Speak up (to your school) if you are worried about all the redshirting

[Anonymous]

How can a child flunk pre-k? If they go to a private preschool, there is nothing that school can do other than advise a parent. It isn't like they issue grades and the kids didn't get a high enough GPA. Even in ES, schools can advise parents to hold a child back but in the end, it is their choice to hold them back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Langley and Potomac have some seven year olds in kindergarten. They may have turned seven recently, but STILL.
I have heard from friends that there is tons of redshirting at Sidwell and Maret, but I don't know that info firsthand.

How many 7 year olds, in what sized class? There's a big difference between 2 recently turned 7's in a class of 45, and 10 who have been 7 since January in a class of 20. Which is it?

[Anonymous]

I think the people who are opposed to parents having the choice to redshirt their child would be OK with it as long as there were some kind of stigma attached to it. If the kid TRIED Kindergarten and flunked, then those opposed wouldn't mind so much the parents and school making the child repeat kindergarten.

Maybe a solution would be to tell those parents who were opposed to redshirting that your child flunked preK and had to repeat an extra year? Then no one would feel like the redshirted kid was getting some extra advantage -- he FLUNKED PreK.

I completely agree. Great solution to solving the angst of anti-redshirters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard from friends that there is tons of redshirting at Sidwell and Maret, but I don't know that info firsthand.

I have a child at Sidwell, and as far as I can tell there is only one child in the entire grade that was held back. So in my experience at least, there is not much at all there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think the people who are opposed to parents having the choice to redshirt their child would be OK with it as long as there were some kind of stigma attached to it. If the kid TRIED Kindergarten and flunked, then those opposed wouldn't mind so much the parents and school making the child repeat kindergarten.

Maybe a solution would be to tell those parents who were opposed to redshirting that your child flunked preK and had to repeat an extra year? Then no one would feel like the redshirted kid was getting some extra advantage -- he FLUNKED PreK.

I completely agree. Great solution to solving the angst of anti-redshirters.

Interesting take! I love it. You can redshirt your kid, as long as I can look down my nose at you! Ha! Redshirting without stigma is the definition of privilege... I want what I want but I don't want to deal with the negative consequences. F that.

[Anonymous]

I like the term too--"pre-flunking" it is!

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it makes a difference.

I also know that there are plenty of kids whose parents have "pre-flunked" their kids at other schools whose birthdays are anywhere from December to May. This isn't about summer birthdays, this is about the Spring birthdays, which is really pushing the bar lower.

It is simply sad and the schools should not be encouraging it or allowing it.

(and the "pre-fluniking" term is brilliant - let's call it what it is!)

[Anonymous]

Since there appear to be a bunch of parents who are overly concerned about red-shirting, then I propose we eliminate all special resource teachers at school. Our children has never needed one. I frankly have no idea who they are at our Big 5 School, though I have no doubt they are excellent. I simply do not want to pay for them through tuition increases. If a child requires special resource teachers, the chilld probably should not be at that school. BTW. Redshirting may be one means to avoid the need to special resource teachers.

[Anonymous]

Please get over yourself. You would be surprised how many bright children need extra help with reading, math, spelling, etc. The child can be great in many areas but have one area where they need help. With a little extra help from the school, that child can be super successful and an asset to the school in the future. Sometimes as kids get older, they need help in one area that starts to stymy them. I gues your chid must be a robot. Always perfect alll the time.

[Anonymous]

That was one of the reasons we left our expensive, well-regarded school for a less-known one. Every time I volunteered at the school I saw other kids getting special help, while my bright kids never got any individualized attention at all. Where's the fairness in that? When the school started a "learning center" and I dared to ask at a parent meeting why we needed one, I was given the same line -- that 70% of kids have learning issues at some point in their careers. That still doesn't make it a just use of limited private school resources, particularly when most of the parents are well able to hire tutors (which is what the parents at our current school do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That was one of the reasons we left our expensive, well-regarded school for a less-known one. Every time I volunteered at the school I saw other kids getting special help, while my bright kids never got any individualized attention at all. Where's the fairness in that?

I know what you mean! At my kid's private school one time, I saw this kid who was having trouble beathing, and a teacher performed the Heimlich maneuver on him.. I mean, come on! My kid didn't get one -- how unfair was THAT???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That was one of the reasons we left our expensive, well-regarded school for a less-known one. Every time I volunteered at the school I saw other kids getting special help, while my bright kids never got any individualized attention at all. Where's the fairness in that? When the school started a "learning center" and I dared to ask at a parent meeting why we needed one, I was given the same line -- that 70% of kids have learning issues at some point in their careers. That still doesn't make it a just use of limited private school resources, particularly when most of the parents are well able to hire tutors (which is what the parents at our current school do).

One might suggest you missed the point. Too many parents are worried about something that is none of their business: namely, redshirting. It has never been an issue at our school, whether among children, parents or teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was one of the reasons we left our expensive, well-regarded school for a less-known one. Every time I volunteered at the school I saw other kids getting special help, while my bright kids never got any individualized attention at all. Where's the fairness in that?

I know what you mean! At my kid's private school one time, I saw this kid who was having trouble beathing, and a teacher performed the Heimlich maneuver on him.. I mean, come on! My kid didn't get one -- how unfair was THAT???

LOL! Thanks for this PP. I needed a good laugh today.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell skews older with an 18 month age spread in many grades

te=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard from friends that there is tons of redshirting at Sidwell and Maret, but I don't know that info firsthand.

I have a child at Sidwell, and as far as I can tell there is only one child in the entire grade that was held back. So in my experience at least, there is not much at all there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was one of the reasons we left our expensive, well-regarded school for a less-known one. Every time I volunteered at the school I saw other kids getting special help, while my bright kids never got any individualized attention at all. Where's the fairness in that?

I know what you mean! At my kid's private school one time, I saw this kid who was having trouble beathing, and a teacher performed the Heimlich maneuver on him.. I mean, come on! My kid didn't get one -- how unfair was THAT???

LOL. The anti-redshirters are clueless of the pain that parents who have to make this choice go through. They are just making assumptions about other people's motivations without facts. Emotional IQ of the child plus speech and language delays were the 100% reasons for our choice. I won't tell you that if you rudely demand to know why my 7 year old was in your kindergarten. He would have been lost, really brutally lost had he been in first grade. He is doing so much better because of it.

Nosy, mean, competitive bitches.

[Anonymous]

I actually was feeling sorry for you and your child's plight--until you started with the immature cursing and name calling. Perhaps those disparaging terms refer to you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was one of the reasons we left our expensive, well-regarded school for a less-known one. Every time I volunteered at the school I saw other kids getting special help, while my bright kids never got any individualized attention at all. Where's the fairness in that?

I know what you mean! At my kid's private school one time, I saw this kid who was having trouble beathing, and a teacher performed the Heimlich maneuver on him.. I mean, come on! My kid didn't get one -- how unfair was THAT???

LOL. The anti-redshirters are clueless of the pain that parents who have to make this choice go through. They are just making assumptions about other people's motivations without facts. Emotional IQ of the child plus speech and language delays were the 100% reasons for our choice. I won't tell you that if you rudely demand to know why my 7 year old was in your kindergarten. He would have been lost, really brutally lost had he been in first grade. He is doing so much better because of it.

Nosy, mean, competitive bitches.