Astrology- could there be something to it?

[Josquius]

First things first, astrology is bollocks, we all know that so get down off your white horse before you get started. There is just no way the position of the stars impacts our lives down here.

However....I've been thinking lately....could there be something to it anyway?- not so much because of the stars or anything but merely the time of year in which we were born.
Think about it, if your birthday is in May then May will be a special month for you. You will be in a different mood at that time of year than you would be if your birthday was at another time.
Also....school year. The time of year you are born determines which year you are in of school. If you're born in June you're destined to be the youngest in your year; maybe this means you have a childhood of being smaller and weaker and struggling academically, maybe it means you're allowed to advance far faster than you would otherwise. Whatever.
Likewise if you're born in September you're then one of the oldest in your year. Different factors would be at work there.
And what about those poor people born in December with only one month of the year to look forward to? When I was a kid I often wished I'd been born more towards the middle of the year so as to space out my present getting rather than lumping it all towards the end.

What makes up our individual personalities develops during our childhood, the time when a year can seem like a decade..... Might there unintentionally actually be something to all this star sign bollocks?

[Eddie Teach]

I don't think any of those things you mentioned are significant enough to affect personalities in the aggregate.

[garbon]

I live in California. Those born after August were allowed to pick when they wanted their kids to start school.  I started early and I don't remember struggling academically.

[The Brain]

There have been many reports on how your birth date impacts school performance etc.

[Syt]

I was born in October, but was sent to school a year early, turning 6 in 1st grade.

So for the next 13 years I was always the youngest in class. And the best. But I never really had to study, so I don't count that as personal achievement.

[crazy canuck]

The book Outliers has a chapter on how time of year a person is born can have large effects.  For example, in sports it can have a huge impact.  The example used in Outliers is hockey.  Kids who are bigger and stronger because they were born at the right time in relation to cut off dates have better chances of making teams, getting playing time, getting picked for all star/ rep teams and in turn getting access to better coaching.

In the first year, maybe no such a big deal, but in each successive year it really adds up.

For both my kids their birth dates had effects in this way.  My oldest is a February date so he is one of the oldest and strongest in his grade.  My second child had the perfect age for playing baseball - May (the cut off is April) so he was the oldest possible child on the team each year and that made a big difference.  He doesnt have such a great birthday for basketball but it is essentially neutral.

I was an end of December baby and I was always the youngest on the teams I played on.  If I had been kept back that year I would have been a more dominant player in High School.  Things worked out ok but that extra year would have made a big difference for me if I had been the oldest rather than the youngest.

[Eddie Teach]

Are those cutoff dates consistent across different sports and different regions/countries? I'd assume they aren't.

[crazy canuck]

Are those cutoff dates consistent across different sports and different regions/countries? I'd assume they aren't.

I dont know for sure.  The baseball cut off is the one used by Little League across the world - at least by anyone who wants to participate in the Little League World Championships held in the US each year.

I imagine people may do basketball differently since there is no like an international baseball little league.

In Hockey the early birth date is very telling.  If you look up the players on the Canadian national teams each year you will find they are, with few exceptions, born in the first few months of the year - as noted on Outliers.

[derspiess]

The book Outliers has a chapter on how time of year a person is born can have large effects.  For example, in sports it can have a huge impact.  The example used in Outliers is hockey.  Kids who are bigger and stronger because they were born at the right time in relation to cut off dates have better chances of making teams, getting playing time, getting picked for all star/ rep teams and in turn getting access to better coaching.

I've been hearing about people starting their kids a year late in school specifically to give them an advantage in school sports.  As much as I like sports & want my kid to do well in them, I abhor that idea.  If anything, I'd like to see my kid start early and/or advance more rapidly than his peers.

I sorta liked being the youngest in my class, starting college when I was 17, etc.

[Ideologue]

I think I'd have been better off starting a year later.  I wasn't ready.

[crazy canuck]

I sorta liked being the youngest in my class, starting college when I was 17, etc.

Definitely a case of ymmv.  I always hated being the youngest.  Last to be able to drive - so last to be able to take a girl on a date without the assistance of parents, always competiting against older kids while realizing I was better than my actual peer group.  And most of all not having that extra year to mature.

Starting early does not necessarily mean finishing early.  It might also mean droping out early when, had you waited when you where more mature, you might have succeeded or at least been more successful.

[katmai]

Was born in May and entered school on early end, of course skipping year in elementary and then starting college at 15 skewed it all.
And yeah being 16 and trying to play organized sports on college level with guys 2-4 years older made playing football interesting to say the least.

[Razgovory]

I live in California. Those born after August were allowed to pick when they wanted their kids to start school.  I started early and I don't remember struggling academically.

Something similar in Missouri.  Except they had a test.  I failed because I couldn't tie my shoe and lacked the dexterity to catch a bouncing ball and couldn't tell right from left.  Could read though.  Only learned to tie my shoe at about fifth grade and only figured out right and left around seventh. 

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, NCLB really screwed up my niece's school schedule, with her birthday in late September;  it was either test and go in as the youngest in her class, or stay out a year and miss moving on with all her Pre-K/Kindergarten friends. 
Seems she didn't have a problem kicking her friends to the curb, since she aced the test.

[Capetan Mihali]

I was put a year ahead in elementary school, and my birthday's in April.  So I would just manage to catch up to my classmates by the end of the school year, then do it all over again.