The Selection Process

So, your school has a cut-off date of Sept. 1. Three neighborhood kids eagerly await their entrance into the magical world of Kindergarten. All were born in 2000; Vera on Jan. 13, Chuck on Aug. 1, and Dave on Sept. 2. How old will they be on Sept. 1, 2005, the first day of school? (I know cut-off dates and the first day of school don't usually coincide, but my math skills are rusty and I'm trying to keep this simple.)

Vera will be 5 years, 7 months and 16 days. Chuck will be 5 years, 1 month and 0 days. Dave will miss the cut-off by one day, and will have to wait to start Kindergarten in 2006. He will be 6 years, 0 months and 29 days when he enters Kindergarten.
The 6-month gap between Vera and Chuck, added to the biological fact that girls mature faster than boys in the early years, means Vera may be able to rise to the challenges of Kindergarten more easily than Chuck. Dave, who will be much older than many in his cohort, may be at a decided physical and cognitive advantage. (I will have more to say on this in a moment.)

Gladwell says that older students are far more likely to be channeled into advanced reading and math groups in the early years because they score better on tests than their younger classmates. "...teachers are confusing maturity with ability...because [students] are in the higher group, they do even better; and the next year the same thing happens, and they do even better again...It locks children into patterns of achievement and underachievement, encouragement and discouragement, that stretch on and on for years."

Personal experience tells me that this is too simplistic. My older child, Jacob (now 29), had his birthday close to the cut-off date for entering Kindergarten. On the advice of friends who were teachers, we had him start Kindergarten a year late. Because he was physically and cognitively ahead of the other students, he was so bored that he soon lost interest in school. The next 12 years were a pattern of him getting A's in subjects that interested him and F's in everything that didn't. He barely graduated high school. He got into college on academic probation, was bored by the required freshman classes (as most of us are), and dropped out.

So, while Gladwell's observations should certainly be considered, in my opinion this just identifies another ingredient in the mix that determines how and if a person succeeds.