::::::standing ovation. I am in my 36th and final year of teaching, and I have never seen the logic of age-based classrooms. When I was in kindergarten, the oldest student was almost a year older than the youngest, and yet both are expected to perform the same. My son skipped second grade because he already knew all the things they were teaching in there. Many people told me not to let him skip. He went on to graduate high school at 16 and graduated from the University of Southern California with a double major in math and economics.