This age discrepancy due to "redshirting" is ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If this were one or two kids, it really would get lost in the noise. But like I point out, at my kid's school, she's the youngest by 3 months, and she has a June birthday. It's ridiculous.

What school does your child go to?

A non-DC private.

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Believe me, you wouldn't have wanted my just-turning-five- boy starting kindergarten with your child. He would have disrupted class the entire year. Now at the late end of 5 he is ready to sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time and is receptive to learning things. It's a win-win situation -- he won't have to feel like a bad boy for constantly getting time outs for not listening or feel stupid for not getting the academic stuff, and his classmates won't have their learning time interrupted by the disruptive kid running around, talking too much, wanting to play when he should be listening to a book during circle time, crying because he hated the work and probably needed a little nap.

Is that what we want for Kindergarten, though? A place where a developmentally perfectly average child wouldn't function well, because the standards are higher than what the average child can manage?

Sure, I agree -- it's not what I want for kindergarten, no way. But it is the reality, and so I kept him back until he was ready for the 1st grade environment that kindergarten has become.

That makes perfect sense, and is right in line with everyone saying you make the best choice for your child. But it's also in line with those of us who get frustrated with redshirting saying that the trend reinforces itself making the choice to send a child on time more and more difficult.

This is another case where we argue with each other (because everyone's frustrated) and it distracts from fixing the problem. Not that it's really that fixable. We're just some of the consumers. I know my dislike of homework in elementary school (because study after study shows it's not even remotely helpful) was countered by other parents who sought out additional homework for their child. I'm sure my belief that K should be age appropriate is in direct contrast to some parent who honestly believes their little Larla should be translating Cicero in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If this were one or two kids, it really would get lost in the noise. But like I point out, at my kid's school, she's the youngest by 3 months, and she has a June birthday. It's ridiculous.

What school does your child go to?

A non-DC private.

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

It wasn't common knowledge for me, and it's not something any of the schools disclosed. Since I've been in the private school environment, I've learned it's very common. It's also not uncommon in my area public schools, in part because test scores are so important that there's a ridiculous over-investment in K and 1st graders becoming fluent readers. While it's perfectly age appropriate for a child to still be an emerging reader at 6, 7, and gaining fluency at 8, perhaps even as the child approaches 9, the schools need their test scores to reflect how fabulous they are. This encourages redshirting. My child had a friend who year-after-year (until 3rd grade) was recommended for retention solely on the basis of reading scores. Everything else was on or above grade level, but because that child was taking a little bit longer to become a fluent reader, the school wanted to retain her.

That's not for the benefit of the child, that's for the benefit of the school. But they sell it as benefiting the child. Not stressing her out. Giving her more time to mature. She ended up perfectly fine, because she was perfectly fine all along, because there's a range for brain development and becoming a fluent reader. Schools don't care, public or private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If this were one or two kids, it really would get lost in the noise. But like I point out, at my kid's school, she's the youngest by 3 months, and she has a June birthday. It's ridiculous.

What school does your child go to?

A non-DC private.

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

It wasn't common knowledge for me, and it's not something any of the schools disclosed. Since I've been in the private school environment, I've learned it's very common. It's also not uncommon in my area public schools, in part because test scores are so important that there's a ridiculous over-investment in K and 1st graders becoming fluent readers. While it's perfectly age appropriate for a child to still be an emerging reader at 6, 7, and gaining fluency at 8, perhaps even as the child approaches 9, the schools need their test scores to reflect how fabulous they are. This encourages redshirting. My child had a friend who year-after-year (until 3rd grade) was recommended for retention solely on the basis of reading scores. Everything else was on or above grade level, but because that child was taking a little bit longer to become a fluent reader, the school wanted to retain her.

That's not for the benefit of the child, that's for the benefit of the school. But they sell it as benefiting the child. Not stressing her out. Giving her more time to mature. She ended up perfectly fine, because she was perfectly fine all along, because there's a range for brain development and becoming a fluent reader. Schools don't care, public or private.

I don't know how you could have avoided hearing about it. Every private school we looked at mentioned holding back our June birthday DD...BEFORE THEY EVEN MET HER OR READ ANY MATERIAL ON HER.

[Anonymous]

Being 1 - 60 days older than the kid born in October is not 365 days older thank kids in KG. I don't know why so many DCUMers have a hard time with basic math. The only redshirted kids I know were born in August or September and are 1 - 60 days older than the next child born in October. I think some are trying really hard to make their point using false numbers. I really don't understand how my September kid starting KG at the age of 5, instead of 4, is SO bad?? If my child had not been born 3 weeks early, DC would have been an October baby, anyway. FWIW, DC was ready in every aspect, we chose to wait until the age of 5 to start school. Period.

[Anonymous]

TO me the rule should be NO CHILD starts kindergarten until they are age 5. 4-year-olds don't belong in today's kindergarten. It IS the new first grade.

Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Being 1 - 60 days older than the kid born in October is not 365 days older thank kids in KG. I don't know why so many DCUMers have a hard time with basic math. The only redshirted kids I know were born in August or September and are 1 - 60 days older than the next child born in October. I think some are trying really hard to make their point using false numbers. I really don't understand how my September kid starting KG at the age of 5, instead of 4, is SO bad?? If my child had not been born 3 weeks early, DC would have been an October baby, anyway. FWIW, DC was ready in every aspect, we chose to wait until the age of 5 to start school. Period.

I would have done the same thing.

[Anonymous]

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

In privates, it is a battle not to redshirt a child. A child moving from public to private is usually asked to repeat a year for exactly this reason. Most of the angry anti-redshirting posts are clearly from public school parents who are strangely angered by their children consorting with children not identically aged with their own. Meh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

In privates, it is a battle not to redshirt a child. A child moving from public to private is usually asked to repeat a year for exactly this reason. Most of the angry anti-redshirting posts are clearly from public school parents who are strangely angered by their children consorting with children not identically aged with their own. Meh.

It's not common in our son's private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

In privates, it is a battle not to redshirt a child. A child moving from public to private is usually asked to repeat a year for exactly this reason. Most of the angry anti-redshirting posts are clearly from public school parents who are strangely angered by their children consorting with children not identically aged with their own. Meh.

It's not common in our son's private school.

Is your son's private a Catholic school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

In privates, it is a battle not to redshirt a child. A child moving from public to private is usually asked to repeat a year for exactly this reason. Most of the angry anti-redshirting posts are clearly from public school parents who are strangely angered by their children consorting with children not identically aged with their own. Meh.

It's not common in our son's private school.

Is your son's private a Catholic school?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, DC was ready in every aspect, we chose to wait until the age of 5 to start school.

You can understand why that seems like a strange choice to some of us, though, right? Even if it's your choice to make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. It's weird that my 4 year old is in a kindergarten class with a boy who just turned 7.

And when she enters her senior year of high school, that 7 yo will turn 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. It's weird that my 4 year old is in a kindergarten class with a boy who just turned 7.

And when she enters her senior year of high school, that 7 yo will turn 20.

These redshirting threads are great people-watching due to the consistently undereducated and math-challenged posters. Bear with me here as I walk you through this. If someone turns 7 in kindergarten, that child had to be 6 at the start of the year to be consistent with VA laws. Add 1 to 6 and you get 7 sometime during the kindergarten year. Given that parents rarely hold back a fall child, that 7th birthday is likely sometime in the spring. In first grade, that child will turn 8. So, here is where it gets tricky. One plus eleven equals 12 for twelfth grade (that's the grade for high school seniors). Add a corresponding 11 to the 8-year-old first grader and you get 19 . . . sometime in the spring. My god, you're right, the horror!! 19 in highschool! I didn't turn 19 until November of my freshman year in college. That is wildly different. (Tune in for my next post, where I explain the literary concept of sarcasm.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you wanted a class with less redshirted kids you should have gone public. It's common knowledge that redshirting is common in privates.

In privates, it is a battle not to redshirt a child. A child moving from public to private is usually asked to repeat a year for exactly this reason. Most of the angry anti-redshirting posts are clearly from public school parents who are strangely angered by their children consorting with children not identically aged with their own. Meh.

It's not common in our son's private school.

Is your son's private a Catholic school?

Yes

Not as common in Catholic schools.