors are all united in the opinions expressed in this editorial.
Comments
I think that if you are
I think that if you are going to do a more "in-depth" application process it should be done for everybody, not just the sixth graders. Also I am a kid that skipped so I think that if you made it composed entirely with "true eighth graders" I may not have made it in or next year may not have wanted to go because of friends or some other factor. Some of the students who feel it as a "unusual environment" may too themselves have skipped a grade or some of their best friends at school may have. They just may not like subbies even though they were like that once. So what if it was more difficult for sixth graders would these students not have gotten in or what about their best friends they would have never met them. Would this also discourage very talented students from attending this school? It may be perfect for somebody, but because they hear of this application process, they don't think it is worth their time. Then the next year they want to stay at their old school. I think that your proposal was meant for good but would be less effective then it sounds.
They're all valid
They're all valid considerations, but they're all speculation. I think that people would adapt to any new admissions process, and these wouldn't be issues.
So many misconceptions, so little time
1) Grinding is not a sign of maturity, it's a sign of (a) weak dancing skill, and/or (b) focus on sexual bonding (as opposed to emotional bonding--for example due to lack of face-to-face contact and conversation during grinding). Parents and teachers are uncomfortable with it because they have learned that emotional relationships are the important and hard ones, and grinding encourages students to focus on physical/sexual relationships instead of emotional ones. That grinding trains this behavior in very young students is just as troubling as that it doesn't help older students unlearn these unhealthy (not immoral) relationship patterns. Parents in other schools aren't as involved as at Uni (a BAD thing), and the standards of student behavior are not as high. That's why grinding is a bigger issue at Uni than at most other schools.
2) Uni students of all ages tend to lack emotional maturity, due to their strong academic focus and hard-won self-righteousness. But the variance of maturity level among people of the same age seems to me to be much larger than the variance among ages. I challenge you to find a strong correlation between emotional maturity and age within a grade level, sophomore or higher, at Uni.
3) Interacting productively with people that have different emotional, intellectual, and social maturity levels is a critical skill. Uni students learn that skill mostly during the subfreshman and freshman years, as students begin to normalize their maturity curves. Other schools don't teach it at all, instead indirectly encouraging students to haze those less mature. Is that what you're hoping Uni will emulate?
Hi Peter,
Hi Peter,
Thanks for taking the time to respond to this editorial.
1. We were never trying to indicate that grinding was a sign of maturity. Rather, it is an example of age sensitive behavior. It is undeniable that certain activity, grinding for example, is not age-appropriate for younger kids, much in the same way that PG-13 movies are not appropriate for younger kids. Also, I'd be careful about trying to define grinding so narrowly. Grinding is the rotation of one's hips while dancing. This has been applied to what is now referred to as "grinding," where there is pelvic to pelvic contact between two dancers. Grinding often include eye contact (i.e. of both dance partners are facing each other), and doesn't have to be of a sexual (stimulating) nature. Regardless, the fact is, at other schools grinding is a moral consideration, whereas at Uni, grinding is an age-appropriateness consideration as well. And finally, is it possible that grinding is a health expression of sexuality. More healthy, per se, than actual sexual activity, where there are risks involved?
2. Maturity will always vary by age, and this is proven by the wide ranging maturity of adults. But society legally recognizes that age and development go hand in hand and for a reason— biological and environmental changes occur with aging that impact a person's overall maturity. Also, I would caution you against attributing lack of emotional maturity with "academic focus and hard-won self-righteousness." Do you have an evidence that suggests this?
3. I'm not sure how you extrapolated to get that we are promoting hazing. The premise of this article is that generally allowing students to skip grades at that stage in development places the emphasis on purely academic development rather than social and holistic development. We explore the negative consequences of this for the individual students that skip as well as Uni as a whole.
I really just think that if
I really just think that if you are going to interview people, you should have some Uni kids interviewing people too. Parents and the administration know a lot from experience, I won't deny that, but the students are the ones in the thick of things. As someone who is in the middle of the age ranges at Uni, I can understand more of the issues that are adressed in this article. I may not be an upperclassmen yet, but I can still understand their annoyance when we all find out that we have been banned from somewhere like Siebel or the elevator because of some rowdy subbies or freshman. I think that older students should talk to the students entering Uni to let them know what they are getting into and what is expected of them maturity-wise.
This was the idea suggested
This was the idea suggested in the article.
"Any student wishing to apply as a sixth grader should go through a more in-depth application process, including an interview with Uni students and faculty for the most qualified candidates."
Nice article. Personally I
Nice article. Personally I like Uni's current policy of each incoming class being a half and half mix between sixth graders and seventh graders. I bet that within each class, if you just look at how each student performs behaviorally and academically, you wouldn't be able to tell who skipped a grade and who didn't.
I skipped a grade when I came to Uni and I don't feel that I would be any more prepared had I come a year later.
I am no student
"No student is going to lose anything by not skipping a year, by completing seventh grade in a regular middle school."
Speaking as someone who started Uni after a year of sixth grade at Edison, a school which I would describe with the use of a scale from "minimum security prison" to "intellectual cesspool" depending on how generous I'm feeling, I would like to take a moment to argue that the excerpt above represents a position far too simplistic. Another year spent at my preeminently Regular middle school would have retarded the development of my independent thinking, and if anything original or profound had defied the odds and popped up in my mind, I would have learned to keep it to myself. I would not know the people I do now, and when I graduated, I would have had at least one less year (probably more, given my nutritive habits before Doug's and Merf's influence) of life as a responsible, cognitive, self-respecting person. In short, I would have lost several things of great value to me.
To my knowledge, I'm the youngest (April 92) male among the seniors. Is there any statistical method of affirming that from objective data about my behavior and academic performance? Yes, I'm shy, but that's not a function of age; in any case, if I had spent another year at Edison, I would be shyer and more reclusive still.
This has all been a somewhat roundabout way of saying that I appreciate Uni more than I can express, and of voicing my concern about the vague resentment of our school's failure to be "regular" that this article and others in years past have evoked. Normalcy is not much in the way of an ideal, and maturity doesn't just happen over time, it has to be actively encouraged.
Respectfully (even though it probably didn't sound like it),
Andrew.
Hey Andrew,
Hey Andrew,
I definitely understand the concerns you expressed. Had I skipped a year, I would have been one of the youngest people in that class (July 91). I too attended a quite pathetic middle school: Franklin.
I certainly don't resent Uni at all for not being regular. Our point of writing the editorial was to question the usefulness of having students skip a grade. We feel that if it was generally accepted that the admissions process at Uni began from the 7th grade, with a few exceptions, Uni would have the same applicants and the same people admitted, just delayed one year for some. We also do understand that certain applicants truly are ready or need to move more quickly. These applicants, such as yourself, would be offered a chance to prove this through an interview.
For clarification I want to point out that unlike the editors in the previous editorial you referenced, we do not believe that Uni students are socially inept or unprepared for college. We just believe that developmentally, it would be beneficial for most students to not skip a grade. We also think this could have positive benefits for the Uni enviornment as a whole.
Also, the interviews would not be to judge who is the most gregarious, "regular," or who gives the most intelligent answers. The interviews would be intended to discern which students appear ready for a high school enviornment.
Lizzy, Lauren, and I understand this is a very difficult issue. Also, bear in mind that Lizzy did skip, and Lauren and I didn't, but we all share the opinions expressed in the editorial.
i was born may 92 bro! i
i was born may 92 bro! i still didnt skip a year though.
To begin, I am currently a
To begin, I am currently a teacher at Uni and a parent of a Uni graduate. I’ve been teaching at Uni for the past twenty-five years. The age discrepancy issue and questions regarding it have been around for many, many years. I’ve also chaired or been on the admissions committee approximately seven times, and we always deal with the age/grade level issue in our decision making. There is no easy answer regarding optimal age stratification of incoming students. Oh yeah, and I adore all three of the authors of this article.
The clear assumption at the start (and end) of the article is that the older kids have greater maturity and the best choice would be for the school to move toward classes largely made up of older students. I think the situation is more complex than was presented in the article.
I'll start by addressing many of the points brought up in the order they are presented.
Statement 1: Are students who skip a grade expected to grow up too fast? What negative impact does this have on the student and the Uni community as a whole?
Response 1: I think a small proportion of our younger students (6th grade admits) are more likely to be diagnosed early in their careers with ADHD or learning disabilities, and have more significant organizational issues than their older counterparts. They tend to improve academically over their Uni High career. On the flip side, an equally small proportion of their older counterparts (7th grade and high school admits) are more likely to be brought up at grade level meetings regarding motivational or interpersonal issues. Those motivational and interpersonal issues often continue and become more pronounced over time.
Statement 2: It’s one thing to be able to solve quadratic equations and fill in bubbles on a standardized test, but it’s an entirely different matter to know how to interact both professionally and socially with adults and peers.
Response 2: The professors on campus who hire students of mine to work during the summer report better reliability and work performance from those who’ve skipped a grade, and are more likely to hire those students again than their older counterparts.
Statement 3: While an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old may be in the same class, both applying to college and preparing to leave home at the same time, does that mean they could have a healthy relationship?
Response 3: I think the fact that Uni is so small and because kids are together for so many years that dating is almost incestuous. Hard to answer that one...
Statement 4: Uni's athletic programs could be even better if students were at the same developmental stages as their competitors at other schools.
Response 4: Agreed, though if one looks at the dropout rate in sports as kids progress through the years as they become more deeply involved in fewer activities, is it possible that we’d have even lower participation in sports at the higher levels with a consistently older class? Part of the beauty of Uni is high the participation rate in such a wide array of activities. The PE folks, who run a SUPERB program, are certainly better able to answer that than I am.
Statement 5: No student is going to lose anything by not skipping a year, by completing seventh grade in a regular middle school. If anything, you’ll be even smarter and more prepared.
Response 5: Or will you have an additional full year of lowered expectation, development of poor study habits and exposure to negative influences? I can give you a pretty good opinion regarding what is the case for kids growing up north of Urbana who attend Urbana Middle School…
Statement 6: Older students are prevented from fully maturing while younger students are expected to grow up too quickly.
Response 6: Upon what do you base this statement?
Statement 7: Uni parents often have a reputation for being "pushy," for pressuring their children to get perfect grades and test scores and to eventually get into top-ranked colleges. Based on our own observations, parents of students who skipped a grade tend to be the ones who most fit this description.
Response 7: This statement may be more cultural (even within ethnicity) than age based. Kids from recent immigrant families tend to come in with a greater focus on academics, while others who have been in the country for a longer period of time are more likely to focus on students being well rounded. This is a pretty clear observation made by students for the entire time I’ve been at Uni.
Statement 8: Because of the presence of so many young students, grinding, the usual preferred way of dancing at most other schools, is not allowed.
Response 8: I think we all know better than that. ‘Nuf said there. Maybe I'll change my view when students present a grinding demonstration to the families at the Orientation Picnic. That was pretty clever, wasn't it :) ? And when did we start doing things because other high schools do them? Very un-Uni...
Statement 9: If you’re allowed to drive home after the dance without permission, why do you need permission to drive home early?
Response 9.1: Liability, a school that is part of a university that has specific expectations regarding supervision of minors. We follow university guidelines.
Response 9.2: The assumption by your parents is that you are at a school function and are under supervision. You can leave the school grounds before the end of the activity, but the university and Uni want your parents to know when you are no longer under school supervision. Liability and your safety are key here. No one has died due to school negligence because a student was thought to be under school supervision when they were actually elsewhere. That wasn't the case a few years before I started at Uni.
Statement 10: With students graduating at the age of 16 or 17, where does this leave them?
Response 10: With a whole myriad of choices and opportunities... Rotary Youth Exchange, volunteering in various parts of the U.S., working for a year. All are now available fairly inexpensively. Seven students from the class of 2008 are currently involved in gap year opportunities. You’ll be much richer for the experience, better able to make important choices, and more easily put things into perspective than your classmates who didn’t take part in these gap year opportunities.
Statement 11: Our suggestion is that future subfreshman classes be composed of almost entirely true eighth graders, with a few exceptions.
Response 11: Peer group in any situation is highly correlated with success. This seems to be a step backward in increasing likelihood of the most positive opportunity for the younger kids.
Statement 12: Not only does the admittance of a lot of sixth graders into the subfreshman class create an unusual environment for a high school, it also takes away spots that could be given to seventh graders who won't have another chance to apply as subfreshmen.
Response 12: The current system allows students to apply twice for a slot at Uni as well as apply for high school slots. Students can always apply as freshmen or sophomores or juniors.
Statement 13: Being more selective with the younger students could allow more qualified candidates to be admitted.
Response 13: I think this statement would be more accurately re-worded as, ”Being more selective with the younger students would allow a larger number of less qualified OLDER candidates to be admitted.” I don't think this is to the school's advantage.
Nicely done article, everybody! Excellent food for thought regarding an issue without an easy solution. It is this type of conversation that really makes me proud to be a part of Uni.
Mr. Stone
Different Perspective
Honestly, I did not take the time to read this article in depth, but I wanted to offer my perspective as a 16 year-old graduate of one of the Champaign public high schools since my case is fairly unique. Freshman year, I was officially the youngest student both in my class and my school. I transitioned from a 7th/8th grade class (I was in 7th) of approximately 8 students (20 total in 5th-8th) to a 9th grade class of 300+ (1500+ total in 9th-12th), from a private all-girls school that sends the majority of its graduates to Uni. Without considering the input of my parents, I made the decision to skip. Considering my options at the time and my current state, I have had no regrets about my decision.
After 7th grade, I could have:
1. Stayed at my middle school and repeated the same curriculum (one pitfall of being in a combined class)
2. Gone to Uni. After visiting the school, I decided it was not a proper fit for me. I appreciate the many merits of Uni High, but I found it foolish to attend a school for four years if I didn't mesh with the environment. I promise I won't turn my argument into a diatribe against Uni nor a recommendation for public high schools.
3. Attended a public middle school solely for 8th grade. Anybody who has attended a Champaign public middle school (particularly Jefferson) can understand why I didn't choose that option.
4. Skipped
On the first day freshman year, I was intimidated by the school's significantly older student body and its layout, which was analogous to a labyrinth. However, after a week, I started to enjoy myself. I made new friends while maintaining old friendships, I excelled in my classes, and never I looked back. I challenged myself without compromising anything. During my high school years, few people knew I was younger. I never gave my age any thought after making my decision, except when I wanted to make excuses for myself, excuses that I quickly rebutted.
Certainly, I would not advise just anybody to skip. It is imperative that students who skip are mature if they wish to flourish. Fundamentally, students who skip must be socially mature. Secondly, they must be the ones to make the decision. Lastly, they must be able to handle the workload and maintain their competitive status in a class of significantly older students.
After graduating last year, I'm currently taking transitional (or "gap") year. I spent the summer relaxing and the fall traveling abroad while simultaneously completing volunteer hours and an internship. In the winter, I applied to colleges. I plan on spending the spring raising money for college and writing a book. I also hope to continue to grow as a person and become secure in my future plans. Most of these opportunities would have been impossible had I not skipped.
Concerning what I read of this article, I think the article's main fault is its generalities. The choice to skip or not should be made according to the development of the person. There are 18 -year-old graduates with the maturity of a five-year-old and there are 16-year-old graduates with the maturity of someone twice their age. Eighteen is, by no means, the cutoff age for childhood nor is it the guaranteed age for intellectual or social maturity. Adolescents develop at all different ages.
Certainly not all parents of children who skipped are overly protective, pushy, or restrictive. My parents were supportive of my decision without treating me any different than if I hadn't skipped. The majority of parents just want what is best for their child. Sometimes a non-conventional education is best. I really have no clue how this age gap effects Uni students, but I assume they have an easier time than I did being that they are the minority instead of the exception. Based on my experiences, the only non-successful students I know who have skipped are those that did not give skipping enough consideration. Conversely, the majority of students I know who have skipped are more mature and stable than their older counterparts. This is probably due to the fact that they had to work slightly harder not to fall behind.
As a future Journalism major, I want to randomly mention my amazement at the quality of the Gargoyle as a whole, its articles, and the mature debates that take place within its comments section.
I agree with Mr. Stone in
I agree with Mr. Stone in that the skipping situation tends to be more complicated than is shown in this article, and the projected solution is an intriguing idea but essentially flawed.
I'd especially like to highlight that a 7th grade year can be worse than going to Uni early. This is definitely what I thought when applying: Mahomet schools left me socially starved and educationally bored, not the ideal situation for a fragile 11-year old. For this reason, I can't fully regret leaving Mahomet at that point. However, not having my liscence until Senior year and graduating at the age of 16 are two aspects I'm not looking forward to, and reflecting on Subbie year, I was unfortunately particularly immature.
So faced with these observations, I would propose, not a weeding out of younger students, but an enforcement of the awareness that there IS a down-side to skipping a year.
The idea that skipping is
The idea that skipping is sometimes also the best idea socially is defiantly true. I moved here from Pittsburgh after my sixth year, and if I had started at Urbana Middle School I would have had a much harder time making friends. Because I came into this school at the same time everyone else in my grade did, I was able to focus more on studies (Not that subfreshmen year was hard or anything...).
I'm a Uni parent
I agree that skipping does create some problems. However, both Mr. Stone and Andrew presented excellent reasons to keep grade skipping as an option.
I don't think interviews should be introduced into the admissions process. That will only discourage shy students from applying. I can't remember if there were questions on the teacher reference forms about maturity and behavior, but maybe these issues can be addressed more directly in the forms that teachers are asked to fill out. The admissions committee already takes some care to consider this issue, but maybe it should be given even more emphasis. I would like to add that it's not always the youngest students who are the most immature!
The real problem is simply that the local middle schools are so terrible. If so many kids didn't feel the need to escape, then skipping would be rare. Ideally, I would prefer that the subbie year be discontinued, and the class size for grades 9-12 increased. There are too many qualified students who are not accepted. But as long as so many bright students are miserable in middle school, the subbie year should remain and skipping should be an option.
Another perspective
My congratulations to the Gargoyle editorial staff for tackling another complex issue.
But I think it is important that we all realize that the issues of skipping are hardly new. "Skipping," or ending up a year ahead of one's peers in school, has been going on for decades, and is not inherently the problem. In fact, being a year older than everyone else can also be an issue.
The problems arise not with age, but with social maturity, etc., as others have noted.
My father is over 70 years of age. When he was 5, they were just starting kindergarten in the Chicago suburbs, but it was optional. His mother was given the choice of letting him go to kindergarten or first grade. She elected to send him to first grade. He graduated from high school a few months after he turned 17. College at barely 21.
My husband started school at the typical age, but completed high school in 3 years. He turned 17 a month after completing HS, and turned 21 after college graduation.
I, on the other hand was traditionally aged. I turned 18 in the middle of my senior year of high school, 22 my senior year of college.
While it is admittedly anecdotal, I would be hard-pressed to say that our relative ages were the determinants of our readiness for school, and our success in those environments. I believe our life experiences and personalities were far more relevant. In fact, my husband, who was 18 months younger as a college student than I was, was far more ready for college than I was, in many ways.
And we considered all these things when our son applied and was accepted into UNI. He applied as a 6th grader, and made it in. He is the 3rd or 4th youngest in his class. But most people do not realize that, and never have. He has always been bigger than most, and more calm and mature than many. He will not turn 17 until the August after he graduates from UNI.
Our daughter is a 6th grader, and is working on her application.
UNI offers unique opportunities. For our son, it offered an academic challenge, and the chance to be among peers with whom he had more in common. He has more friends at UNI than he did at his old schools, because they have so much more in common. For our daughter, if she makes it in, we hope she will have the opportunity to be a part of a school where being an intelligent female is not a liability socially, and a place were her musical abilities and interests can be nurtured.
The issue of being "dispositionally suited" for an academic program is one we also face at the college level. I have students at my school that I wonder how they made it out of Jr. High. Compared to most UNI students.....well, there IS no comparison, in some cases. Age is no guarantee of maturity or the skills needed to thrive in an academically rigorous environment, let alone the world. But "disposition" is very difficult to judge without regular, frequent contact with an individual, which is virtually impossible to do in an application process.
Is this an issue UNI needs to monitor? Absolutely! And they already do, refining the process each year. But the issue is NOT age, so much as it is disposition.
by the way,
joy, love the illustration.
Not necessarily anything new
Dear All,
A well-done article. I appreciate writing with passion. As my colleague Mr. Stone has noted, though, you have made some rather broad generalities and have not necessarily done all your homework.
Academic research rather overwhelmingly supports skipping for academic reasons as more beneficial than remaining for social/maturity reasons. Check the academic research, not just your personal opinion/observation.
The grinding issue is not ignored in "public" schools. Again, do some research. Much of the issue at Uni, I would note, had less to do with the Subbies than with the fact no faculty wanted to chaperon dances with grinding. No chaperons = no dance, right?
Jason He -- for whom I have infinite respect -- is wrong when he suggests the admission is split 50/50 by grade level. It is split 50/50 by gender. And having been on the committee, I can verify that much thought goes into the maturity level of the student. Any indication on teacher recs to the contrary is an immediate and important red flag. Interviews, which have been discussed recently, bring up multiple issues with the name-blind admission process, an important -- and often overlooked -- part of the admission process.
I must also speak to the tendency of the article (and the upperclassmen at Uni) to blame any problem (Siebel, for example) on the Subbies. Yes, I teach them all and am quite fond of them. Yes, no one knows better than I they can be squirrelly. No, not all the problems at Uni fall at their feet. I have seen plenty of rude behavior on the elevator and at Siebel from " upperclassmen." Keep them out of the lounge, but don't make them the scapegoats of Uni. Neither age nor experience equals maturity, as far too many adults illustrate.
I love Uni. I love teaching ALL the Uni students, from Subbies to Seniors. Take out part of the mix and you change the entire environment. I sincerely believe the Subbie year provides an important element to Uni.
Well done, editors. I love to see this level of response. What else would you want from something you wrote? Thanks for engaging so many of us -- in and out of Uni.
S. Rayburn
I know Uni isn’t seen to
I know Uni isn’t seen to be a social school but I think skipping a grade can really hurt future social skills. I didn’t skip, and while my two years at Franklin may not have been the most academically challenging they opened me up to numerous cultures and issues, and I had a lot of fun. Writing college essays I built on the experiences I had in seventh grade, and yes maybe I was exposed to “negative influences” but it was a real world situation. I see Uni as basically its own population, a sheltered academic one at that, and I know many kids who have little real world knowledge, or basic common sense. Unless these kids attend some small, Uni-like college they are going to experience these so called “negative influences” someday. I think interviews should be in place for all kids applying because no matter how smart you are if you can’t communicate your ideas effectively with other people you won’t have a very good chance at success later in life.
Demanding social skills from
Demanding social skills from 11 year olds is not exactly reasonable. Most people remember their social experiences from high school more than their calculus final or their history paper. Shouldn't one goal of any high school, including Uni, be to *help* students develop socially? If Uni turns down a student who is lacking in so-called common sense, that child will surely face more trouble in public high schools. Why should Uni discriminate against people based on their ability to communicate? Communication can be taught just as well as any other subject; its as if you're suggesting to exclude all applicants who score low on math exams.
It might also help to
It might also help to remember that almost all Skippies are 12 years old, not 11 :)
I just wanted to give my
I just wanted to give my perspective on this, since my situation is not entirely normal either.
I was born a week or so after the deadline date that separates whether a child will go into school in one year or the next. I was admitted into preschool with the students that should have been in the year ahead of me, however.
Then, my family had to get permission from the principal of the school I went to for kindergarten and 1st grade to let me in with the earlier year, else I'd have to either repeat preschool or do nothing for a year.
In the end, I was admitted with the kids typically a year or two older than me.
For 2nd grade, I went to a new school - and the first school I'd been to that classified as a public school.
Boy, what a nasty wake-up call by the world.
Bullies set in immediately, since I was the insecure little girl who was:
1. Younger than everyone else.
2. Very shy (both because most people had been at that school for 1st grade too, and also because that was just my personality).
3. Sure of her opinions of right/wrong. (Case in point: while still in grade school, some girls tried to get me to steal something. I refused. So they bullied me.)
I stayed in that school until middle school, though. And of course, then it got worse. "Friends" back-stabbed me in ways I would never have imagined. When I was injured for a period of time, people tripped me into lockers and down stairs, and threw things at me. One took my backpack and ran with it, dropping it further down the hallway so I had to run and get it.
Yep, this is what happens in our town, in our school districts.
It has greatly affected my ability to socialize with people and form relationships with them.
So I transfered to Uni. I was not a skipper, which I am actually very grateful for, even though 7th grade was the worst year of the bullying, because I have always been one of the three most-young students in my class, before the skippies at Uni. I'm still younger than many of the skippies!
The school has emotionally and academically helped me, since I am no longer bullied for doing my homework, but I am very glad I did not skip. Looking back, even though middle school was the worst part of my short life, I was not ready for high school.
I am aware some may be. I just wanted to share my situation.
A Subbie's Story
us subbies even have a hard time finding out who is a skippie or not.
only 4 subbies came as 11 year olds, including myself.
to stay at Urbana Middle School would have probably been bad because i wasnt ever challenged, and not fun at all comapred to Uni.
some people started out life too mature (okay just really mature for their age) and over time got more immature to fit with their age group. totally irrelevent: to be the child of a teenage parent sucks. you are raised by your other family or babysitter until your parents graduate. then most likely your parents will split up. or you could just be put up for adoption.
Uni, already, has helped me learn about my family. for example i didnt know anything about my great grandma except she was from the Philippines and loved getting me fat. now i know she survived WW2 with scars, the korean war, has/is spending her entire life without loving her husband, immigrated with 3 screaming babies and a war husband, and learned how to live without a simple life and maids all around the house.
i dont think i am being forced to grow up too quickly, im just starting to get into good habits. before i thought: "homework? yeah right" "i dont need to study" "i'll let the other students answer questions and ask teachers questions while i eavesdrop".
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