It seldom occurs anymore that a child repeats a grade and this is unfortunate. In an effort to protect the student from embarrassment, damage to his self-esteem or other supposed psychological injury, he is pushed ahead though he has not mastered the material from the previous grade.
What happens next year? The skills at each grade level are incremental, that is, they are built on the knowledge acquired the previous year. If, through some misguided concern for the student's psychological health, he is placed in a situation where he must cope with learning material for which he lacks the proper basic knowledge, he is being sentenced to a year of frustration, difficulty and perhaps failing marks.
No one has done him a favor by pushing him on. On the contrary, he is liable to end up with such a dislike of school and the educational process that he will become an early drop-out and be sentenced to a lifetime of minimum-wage employment, when, in reality, he is capable of doing much more.
Had he been allowed to repeat and catch up, he may have won scholarships, proceeded to pursue higher education and ended up in a professional career.
These are not children with severe disabilities, with limited learning potential or with other impediments which would prevent them from acquiring a high school diploma. These are children with normal or higher learning ability who have encountered circumstances which made it impossible for them to have a successful academic year.
Sometimes a child will suffer a lengthy illness which keeps him from classes for a significant part of the school year. If the parents are not comfortable with home-schooling, and the school board has no arrangements for in-home tutoring, the child would benefit from repeating the year.
If a family member has had a severe illness, or if there has been the death of a close relative, the child has been upset, worried, grieving, and somehow too emotionally involved with the situation at home to be able to pay proper attention to his studies. He should repeat the grade.
If the home has been in turmoil because of the separation or divorce of the parents, if the child has had to adjust to a shared-custody arrangement, and been shuttled from one residence to another, he has probably missed a significant portion of the year's work. This child, too, would benefit from another chance to master the curriculum material.
Believe it or not, repeating a grade has some positive aspects. Much of the material will be familiar, and it will "a cinch" for the student. He may be the brightest student in the class.
He will be older and more mature than his classmates. He can become a role model and leader, someone they come to for advice and direction. He may develop leadership qualities that were not evident before.
Because he is older and more reliable than the others, the teacher will depend on him to do more little jobs around the classroom and the school. When he realizes that he is trusted more than his classmates, it will do wonders for his self-image. He will become more responsible and self-confident as the year progresses.
Most children have logical minds and can be reasoned with. When it is explained to them why they are being held back, and the long term benefits which will result from this course of action, they will accept the situation, although maybe not too happily at first.
Unfortunately, this scenario is seldom seem anymore in the academic world. Children who miss a year, for whatever reason, are pushed ahead to sink or swim in the next grade. Too many of them sink, and they don't realize why. They mistakenly conclude that they're just not as bright as their classmates. At this point, their self-esteem may suffer serious and permanent damage.
It would have been so much better if the system had allowed them to repeat a grade when necessary. They would then have been able to go on to lead happier and more fulfilled lives.
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