Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 18, 2022

So true, so true

Good to see Toggle again. I’m a recording engineer; I think about him.

It feels to me like it has been a heckuva long time since we have seen Alex, Toggle, & their kids. I’m not sure I remember them even having a daughter. Nice to get at least a snapshot.

Neutering worked wonders for my 2 male cats, two brothers, went from wanting to murder each other to being best friends again…

Do they have three children, twin boys and a girl? I only remember that there were twins.

Who are these people?

I dunno about anyone else, but I read this as either Autism or ADHD, possibly both.

Unless you’re a boy who identifies as a girl. Or a girl who identifies as a boy. Right?

She looks so much like a cross between her grandma and dad

So. . .the big question once again arises: are such characteristics TRULY genetically inborn, or do we force them on the sexes culturally??? See the discussion under BE THIS GUY. . .I know lots of kids who fit the stereotypes shown in the strip, BUT I also know lots of kids who don’t.

My younger brother repeated 1st grade because of developmental problems. That year made all difference for him. In later years, he said that it was the best decision my parents ever made concerning his education.

Conversely, not only was my birthday in October, but I was skipped a grade in school, causing me to be the youngest in my classes – with all the attendant social insecurities that caused.

We did that, our boys started the 1st @7. I recommend it to anyone who’ll listen.

Hey, how did Trudeau get my school report???

Today’s strip may be a direct take on a recent widely discussed article in The Atlantic: do a web search for “Why Boys Should Start School a Year Later than Girls – The Atlantic”.

Summary: boys are often 2 or 3 years behind girls of the same age in terms of emotional/social development (“It’s not just that they’re different genders; it’s like they’re different species”).

Highly recommended reading for parents of young children, both boys and girls.

1 year is not enough to make up the difference.

She shouldn’t have compared boys to girls to the kids. Bad move

Okay. is it just me or does red shirting have a totally different, and more lethal, meaning to us older citizens of the Federation.

I thought “Red Shirt” was a “Star Trek” reference.

Leaving him back would only slow things down, a child’s brain is like a sponge, boys or girls, the brain absorbs at that age. Boys are more rambunctious and aggressive, risks will light up the pleasure senses of the male brains. Girls are lit up by doing well, be this guy’s post above.

Yah. My parents made me wait until I was ten before I started high school.

How old are those kids? They look like teenagers. The problem is PUBERTY, Mom, not when they started school.

I started school a year early. We moved about every 18 months. I was ready for the education – maturity arrives when it arrives.

When I lived in Alabama for two very miserable years, they had a local scandal where the HS Football coaches would scout the Grammar school kids and get the ones who looked “Talented” to deliberately fail a grade. That way, by the time they reached High School and went out for football, they were a year older and bigger and “better” players. The coaches needed them to fail in Grammar school because the High School rules said they could not Play in the year following failing a grade.

This was regarded as Cheating by the local rules.

The Coaches defense against the scandal was the time honored “But, Everybody is doing it.”

The scandal happened because the Father of a kid the local HS coach wanted to fail a grade got Mad and said that His Kid did not Fail in school. The Coach spread the word that the man was “not with the Program” and ended up ruining his life when he eventually lost his Job over it. The now Jobless Dad sued both his former employer and the Football coach, dragging the whole mess into the Headlines.

By the way: The Dad collected in his lawsuit and moved the family to a state where they do not “Worship” High School Football quite so vigorously.

Goodness gracious, it appears that there are such a lot of comments from INCELS today

I redshirted my youngest so that he was one of the older kids when he graduated from HS.

I am the youngest person in my HS graduating class. It was not because of brilliance….

Wow – I never knew that about that term! I was taught 56 years ago that getting redshirted was being given a minor part as an unnamed security guard in Star Trek, and that they’d be dead within 5 minutes of the beginning of the episode!

When I was four, my parents were told “Get him into school NOW!” If they’d waited another year, I would have been bored out of my skull. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as mature socially as my classmates.

What would have helped me was being with kids my own age who were also doing work a year or two ahead of schedule…

Last panel: kid’s profile mirrors dad’s. :-)

Great to see Alex, Toggle & the kids for a change…been way too long.