Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In education, the advancement of a student from one grade to another or, in an ungraded class, from one instructional level to another. Promotion implies that the student has developed the skills, learned the material, and met the academic standards of the grade and is therefore academically ready to move on to the next grade;…

An unusually talented individual, a term generally used in referring to a child prodigy.  

Passing a student to a higher grade even when academic performance has not been fully satisfactory, on the understanding that the promotion will become permanent only if the student shows ability to handle the more advanced work.  

In the law, suspending a sentence imposed by a court, on certain conditions, often including good behavior, some kind of treatment, and supervision by a court-appointed professional probate officer. Juveniles convicted of a crime, especially a first offense, are often made wards of the court and put on probation; so are parents convicted of child…

The type of court that handles questions regarding the estates of people who have died, either affirming the validity of an existing will or handling distribution of assets if the person died intestate (without a will), under the state’s laws of inheritance rights. Probate court may also handle some questions relating to adoption and guardians.…

The first form of writing that children learn in elementary school, in which each letter is formed separately and looks approximately like its counterpart in printed books, as opposed to cursive writing, in which letters are joined together.  

A system of laws under which the family property is passed intact to the first-born son, with none going to other children, male or female. Once common in Europe and elsewhere, such laws do not apply in the modern United States.  

A group of reflexes involuntary, automatic movements in reaction to particular stimuli or events  that are normally found only in newborns and that disappear in the first few months. Among them are the grasp reflex, tonic neck reflex, moro’s reflex (startle reflex), walking (or Stepping) reflex, and rooting reflex. In at least some children with…

A kind of tumor that originated at the site where found, as opposed to a secondary tumor started by malignant cells originating elsewhere in the body. In a patient with metastatic cancer, the lesion assumed to be the source of the metastases.  

Alternate term for elementary school; the term primary is also used to refer to the lower elementary grades, 1 to 3, sometimes including kindergarten.