
Woww this was a very funny read and basically confirms but also - honestly - truly surpasses my assumption about what was going on on this thread. What is that lady’s story?! |
Why is it infuriating? If the conclusion is that classrooms can't accommodate the youngest in a room with a 12-14 month range, what does redshirting solve? There will always be kids who are youngest in class. With red shirting, the potential range within the same class is even wider, making it even harder to teach to both ends of the age spectrum represented. Fwiw my dd has a late November birthday and is thriving in her NYC public elementary school despite turning five several months into kindergarten. She's in older ES now. |
Why would that be the case is the private schools in NYC are handling it just fine, and other public districts across the country are handling it just fine as well? |
DP. It's infuriating because it is totally inequitable and frankly unfair to certain kids regardless of where they fall on the social-economic spectrum. Every kid is different, but some kids come to school with challenges, whether that involves coming from poverty or a family that does not speak English or never having had high-quality pre-school, or having ADHD or whatever reason, starting school with those challenges puts kids at a disadvantage and is compounded by being the youngest (especially in NYC where kids are only 4). It is well established that the youngest in the grade are more likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities or ADHD. Lower-income families have fewer resources to address those issues. A rigid cutoff that includes 4-year-olds in kindergarten is setting way too many kids up to fail. Are you aware that there's a world out there that doesn't just revolve around your superstar elementary schooler with a November birthday? This isn't about gaining an advantage; it's about being realistic about where kids are developmentally and whether they are able to be successful when they start school. |
We’ll probably redshirt our girls assuming the school lets us. I don’t want them being the smallest or youngest in their grades. |
May I ask why? Having grown up the smallest and youngest in my classes my entire life, I turned out really well. I was at or near the top of my class, was salutatorian, scholarship to college which I finished in 3 years and now im an SES fed. I’ve done the same for one of my kids who is the youngest and one of the smallest but doing very well too and is near the top of his class. I suppose they’d be brilliant if they were in the grade below but I don’t think that would be particularly challenging. I just don’t recall having any issues with my size or age. Academically, I belonged, and socially, I was quieter but if your kid is smart, most can figure out social cues and make friends as well. I guess I’m wondering why parents are trying to engineer their kids life to make it easier it seems. How can potential be reached? Or how can resilience be taught if we’re just removing all challenges? It’s one thing if it’s a diagnosed challenge like a learning disability or ADHD, but if it’s just based on age and size, it seems a bit much. |
I didn’t come this far just to come to this far |
No one is doing that. Why are you so offended that some people made a different decision for their kids than you did? What impact does it make on you or your kid? |
I'm not the immediate PP. I also was among the smallest and the youngest in my class and I did fine. I'm female. My DS is one of the youngest in his class and he has dyslexia. He's a late bloomer and one of the smallest. The dyslexia part is fine. I wouldn't hold back for that and the literature supports not holding back. Simply being younger is okay for him too but results may vary. The smallest, however, is a different kettle of fish for males once you start hitting late MS and HS. There is a lot of literature on this. OP has a DD so this isn't immediately relevant to her. However, there is a body of literature about it and that is why testosterone injections can be offered to boys with delayed puberty. Being the smallest isn't always no "small" thing. |
It is funny and I also wonder what the story is. It has been obvious for years that DCUM anti-redshirters are a very weird, very unhinged group. I have to say, years of reading DCUM has taught me to back away slowly and carefully from anyone who even slightly mentions not liking redshirting in real life. 🤣🤣 |
DP here. I have a child with an August birthday that started K on time. There are kids that redshirted and are a full year older than him. I do resent that they have an easier time with some of the academics and are better in sports because they are older and taller. My kid does pretty well especially considering his age, but I have to remind him that other kids are older, so he can’t always compare his abilities to theirs directly. |
+1. And people like the PP almost always have a daughter they are gloating about being so mature and ahead of the others when they are young when the data clearly shows that boys are at risk. |
Yes, well said. There isn’t much evidence that supports the idea that rigid cutoffs benefit any kids, and there is evidence extrapolated from the ADHD studies that flexibility can help. Anti-redshirt posters take the idea of rigid cutoffs being the best as some sort of gospel truth, but can never come up with any hard evidence that shows why they view that rigidity as so beneficial. And NYC has been this rigid and this much of an outlier for years: if a rigid approach to redshirting was so educationally good, and led to better outcomes, we should have the comparative data to show it by now. There should be several piles of data showing NYC is right. But we have nothing. There is a reason NYC is such an outlier and it doesn’t reflect well on the NYC school system. |
And there it is, the zero-sum blood sport approach to education. Not everyone approaches education and parenting as this vicious cage match. |
What are the unique risks for boys? Is it being smaller for sports? Or are there some other issues? |