Why do some privates seem to hold back (want older kids) for K?

[Anonymous]

I'm really curious. Is there a reason schools do this? Is it special needs schools or a mix of privates? Is it something unique to this area? Is it b/c private school curriculum is more intense than public school? Like I said, I am genuinely interested. Not looking to start a major debate, just looking for insight.

[Anonymous]

In general, age (and accompanying maturity) is an advantage because neurodevelopmentally your child is getting more advanced with every month. You would expect improved coordination, fine-motor skills (drawing, cutting, writing), language use, vocabulary, memory, ability to sit and focus for longer periods of time, etc.

[Anonymous]

To make their lives easier. What K teacher wouldn't want a class fukll of 6 year olds?

[Anonymous]

The don't, at least in my experience at GDS. The vast majority of kids are "on time" in DD's PK/K class, and there is even a fairly sizable cohort of summer birthdays.

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten has become more demanding, and some younger children may find it a struggle.

[Anonymous]

In cases where it is the boys they want to hold back, I think they want them to be more mature (this is just my opinion) This is a little sad to me because a boy could be very bright and eager to learn even though if he has a harder time sitting still. It certainly makes the teacher's job easier though.

[Anonymous]

Because the easiest way to make your students look advanced is to load your classes with older kids.

It's exasperating. I get that public schools are now expected to meet certain standardized markers, but isn't one of the advantages of independent schools supposed to be that they don't have to answer to some statewide bureaucracy and its age-inappropriate expectations.

Kindergarten didn't magically become more demanding. People chose to make it that way.

[Anonymous]

Winning! duh

[Anonymous]

OP here. I shoud have said--except for those schools who do it for athletic reasons.

[Anonymous]

higher ERB stats?

[Anonymous]

I am a former 1st grade teacher and I see both sides of this issue. The older students really are so much more mature. It is easier for teachers and schools. I also understand parents' frustration when their children are not accepted because of their age, especially when they are willing to pay top dollar to have their child enroll in a particular school. But,for all the parents who think that accommodating their child who is very bright and has a lot of potential but cannot sit still is NOT a problem in the classroom, you are wrong. I worked really hard to accommodate for my less mature students who were unable to remain focused and while overall, the students do all still learn in the end, the hard truth is that time IS taken away from other students to accommodate the rambunctious ones.

I taught at a public school, so there were a variety of ages in my classroom. While I loved teaching all of my students, I often wonder, how much more extension could I have done with my higher students (or remediation with my lower students) if I hadn't spent all that time on an individual behavior plan for x/provided an exercise ball for y who could not sit in a regular chair/performed 1 on 1 assessments for z because he could not focus like the majority of the class. X, Y and Z were all students who were too young (6ish months younger than the rest of the class). They have no issues other than that. At some point, someone will probably think one or all of these students have ADHD or some kind of other problem when the real problem is maturity.

So, that rambunctious student in your child's kindergarten class who is 6 months younger than your child is absolutely taking time/resources away from the class as a whole. If I was paying $24,000 for kindergarten, I would not want that child in my child's class. Maybe it isn't fair, but can you blame me? If my kid is that child, it sucks for me, but he might need to spend another year in preK.

[Anonymous]

As we are now learning, this can be a very complicated issue. We held my son back a year in a transitional kindergarten this past year because he had some developmental delays, and needed the time for social growth. he is a May birthday. At no time, however, has he been an issue in the classroom for other kids - he focuses well, and is a model student. This year we applied for kindergarten at multiple schools, and were strtled when many of the schools wanted to consider him for first grade because he had accelerated himself in math and reading over two years ahead of his age peers. We have gotten acceptances and are on active waitlists at five schools, and had to work with each school to figure out the best slot for our child in each school. For some of them it became clear that there was a yojnger class in 1st grade, and because of his precociousness it would be a better fit for him to be in 1st grade. At other schools they tend tpo have older classes, and to put him in first would be a mistake for social reasons - one of the schools that did that could accomodate his intellect anyway, one probably can't. In the end, it has come down to working closely with each school throughout this entire admission process for us to begin to have a pecking order of what will be the best fit for our child. In all the schools' minds, he could be in their kindergarten or firstgrade classroom setting and be fine - there have just been multiple factors as to where his best placement will be.

For some parents, this is not an easy question to sort out the answer to, and that largely rests on how the school/child fit will be at each school.

[Anonymous]

11:56 - thank you for your perspective.

I wonder if instead of redshirting kids, schools should consider how they divide their early grades classrooms. Older Kindergarten (those born between Sept. and mar) and younger kindergarten (born between April and August).

Or go to more single sex classrooms esp. in the early grades.

[Anonymous]

12:18, that is an interesting idea. (I am 11:56) I could also see that kind of a split turning into the perception of an "advanced" v. "remedial" kindergarten class. Guess how many parents would want their child in the "younger" kindergarten class then? This is such a sticky issue!

[Anonymous]

12:07 here again. I have heard that a few schools, somewhere, have a transitional 1st grade. I assume the kids in a transitional 1st grade are those who had been a transitional kindergarten, in my son's class, May through Novemeber birthdays. In this way, essentially, it is a different definition of which kids belong grouped together than a full year - I have also heard that many years ago, there were 6 month divisions between "grades" of kids. It mioght be that for many kids, a 6 month window will work better for them for more years than in pre-school, and perhaps some school somewhere could develop more of this type of grouping system. Then, it isn't remedial vs. advanced, or what have you, but a tighter grouping, with less variability in social maturity.