Yes, obvious - I was born at the end of August so I was as much as a year younger and a head smaller than the rest of my class, who would have started school a year later if born only a few days later than me.

And kids born later in the year are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328520/

I often hear this said but you weren't a year younger than the rest of your class. There was likely just days or weeks between you and the next youngest kid. Yes, there was almost a year between you and the oldest but everyone else in your class was somewhere in between.

Explained perfectly in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers book

No, they are correct. Many school systems have a cutoff birthdate. So do sports teams. My parents had the choice of keeping me out of school for another year but didn't. As a result, I was usually the youngest and smallest in every class until I graduated high school. While I did reasonably well academically, I was inevitably left to last on sports teams. In our ice hockey system it is even stricter adherence to age.

The system also applies to racehorses, so breeders try for foals to be born first week of January.

I graduated at 16 because I was in kindergarten at 3.5 or something. It was awful being smaller than everyone else.

I know this well. October. They weren’t as strict about cut off dates when I went to school.

No, they were at least a full year younger. Most kids are 5 or 6 when they start kindergarten, not 3 or 4.

There's no 'almost a year' about it. There were kids in our class who were more than a year older than other kids. This was even worse when kids moved from other states, as each state (at the time, not sure if it's still this way) had its own rules about what age/cut-off was used to determine when a child started school. For instance, my wife and I both graduated the same year. However, I'm 11 months older than her, because the cut-off in the state she's from was different than the state I'm from. So she, at almost a year younger, started school a year earlier than I did. One of my best friends in school moved to my school at the end of grade school, from out of state. He was in our class because the cut-off in his home state was earlier than our state. He's two months older than I, and a full year and a month older than my wife. So that's three different people, with wildly different birthdates, all in the same class. And at the younger ages, especially kindergarten and first or second grade, even a couple of months makes a huge difference in mental capacity for a child.

I was kind of middle of the road, age-wise, in my class. My birth month is nearly two months after the cut-off date (at that time), so I had some kids a month or two older than I was, but most were at least a month or two younger, with quite a few who were 7+ months younger.

It also sucked when it came to extracurriculars in grade school, which actually led to me not being as involved in them as I wanted. They went by a different age parameter than the classroom did, so I was thrust in with kids a year ahead of me in school. So instead of being with my friends, I was with these strangers who were already friends, leaving me to be the outsider, and I was the youngest of them, so I wasn't quite as good at the stuff as they were. So I got to experience it from both sides, being the youngest and the oldest in different things. In academics, where I was one of the oldest of my peers, I exceled and was consistently in the top of the class. In sports (basketball and baseball), where I was partnered with kids more my own age, but generally at least a couple months older, I was typically one of the worst because my coordination and skills just weren't where theirs were. But in gym class, when we played basketball or baseball, I was a solid middle-of-the-road player, as would be expected of someone who was middle-of-the-road age-wise.

> For instance, my wife and I both graduated the same year. However, I'm 11 months older than her, because the cut-off in the state she's from was different than the state I'm from. So she, at almost a year younger, started school a year earlier than I did. One of my best friends in school moved to my school at the end of grade school, from out of state. He was in our class because the cut-off in his home state was earlier than our state. He's two months older than I, and a full year and a month older than my wife. So that's three different people, with wildly different birthdates, all in the same class. And at the younger ages, especially kindergarten and first or second grade, even a couple of months makes a huge difference in mental capacity for a child.

This. The grade one is assigned to is a system carried over from the 1800s and does not reflect what we know of child and brain development today, or critical social and physical development needs to realize every child's potential.

It's crazy to think that some people's entire lives were basically predetermined for them simply because of an arbitrary date. How many people who were told they were average or subpar from early school might have had a better school experience that translated into a better overall life experience, had they simply been placed in a more appropriate grade?

So do you think that there was no one else in the commenter's class that was also born in August or even July? I.e. everyone else in their class was born the previous September

Same, but I’m not one of the smartest kids in class. Prolly 70-75 percentile.

I don't know that it's helping, horses are very rarely hired to be professors.

Same!

The commenter said

> I was as much as a year younger

This allows for a range. And as in the example of my own class, not everyone was a year younger than everyone else; that would be impossible. But a large portion of the students were close to or more than a year younger than a good portion of other kids in the class and this showed in academics or athletics. Most of the birthdays in our class, that we celebrated, were Sept/Oct or Feb/Mar, relatively few in the Nov-Jan span, Apr/May and unknown in the summer months. And especially at those younger ages, it doesn't even have to be a full year, even a matter of 2-3 months is a big difference. A child who is 5 years and 3 months will, on average, have an advantage over a child who has just turned 5.

Commenter did a sneaky wee edit. Your point is the same as the one I was making to them.

Yup, but races are for 2yr olds, 3yr olds etc based on year born, not month.

No, but the average age would be older per grade. I was the youngest, on the younger age of the average. If I waited a year I would have been the oldest, older than the average but receiving the same instruction. I was the best reader/writer but the least social. In sports, where it really matters is the growth of a child. Go to hockeydb.com and look at the birthdate of professional hockey players. The overwhelming majority were born in the first 3 months of the year. Kids start hockey by age group. There is some adjustment for skill, but older kids aren't moved downand only the very top talents move up.

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That's super interesting to read! I fit into both, born later in the year and I have ADHD so this definitely helps me understand just that little bit more

Keep in mind that this article is talking about how kids born in the later part of the year are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, not that they are more likely to have ADHD. When compared with other kids in their grade they may seem less mature and less able to focus because they are developmentally less mature and less able to focus. This comes out in the wash later in life. Some of the kids will of course actually have ADHD, but some were just acting younger because they were younger.

Apparently we're the only ones who liked it, but I still think it's funny.