he is 15 and just turns 16 the day before the tournament then part 2 is 6 months later right after daniel graduated then for the summer he spends it in japan comes back after and apparently is saying he doesnt wana go to college that means daniel was in 12th grade when he was 15 and 16 wtf? at 15 16 your normally in 10 or 11th grade someone mind explaining this?
shareHe was not 16 where do you get that from since he got his driving liscence on his birthday
shareIn California you can get your driver's license at 16. But then that leads to the problem: Since he came from New Jersey where you can't get your permit until your 16 (only after completing driver's education otherwise 16-1/2) then he would never have been behind the wheel of a car until after he got to California. So he wouldn't have had time to get his driver's education complete before his birthday.
shareIn California you get your driver's license at 16
Daniel was a senior in high school, and ordinarily people are 17 when they start their senior year and turn 18 at some point during the school year, or shortly thereafter. The only problem with that is, the tournament was the "Under 18 All Valley Karate Championships." I don't buy that Daniel started school early or skipped a grade, since he doesn't seem to be particularly bright (not to mention that it's uncommon even for people who are smart enough to do it, because of the social problems it tends to cause), so there's no good solution for Daniel's age.
shareI think there's a good solution; Daniel turned 17 the day before the tournament (and got his drivers license that day). Back then kids started school based on the calendar year in which they were born. Kids born in January and Decenpmber of the same year would be in the same class despite being almost a year apart. With his 17th birthday taking place in December of 1984, he would've been one of the youngest kids in his class (and wouldn't have turned 18 until 6 months after graduating).
This gets a little murky with KK3 where he again competes in the All Valley under 18 tournament a year later, but I always assumed the tournament took place shortly earlier than the year before and thus just before his 18h birthday. That's my read on it anyway (and the only one that actually seems logical).
"Back then kids started school based on the calendar year in which they were born."
Do you have a citation for that? I know that wasn't the case in my state (Maine) back then. The cutoff date was in the first week of October (the 5th I think). So the oldest kids in class were born in October, after the 5th, and the youngest kids in class were born in October, before the 5th. Kids born in December, like Daniel, were among the older kids in class, and turned 18 about 3 months into their senior year. I was born in January, so I turned 18 about 4 months into my senior year.
I guess my citation is just growing up in the 80s (in Massachusetts) I was in class with kids that had birthdays in the same calendar year as me. One of my best friends was born in late November and we were in the same grade and several others in late October.
May not be a hard and fast rule but if a kid is born on the border of a cutoff date, parents are usually given some leeway as to whether they want to start their kid or keep them back at that point. The only thing that makes any real sense with Daniel is that he turned 17 in December of his senior year and based on my own experience from that time it wouldn't have been unusual.
"May not be a hard and fast rule but if a kid is born on the border of a cutoff date, parents are usually given some leeway as to whether they want to start their kid or keep them back at that point."
It was a hard and fast rule here in Maine. Our neighbor was born on October 7, 1971. My brother was about 3 month older and they were best friends when they were kids. My neighbor and his mother were both upset that he wasn't allowed to start school at the same time as my brother, due to missing the cutoff date by a couple of days. So my brother ended up being one of the youngest in the class of 1989 and my neighbor ended up being the oldest in the class of 1990.
I wonder what they would do with twins, one born on October 5th at 11:59 PM, and the other born a minute later on October 6th, 12:00 AM.