Posted on 02/13/2011 4:05:46 PM PST by TheDingoAteMyBaby
As private kindergartens prepare to send out acceptance letters this week, competitive parents are trying to game the system with so called “red shirting”—delaying their kids start in school so they'll be more advanced then their classmates. Kristina Dell on why it's backfiring. Holly Korbey's son, Holden, was easy to spot in his kindergarten class—he was the one who actually looked kindergarten sized. "The other kids were just taller," says his mother.
That's because unlike his classmates, most of whom were six years old, Holden was only five—the traditional kindergarten age. But entering kindergarten at age six is becoming more and more common, say researchers. "My parents went to my son's kindergarten and said, 'The kids are so big! They look like they're eight,'" says Korbey.
(Excerpt) Read more at education.newsweek.com ...
My neice was held back because her birthday is in September and then the school had to skip her a grade because she had already learned everything that a normal first graders learn.
Whether to hold kids back or skip a grade is an individual decision. No one can tell you what is right or wrong. In Pennsylvania, when I was a kid, the cut off date for first grade was the last day of February of the following year and we had no public kindergarten. So, I went to first grade at 5.
I was red-shirted...because being born in August delays a child’s development by exactly one year, don’tcha know?
On my first day of Kindergarten the following year, my teacher deemed me “gifted.” Go figure.
Why do we let these people breed ?
I agree with you that it is an individual decision. I have two kids with late September birthdays (cut off is Oct. 1) and school starts the beginning of August. One was academically and emotionally ready to start as a four year old and be one of the youngest in the class. The other was academically ready, but emotionally immature, so I held that child back until the following year. It was the best decision for both of them.
That is the point-you made a decision for your children based on your knowledge of their abilities and level of maturity. Who better?
I was born in September. But my folks say I flunked nursery school is why I had to do it twice! And they may be right. I do recall not being able to play in the sand table for quite awhile after I threw a metal Tonka Truck at John D.
I would have had to wait another year to start kindergarten/first grade if the rules when I was in school were the same as they are now. Would I have been better off? I don’t know. I was put in gifted classes by the third grade though I was extremely shy and afraid of my own shadow. It’s possible I would have been an out of control know-it-all if I had waited until the following September.
We only have two children born between September 1 and December 4. (we have a bunch of children) I’m sure that holding our December son was the best thing, partly because he was about 5 weeks premature. There is an exception to the September 1 deadline in AZ if a child attends a charter school, so our October daughter can attend 2nd grade next year at a regular public school if we choose to have her do so. I’m not sure if we should hold her back even though she will on the same level as her older peers. It’s her shyness that is the problem.
We know quite a few boys who have summer birthdays, and their parents are deliberately holding their sons back so that they will be athletic stars. That irks me quite a bit. These boys are going to be so bored!!! Nothing wrong with the brains of these boys. But the parents want the boys to be more physically developed for sports. But to each his/her own.
Perzackly. Heaven forbid that parents should actually take responsibility for the upbringing of their own children. That’s the government’s job, don’t you know?
Fairly common here in Indiana but it’s done for sports more than academics.
Everybody thinks their kid will be a star and get a free ride in college. And of course the total dreamers think their kid will become a pro and make everybody rich.
WTH is school starting at the beginning of August?
This was the final push for me into homeschooling.
Fifteen years ago, I was facing this very issue. The average mom was holding their kids back, and starting kindergarten at six. My daughter was five and ready for school.
There was NO WAY I was going to let her suffer being the youngest though out her school years. My husband grew up that way, it did him no favors.
Homeschooling allowed my daughter to start school without the bother of the youngest in her class social issues.
I didn’t hold my son back. He turned 5 on Sept. 6. He’s now 16, and I’m very glad I didn’t hold him back.
He hit puberty early. He was almost 6 ft tall and was shaving in 6th grade.
He’s also smart. He’s in 3 AP courses, and has maintained over a 4.0.
He would have been so bored in school if we had held him back.
My twin daughters were born in November, and we held them back. It was a good for both of them. They had speech problems and were very shy. One of them has some special needs, so I’m really glad she was held back. The other one would do okay if she was in the grade above, but it’s okay where she’s at.
“These boys are going to be so bored!!! Nothing wrong with the brains of these boys.”
The one I started as a four year old is a boy who is in perpetual motion. I talked with the principle about the pros and cons of waiting to start him until the following year. In summary, she said (probably what parents with common sense already know) kids will perform to the level of expectation. If he is in a class of five and six year olds as a four year old, he will learn those behaviors as expected. If he’s in a class of four and five year olds, and he’s six, then he’ll be acting as expected.
On the whole I believe it best to delay schooling.
I came to the states as a young boy speaking only German. I started first grade just two months shy of turning 7. Never attended preschool or kindergarten.
Despite an initial language handicap, I never had any
problem at school - it came relatively easy - and I’m
certain my age maturity was the major factor.
apart from being preternaturally brilliant that is :)
“WTH is school starting at the beginning of August?”
That’s what I think every year and think what WTH are they doing getting out about a week and a half before Memorial Day!!!
The redshirted kid with the autumn birthday is going to be 18 for most of his senior year in high school. I’m interested in knowing what attitude students have in that situation. I have a July birthday, so I turned 18 after graduation.
I see you were doing your job as a mom well!!:) I think it’s our job as parents to know our children and to figure out what is best for them. The one I waited to start was a girl. She is 7 in the first grade and does well academically and is right place for emotional development.
They have ruined summer. It’s sad.
I was held back in Kindergarten. I originally went to a private church school for kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten the school I went to was k-5, when I graduated kindergarten at the school, the school had to discontinue the 1-5 education due to lack of funds, so my parents had to send me to public school. I was the youngest one in my class born in late August, and I also just wasn’t ready for 1st grade. I had a hard time learning math skills and the church school recommended that I take another year of kindergarten and be with kids my own age. It was probably good that my parents did that.
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