What % of the class was held back/red-shirted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I have a child with an early December birthday whom we had no choice but to “hold back.” He is in class with some kids who are 18 months older. He holds his own academically, it is a bit young on the social side.

I have never blamed other parents who decided to hold their kids back for the fact that my son is on the youngish side socially. No matter when kids go to school, some will be more immature than others. The oldest kid in my son’s class last year was extremely shy, and I could totally see why he was held back. I felt a little sorry for him, though, because other kids knew he was older and sometimes made a thing out of it.

I have an early September birthday, and I was the youngest kid in my class growing up. It wasn’t until I was a mom that I realized that was why I was somewhat socially clueless, i.e. not into the gossiping, clothes, and boys that started at 5th grade for many of my classmates. Or, that could have been a personality thing. Who knows?

Trying to game the system when it comes to redshirting is a silly, fruitless endeavor. Even if a certain grade looked a certain way one year, it is not necessarily predictive of the future.

How can your December birthday kid have classmates that are 18 months older? In DC a December kid is amongst the oldest in the class except for the fall and redshirted kids of course

Um, not very bright are you? Hint: the answer is contained in your comments.

Ahaha ok... so pp is saying that there are kids that were redshirted twice? In order to be 18 months older than a December birthday they had to be born in July and redshirted twice. If a July birthday is redshirted once, he will only be 6 months older than the December birthday kid. This is bs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I have a child with an early December birthday whom we had no choice but to “hold back.” He is in class with some kids who are 18 months older. He holds his own academically, it is a bit young on the social side.

I have never blamed other parents who decided to hold their kids back for the fact that my son is on the youngish side socially. No matter when kids go to school, some will be more immature than others. The oldest kid in my son’s class last year was extremely shy, and I could totally see why he was held back. I felt a little sorry for him, though, because other kids knew he was older and sometimes made a thing out of it.

I have an early September birthday, and I was the youngest kid in my class growing up. It wasn’t until I was a mom that I realized that was why I was somewhat socially clueless, i.e. not into the gossiping, clothes, and boys that started at 5th grade for many of my classmates. Or, that could have been a personality thing. Who knows?

Trying to game the system when it comes to redshirting is a silly, fruitless endeavor. Even if a certain grade looked a certain way one year, it is not necessarily predictive of the future.

How can your December birthday kid have classmates that are 18 months older? In DC a December kid is amongst the oldest in the class except for the fall and redshirted kids of course

Um, not very bright are you? Hint: the answer is contained in your comments.

Ahaha ok... so pp is saying that there are kids that were redshirted twice? In order to be 18 months older than a December birthday they had to be born in July and redshirted twice. If a July birthday is redshirted once, he will only be 6 months older than the December birthday kid. This is bs

Agreed, this makes no sense. A December kid may have summer birthday classmates who went on time in their class as well as summer birthdays who were redshirted. But the December kid is only six months older or younger than either set of kids. To have an 18-month difference, a summer birthday kid would have to have started kindergarten at age seven, which is pretty unheard of barring special needs, even for the hardest core redshirters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I have a child with an early December birthday whom we had no choice but to “hold back.” He is in class with some kids who are 18 months older. He holds his own academically, it is a bit young on the social side.

I have never blamed other parents who decided to hold their kids back for the fact that my son is on the youngish side socially. No matter when kids go to school, some will be more immature than others. The oldest kid in my son’s class last year was extremely shy, and I could totally see why he was held back. I felt a little sorry for him, though, because other kids knew he was older and sometimes made a thing out of it.

I have an early September birthday, and I was the youngest kid in my class growing up. It wasn’t until I was a mom that I realized that was why I was somewhat socially clueless, i.e. not into the gossiping, clothes, and boys that started at 5th grade for many of my classmates. Or, that could have been a personality thing. Who knows?

Trying to game the system when it comes to redshirting is a silly, fruitless endeavor. Even if a certain grade looked a certain way one year, it is not necessarily predictive of the future.

How can your December birthday kid have classmates that are 18 months older? In DC a December kid is amongst the oldest in the class except for the fall and redshirted kids of course

Um, not very bright are you? Hint: the answer is contained in your comments.

You are wrong and clearly PP is smarter than you

[Anonymous]

I had a summer boy (August b-day) with some attention/social issues in K who we held back. He is now in high school and it was the best decision we ever made. He is a little older, taller and more physically mature than some classmates and the truth is it gives him an advantage in some ways. But this is something he needed to catch up emotionally and socially. There are at least 6 kids at his big 3 school who are OLDER than him - i'm talking spring b-days that make them over a year older than kids in the grade. I am sure this makes some people understandably uncomfortable.

His female sibling started on time and is in the middle of her grade in terms of age and is fine. I see this as mainly a thing for boys who are punished in our school system for having less executive function than girls at early ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I have a child with an early December birthday whom we had no choice but to “hold back.” He is in class with some kids who are 18 months older. He holds his own academically, it is a bit young on the social side.

I have never blamed other parents who decided to hold their kids back for the fact that my son is on the youngish side socially. No matter when kids go to school, some will be more immature than others. The oldest kid in my son’s class last year was extremely shy, and I could totally see why he was held back. I felt a little sorry for him, though, because other kids knew he was older and sometimes made a thing out of it.

I have an early September birthday, and I was the youngest kid in my class growing up. It wasn’t until I was a mom that I realized that was why I was somewhat socially clueless, i.e. not into the gossiping, clothes, and boys that started at 5th grade for many of my classmates. Or, that could have been a personality thing. Who knows?

Trying to game the system when it comes to redshirting is a silly, fruitless endeavor. Even if a certain grade looked a certain way one year, it is not necessarily predictive of the future.

How can your December birthday kid have classmates that are 18 months older? In DC a December kid is amongst the oldest in the class except for the fall and redshirted kids of course

Um, not very bright are you? Hint: the answer is contained in your comments.

You are wrong and clearly PP is smarter than you

So sad, little sock puppet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well you cannot make this decision in a silo any longer. It used to be well, my kid is ready to sit, focus, learn. Or not.
Now it is, is my kid socially, academically, behaviorly, able to be the youngest by 12-18 mos in his/her class grade year after year after year.
Other parents decision to redshirt absolutely affects the class dynamic.

I could not agree more with this post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One boy with a late Spring birthday started pk at 4
One boy with a late summer birthday, ie right before the 9/1 cut off, started pk at 5. Spring boy very tall for his age and is doing well in school summer boy average height but emotionally a bit young and is also doing very well in school. People should not be concerned about the age of other kids in the class. As long as your child is learning and thriving, what business is it of anyone how old another child is?

It is my business when my kid is being judged against kids 15 months older for sports teams, higher academic tracks, and social skills. My 11 year old was in class with 13 year olds last year. It is ridiculous.

This!

Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this. Do not go to this private school. Problem solved.

Start naming the private schools that create this sort of student body class so we know. Who are they?

I agree with this. My kid was in a class with this type of age difference and the parents bragged about their kids athletic performance. The kid had started puberty and was a year and a half older than everyone else. It was ridiculous. The same kid was not allowed to play with their classmates in leagues that had birthdate cutoffs versus grade cutoffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One boy with a late Spring birthday started pk at 4
One boy with a late summer birthday, ie right before the 9/1 cut off, started pk at 5. Spring boy very tall for his age and is doing well in school summer boy average height but emotionally a bit young and is also doing very well in school. People should not be concerned about the age of other kids in the class. As long as your child is learning and thriving, what business is it of anyone how old another child is?

It is my business when my kid is being judged against kids 15 months older for sports teams, higher academic tracks, and social skills. My 11 year old was in class with 13 year olds last year. It is ridiculous.

This!

Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this. Do not go to this private school. Problem solved.

Start naming the private schools that create this sort of student body class so we know. Who are they?

I agree with this. My kid was in a class with this type of age difference and the parents bragged about their kids athletic performance. The kid had started puberty and was a year and a half older than everyone else. It was ridiculous. The same kid was not allowed to play with their classmates in leagues that had birthdate cutoffs versus grade cutoffs.

Yes, athletics is where I see that it can matter most for boys. Academically, the youngest people tend to be very bright, as this is often a factor in why they started school "on time."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well you cannot make this decision in a silo any longer. It used to be well, my kid is ready to sit, focus, learn. Or not.
Now it is, is my kid socially, academically, behaviorly, able to be the youngest by 12-18 mos in his/her class grade year after year after year.
Other parents decision to redshirt absolutely affects the class dynamic.

I could not agree more with this post.

+1
Skewing the class older with clumps of spring and summer redshirt kids absolutely changes things in all three of those aspects, every year a different way.

I did not know America has such a span in each supposed grade. Doesn't everyone just hold back their children then, more and more?

[Anonymous]

God you people are complainers. Cry me a river! Just deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God you people are complainers. Cry me a river! Just deal.

+1,000 my kids have had about a 16 month range of birthdays in their classes. They've been among the oldest and youngest (although actually followed the cutoffs). They really didn't find this to be a big deal AT ALL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well you cannot make this decision in a silo any longer. It used to be well, my kid is ready to sit, focus, learn. Or not.
Now it is, is my kid socially, academically, behaviorly, able to be the youngest by 12-18 mos in his/her class grade year after year after year.
Other parents decision to redshirt absolutely affects the class dynamic.

I could not agree more with this post.

+1
Skewing the class older with clumps of spring and summer redshirt kids absolutely changes things in all three of those aspects, every year a different way.

I did not know America has such a span in each supposed grade. Doesn't everyone just hold back their children then, more and more?

Not everyone. Childcare is expensive and many people can't swing an optional extra year. There are also people who believe their children are perfectly capable of handling the grade. So for the past two decades, which is as long as I've been watching it casually, it appears to be that it's not at all surprising for children with a birthday the month or two before the cut off to be held back. And some children with birthdays before that as well. But beyond that it's pretty rare. This is just what I've observed, in my upper middle class community. Typically, if a child with a birthday more than 3 months before the cut off is held back, it's because something happened. Either a health problem, a much beloved grandparent died the year before school began and the child/family has been grieving, etc. It's usually tied to something beyond "my child is small/immature." It probably helps that girls aren't redshirted as much, so there's both upward and downward pressure on the practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well you cannot make this decision in a silo any longer. It used to be well, my kid is ready to sit, focus, learn. Or not.
Now it is, is my kid socially, academically, behaviorly, able to be the youngest by 12-18 mos in his/her class grade year after year after year.
Other parents decision to redshirt absolutely affects the class dynamic.

I could not agree more with this post.

+1
Skewing the class older with clumps of spring and summer redshirt kids absolutely changes things in all three of those aspects, every year a different way.

I did not know America has such a span in each supposed grade. Doesn't everyone just hold back their children then, more and more?

Not everyone. Childcare is expensive and many people can't swing an optional extra year. There are also people who believe their children are perfectly capable of handling the grade. So for the past two decades, which is as long as I've been watching it casually, it appears to be that it's not at all surprising for children with a birthday the month or two before the cut off to be held back. And some children with birthdays before that as well. But beyond that it's pretty rare. This is just what I've observed, in my upper middle class community. Typically, if a child with a birthday more than 3 months before the cut off is held back, it's because something happened. Either a health problem, a much beloved grandparent died the year before school began and the child/family has been grieving, etc. It's usually tied to something beyond "my child is small/immature." It probably helps that girls aren't redshirted as much, so there's both upward and downward pressure on the practice.

[Anonymous]

So don't send your kids to private school if you don't like redshirting. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God you people are complainers. Cry me a river! Just deal.

+1,000 my kids have had about a 16 month range of birthdays in their classes. They've been among the oldest and youngest (although actually followed the cutoffs). They really didn't find this to be a big deal AT ALL.

This hasn't been my DCs' experience. All of my DCs have been physically hurt multiple times by the held back boys who were large for their age and larger because they were held back. They problem is, a lot of parents hold back their boys because they think they're not ready behaviourwise. The truth is, a lot of these boys are just brats because there is no discipline in their homes so, another year doesn't change these boys' behaviour.