Remember that first scary day of kindergarten? A five-year-old in Van Buren, Arkansas came up with an ingenious way to calm his butterflies: Skip right to first grade. Was this self-social promotion? A gifted student testing into first-grade honors? Nope, just a story of friendship--or peer pressure, if you're cynical. The kindergartener made a first-grade friend on the playground; when it was time to go back inside, he decided he wanted to stick by his new pal. Upon discovery, the little boy confessed amidst tears that he just wanted to be in class with his bud. We feel for the tyke, but we'd hope the next time he goes to first grade, he's passed kindergarten first.
"Missing kindergartner found in 1st grade," The Associated Press, August 21, 2009