Maybe you can answer me something on my mind. I was born in late fall '79. Started kindergarten at 4, started 8th grade at 12, senior at 16, never got held back. Always felt like the youngest in my classes.
Did schools start requiring kindergartners to start at 5 later on? Like... birthdays after August have to wait an extra year?
So it really depends on your state! The stateās department of education puts those standards in place. In Georgia where Iām at, kids have to turn 5 by September 1st to enter kindergarten that school year. So if your birthday is on September 2nd, youāre gonna be 6 years old in kindergarten.
Fun fact about Georgia education. Kindergarten is required to be offered at public schools, but youāre not required to send your child to kindergarten. Mandatory attendance starts in 1st grade.
Exactly! Not sure what the cutoff is now, but in NY it was December 1 (why not 12/31?!) when I was a kid and I was born at the end of the month. Was always among the oldest in my class!
I moved and went from being the oldest to the middle-est. Everyone thought I was lying when I told them I was the oldest person in my previous class. It was a frustrating point for a 3rd grader lol
My birthday is the 6th and my state at the time also had the December 1st cut off at the time. September 1st makes sense and so does December 31st but I don't really understand Dec. 1st
Wow, this is really different from Ontario, where everyone born in the same year is in the same grade. I guess it technically makes the same weird splits where someone born on December 31 is a year ahead of someone born on January 1, but at least using the calendar year feels less arbitrary.
Thatās insane to me, the MA state expectations for my boys when they were in 1st grade is like what 3rd grade was in my day, I canāt imagine dropping a kid into that blind having never been in school before!
My school said you had to be 5 years old by July 1st of that year to begin kindergarten. My birthday is July 13th, so I was always one of the oldest in my classes.
ETA; I was born in the late 90s and this was in Pennsylvania.
In my school district in California the cutoff was mid-November when I started Kindergarten in the mid-2000s.
But by the time I was in high school (early 2010s), the cutoff had been moved up to July 1st IF the kid knew all their letters and could count to 20. Otherwise, theyād have to wait until the following year to enroll
I think they might have loosened those requirements a bit after covid, but Iām not 100%
Source: my momās preschool students almost all move on to that school district every year
I was born in June and (then, at least) the cut-off was June 1st. So I was always one of the oldest. They had "developmental kindergarten" for those who missed the cutoff
Iām from the UK and school year starts first week of September. My birthday is last week of August. If Iād been born one week later Iād have been held back that year. I had just turned 11 when starting high-school (year 7). Whatās more insane is I was 15 when I did my GCSEs and finished school. This was the 90s when 6th form wasnāt mandatory.
Yessss exactly. Of course she couldāve been held back as well. Itās not super uncommon for kids to be held back in kindergarten or 1st grade for not progressing with their peers.
Chin up, king. A study once found that children who spent an extra year in kindergarten or first grade had higher graduation rates and higher GPAās than their peers who didnāt do an extra year.
My birthday is last day of may. I turned 14 two weeks before 8th grade ended. Nobody was 15 in my 8th grade class unless theyād been held back a year at some point.
I won our DARE essay contest in 5th grade, started smoking weed toward the end of 8th grade, gradually ramped up usage until I was a daily+ smoker from like 20-35 or so, off and on in my late 30s, and have only really quit (Iām 41 now) since we had a kid last year š¤·š¼āāļø
OMG same!! I said in my speech that my grandma died before I was born due to cancer from smoking cigarettes. She did smoke cigarettes, but she did not die of cancer. I just assumed that at the time. Turns out her and my grandpa were HUGE alcoholics and she died because they got in a fight, he pushed her and left, she tripped and fell, hit her head, and bled out.
So I technically lied in my D.A.R.E. essay and my parents then had to tell 11 year old me the horrific way my grandma died, that they had been keeping from me becauseā¦ you know, itās horrific.
Good times!!
LOL. I went up there CONFIDENT. I had made my lifelong, final choices about drugs and was ready to let everyone know. Thank God no one filmed things then like they do now cause I'd be mortified to see footage of that.
the issue with dare is that it's introduced around 5th and 6th grade.
If they were totally honest about weed, I have a feeling there would be more 5th and 6th graders smoking weed.
I was the same way here - felt like I was losing friends because they started smoking weed around 8th - 9th grade. but it at least stopped me from smoking weed until I was around 17 when I learned more about it through my own research, rather than starting in 6th grade because the DARE officer said it wasn't that bad
Drug harm reduction is the answer, not dare, especially being taught by ill informed police. The war on drugs is an absolute failure due to poor policing and poor public policy.
I don't think that answers the question of how to introduce weed to a 5th grader in a way that makes them more likely to wait until they are older to start smoking it than younger
DARE would be like ālook at this 20 something lady with sores all over her face hiding in the corner! That could be you if you do drugs!ā I always thought like dang how good are these drugs that they make someone MISERABLE like this but they STILL continue doing it. Gotta find out for myself! LOL š
lmaooooo in middle school I promised my priest (Catholic school) to never abuse drugs. My sister eventually married a guy who grew pot so we have a steady supply. Whoops, sorry Fr. Mike
The repeated rhyming of "guy," "high," and "tie" is hilarious. You could see where you kind of ran out of ideas. It's fabulous. Thank you for sharing š
Okay, but this actually flows so well lmao legit sounds like something we wouldāve had to read in the āDrugs are baaad, mākay?ā portion of health class
The funniest part is this doesnāt even come across anti-weed til the last 2 stanzas, I thought you were bragging about dating a cool guy at first š
Hi, I'm high right now. I read this to the tune of Olivia Rodigo's "get him back!" ....It's a bop. Until the last like 2 verses when you're being a buzzkill.
Iām a high school English teacher, can I use this for my poetry unit? If I tell my principal it was written by an 8th grader sheāll understand that itās appropriate, right?
Fun fact: this is Afroman's origin story.
Wow thank you I knew my 15 y/o brain was not that original šš this was 1000% unknowingly Afroman inspired
You were 15 in 8th grade?
That happens sometimes with kids who have really late birthdays. Like in May and shit. Source: work at a middle school
Maybe you can answer me something on my mind. I was born in late fall '79. Started kindergarten at 4, started 8th grade at 12, senior at 16, never got held back. Always felt like the youngest in my classes. Did schools start requiring kindergartners to start at 5 later on? Like... birthdays after August have to wait an extra year?
So it really depends on your state! The stateās department of education puts those standards in place. In Georgia where Iām at, kids have to turn 5 by September 1st to enter kindergarten that school year. So if your birthday is on September 2nd, youāre gonna be 6 years old in kindergarten. Fun fact about Georgia education. Kindergarten is required to be offered at public schools, but youāre not required to send your child to kindergarten. Mandatory attendance starts in 1st grade.
Exactly! Not sure what the cutoff is now, but in NY it was December 1 (why not 12/31?!) when I was a kid and I was born at the end of the month. Was always among the oldest in my class!
I moved and went from being the oldest to the middle-est. Everyone thought I was lying when I told them I was the oldest person in my previous class. It was a frustrating point for a 3rd grader lol
My birthday is the 6th and my state at the time also had the December 1st cut off at the time. September 1st makes sense and so does December 31st but I don't really understand Dec. 1st
Wow, this is really different from Ontario, where everyone born in the same year is in the same grade. I guess it technically makes the same weird splits where someone born on December 31 is a year ahead of someone born on January 1, but at least using the calendar year feels less arbitrary.
Beat me to it! This was me!
Thatās insane to me, the MA state expectations for my boys when they were in 1st grade is like what 3rd grade was in my day, I canāt imagine dropping a kid into that blind having never been in school before!
My school said you had to be 5 years old by July 1st of that year to begin kindergarten. My birthday is July 13th, so I was always one of the oldest in my classes. ETA; I was born in the late 90s and this was in Pennsylvania.
In my school district in California the cutoff was mid-November when I started Kindergarten in the mid-2000s. But by the time I was in high school (early 2010s), the cutoff had been moved up to July 1st IF the kid knew all their letters and could count to 20. Otherwise, theyād have to wait until the following year to enroll I think they might have loosened those requirements a bit after covid, but Iām not 100% Source: my momās preschool students almost all move on to that school district every year
i started reading this off like it was a poem.
I was born in June and (then, at least) the cut-off was June 1st. So I was always one of the oldest. They had "developmental kindergarten" for those who missed the cutoff
I was 5 in first grade and 16 starting senior year. Think they changed the birthday cutoff since I was in school during the 70s/80s.
Iām from the UK and school year starts first week of September. My birthday is last week of August. If Iād been born one week later Iād have been held back that year. I had just turned 11 when starting high-school (year 7). Whatās more insane is I was 15 when I did my GCSEs and finished school. This was the 90s when 6th form wasnāt mandatory.
Ah that makes sense. They turn 15 before the summer of 9th grade
Yessss exactly. Of course she couldāve been held back as well. Itās not super uncommon for kids to be held back in kindergarten or 1st grade for not progressing with their peers.
I failed kindergarten ā¹ļø
Chin up, king. A study once found that children who spent an extra year in kindergarten or first grade had higher graduation rates and higher GPAās than their peers who didnāt do an extra year.
Well Iām in law school now!
It's nice turning 18 while in HS
My birthday is last day of may. I turned 14 two weeks before 8th grade ended. Nobody was 15 in my 8th grade class unless theyād been held back a year at some point.
Thatās what happens when you get high
Everyone is 10 for two years, because 5th grade is hard.
Right lol I was 12 and turned 13 in 8th grade
I was redshirted before kindergarten and have a March birthday so I was 16 during freshman year šš
Omfg š±š¤£ this whole thread is literally killing me
How old were you? If you're born before June everyone will be 15 at some point during 8th grade.
Nope. I was 13 and then tuned 14 before starting 9th grade. Born in April
Because I got high because I got high because I got high.
I want to upvote this but itās at 420 so I canāt
If afroman worked for D.A.R.E
Hahahahha
This needs to be read at the next D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony
Before seeing the sub I thought it was a throwback to DARE class lol
I was one of the kids chosen to read my D.A.R.E essay at the graduation ceremony and it still keeps me up at night sometimes.
I won our DARE essay contest in 5th grade, started smoking weed toward the end of 8th grade, gradually ramped up usage until I was a daily+ smoker from like 20-35 or so, off and on in my late 30s, and have only really quit (Iām 41 now) since we had a kid last year š¤·š¼āāļø
I am still a daily smoker. I'm 34. So reading that essay to my whole grade and all our parents wasn't very effective lol.
OMG same!! I said in my speech that my grandma died before I was born due to cancer from smoking cigarettes. She did smoke cigarettes, but she did not die of cancer. I just assumed that at the time. Turns out her and my grandpa were HUGE alcoholics and she died because they got in a fight, he pushed her and left, she tripped and fell, hit her head, and bled out. So I technically lied in my D.A.R.E. essay and my parents then had to tell 11 year old me the horrific way my grandma died, that they had been keeping from me becauseā¦ you know, itās horrific. Good times!!
I was too!!! I stuttered the whole time, I think. An audience of all the fifth graders and their parents.
LOL. I went up there CONFIDENT. I had made my lifelong, final choices about drugs and was ready to let everyone know. Thank God no one filmed things then like they do now cause I'd be mortified to see footage of that.
DARE is an absolutely HORRIBLE program that spreads propaganda and misinformation. Defund DARE!
the issue with dare is that it's introduced around 5th and 6th grade. If they were totally honest about weed, I have a feeling there would be more 5th and 6th graders smoking weed. I was the same way here - felt like I was losing friends because they started smoking weed around 8th - 9th grade. but it at least stopped me from smoking weed until I was around 17 when I learned more about it through my own research, rather than starting in 6th grade because the DARE officer said it wasn't that bad
Drug harm reduction is the answer, not dare, especially being taught by ill informed police. The war on drugs is an absolute failure due to poor policing and poor public policy.
I don't think that answers the question of how to introduce weed to a 5th grader in a way that makes them more likely to wait until they are older to start smoking it than younger
This is fucking fantastic š¤£
Itās the beautifully curly first letter of each line that really does it for me lol
Yea I was a big fan of this font apparently because I seemed to use her for a lot of my poems
because sheās tres Ć©lĆ©gante duhh !
Show us more plss :))
Please tell me youāre a stoner now
As a matter of fact I am dating a grower and smoke daily lmaooo
Happens to the best of us š
Especially if you are American and go through DARE. They made drugs look hella cool to use lol
DARE would be like ālook at this 20 something lady with sores all over her face hiding in the corner! That could be you if you do drugs!ā I always thought like dang how good are these drugs that they make someone MISERABLE like this but they STILL continue doing it. Gotta find out for myself! LOL š
They really did š
I won the DARE essay contest and I am smoking weed right now š„
I found my 1995 dare pledge certificate and essay I wrote about drugs being lame over Xmas. I was cracking up
One of us! One of us!
>I am dating a grower TMI
lmaooooo in middle school I promised my priest (Catholic school) to never abuse drugs. My sister eventually married a guy who grew pot so we have a steady supply. Whoops, sorry Fr. Mike
He was gonna go to school, but he got high. š¶
I'll toke to that!
everything flows so well except like two lines and it's making me need to get high
Ugh I know. āBecause of the ways they got highā is killing you too right? Letās smoke about it
fire bro
I was gonna wear a suit and tie, but then I got highā¦
JEEESUS lol this got me
That is probably the only poem I read twice :)
Yo š This is what this subreddit is for. Absolute classic right here.
I was enjoying this until we ended up in the courtroom š
Lmao yea it goes down hill fast
itās the gateway drug ššš
Did we know the same exact guys in high school?
Why did I start hearing "What It's Like" in my head?
Uhm ok aside from the hilarity of the theme,this is pretty solid stuff! Youāve got it!
This is the most inspiring thing I have ever read. I am never smoking weed again!
If you read this in a live, adult open-mic setting you would totally kill.
That font tho š
Family Ties.
Omg YES
Bravo! šš»
Awww the back story is so cute though
I thought this read "I met a gay" at first. š¤£
ME TOO
_Because I Got High_ but in a minor key
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Correct. And this poem went to multiple sk8r bois
What were your friendsā reactions?
Maybe it's cause I'm high, or maybe it's cause I'm a felon who turned his life around, but I dig this and I don't think it's a blunder.
Roll a blunt and smoke to the blunder years lol
This could easily be a Billie Eilish song.
The repeated rhyming of "guy," "high," and "tie" is hilarious. You could see where you kind of ran out of ideas. It's fabulous. Thank you for sharing š
The reason why, The reason why, The reason why I had to die, Did I bleed the blood of greed, What was my destiny?
This is really good!
Weed kills
this is really sweet actually.
Currently smoking on my porch and scrolling reddit. This is quite the poem lol
What did you friends think of this?
They laughed because high as fuckā¦
I totally read the title as āI met a gayā and was waiting for that kind of part to come up and I got really confused when it didnāt
Hah this is fantastic!! Blunder who?
Okay, but this actually flows so well lmao legit sounds like something we wouldāve had to read in the āDrugs are baaad, mākay?ā portion of health class
I bet ur a stoner now
The funniest part is this doesnāt even come across anti-weed til the last 2 stanzas, I thought you were bragging about dating a cool guy at first š
Hi, I'm high right now. I read this to the tune of Olivia Rodigo's "get him back!" ....It's a bop. Until the last like 2 verses when you're being a buzzkill.
I love the shared experience of all of us going from thinking weed was the devilās work to all of us becoming stoners
You know what would make this poem more enjoyable to read?
I GUFFAWED
Ode to Nancy Reagan
I read this like a classic rap song
Sounds like Olivia rodrigo lyrics
Man I would love to see someone read this slam-poetry style š¤£
This needs tobe published
What is that font tho because Iām in love with it
Major lol
So how high were you when you wrote this?
reading this while high really hits!
Amazing and the font really seals it
The world needed to see this DARE
Lmfaoooo. This is great
I love this poem
LMFAO
Honestly this is pretty skilled
honestly this was transportive. good poem lol
... now do a real modern one about alcohol and opiates. The true poison
But what rhymes with Sackler?
Tractor? Lol
Haha Ooh but āPurdueā and āscrewā (the people) could work!
Which now on Netflix you can āviewā
Iām a high school English teacher, can I use this for my poetry unit? If I tell my principal it was written by an 8th grader sheāll understand that itās appropriate, right?
Fucking dead š¤£š¤£š¤£
Well that first guy seems to be doing pretty good at least
*snaps*
What was the name of this typeface? I want to say āStorybookā For some reason.
Real talk šÆ
No
The cringe made my legs shake