Rich DC lacrosse parents let kids repeat grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article is a joke. Redshirting is common at all area privates for boys -- the schools encourage it and it isn't for lacrosse. However, it isn't occurring at the middle school level, it occurs at the kindergarten level. Notice that the article never mentions when the "redshirting" actually occurs, it just (falsely) implies that it is middle or high school.

You aren't quite understanding -- these boys are DOUBLE held back. Once when they're 5.25, meaning they begin school st age 6, and then again when they're in middle school. So they are almost 2 full years (but not quite) older than some of the girls in their grade at the time of graduation.

They only do this if it does not interfere with eligibility. They have to be 18 on the 1st day of school. So they can turn 19 during the school year.

So enter K as a 5 yo, you eventually enter 12th as a 17 yo. if they redshirt once they are 18 but if they redshirt twice they are 19 ... so that does not work. But for kids that are in 9th right now started school if they were 5 by November 1st (in MoCo). So they are technically redshirted twice if they are born in September or October.

Yes I am pp and I agree. A boy needs to retain eligibility so he can't be 23 and in high school. This ploy I spoke of really advantages the boys whose birthdays are in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I red-shirted for similar reasons but at a much younger age. Schools in VA place children in grades not by birth year, but by age in September. Keeping my LO on the state's track would have made her the youngest every year. Not fair to her, so I kept her back to give her an advantage. I have no guilt or shame.

Both my kids are youngest in their class every year, too - summer babies. They are at above grade level for reading and math. DS is smallest in his class, but extremely bright. I could not imagine how bored he'd be if I held him back. He got into GT. Yes, he has some physical disadvantages in sports, but life is not fair. I am not going to manipulate his life to make it fair for him. I tell him some kids are going to be better than others in some things, like he is better in academics than most of his peers. He's not perfect and will not excel in every single thing he does. But we still encourage him to try sports and compete with his grade level peers. He is probably going to be one of those kids who are picked last for sports. Yes, I feel bad for him, but like I said, I will not remove every obstacle in life for him -- now that would be unfair to him.

My take on redshirting to be "fair" is if every parent felt that way, then all of our kids would start K at 7 or 8 because we'd just keep one uping each other and wanting the "best" for our kids.

You do know everything you wrote has nothing to do with the subject of,the thread, right? In a similar vein, I had oatmeal for breakfast and my favorite color is green. Didn't that add a lot to the topic of lacrosse and holding back middle school kids? No?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article is a joke. Redshirting is common at all area privates for boys -- the schools encourage it and it isn't for lacrosse. However, it isn't occurring at the middle school level, it occurs at the kindergarten level. Notice that the article never mentions when the "redshirting" actually occurs, it just (falsely) implies that it is middle or high school.

You aren't quite understanding -- these boys are DOUBLE held back. Once when they're 5.25, meaning they begin school st age 6, and then again when they're in middle school. So they are almost 2 full years (but not quite) older than some of the girls in their grade at the time of graduation.

They only do this if it does not interfere with eligibility. They have to be 18 on the 1st day of school. So they can turn 19 during the school year.

So enter K as a 5 yo, you eventually enter 12th as a 17 yo. if they redshirt once they are 18 but if they redshirt twice they are 19 ... so that does not work. But for kids that are in 9th right now started school if they were 5 by November 1st (in MoCo). So they are technically redshirted twice if they are born in September or October.

My nephew with an August Bday graduated HS at 17 and dominated Lacrosse. He got both an academic and a Lacrosse scholarship.

You got it or you don't. Let those big dummies hang back.

Where did he go to school, generally... DC, Baltimore, NY?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What child would allow this - I can't imagine anything more humiliating than being held back in 6th grade.

If LAX is your world and your best friends are doing it too- AND your parents want you to. Why not?

So strange. My son play LAX and is quite good and his best friends play LAX and my husband coached until my son moved to professional coaches and NEVER EVER would we ever hold him back. I've never heard of it, however I don't live in DC proper, so must be a DC thing. Though we are a LAX family, school comes first. We are very proud of his sports accomplishments, but even more proud of his academic accomplishments.

No, it's a suburban thing. None of the schools mentioned in the article are in "DC proper."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What child would allow this - I can't imagine anything more humiliating than being held back in 6th grade.

If LAX is your world and your best friends are doing it too- AND your parents want you to. Why not?

So strange. My son play LAX and is quite good and his best friends play LAX and my husband coached until my son moved to professional coaches and NEVER EVER would we ever hold him back. I've never heard of it, however I don't live in DC proper, so must be a DC thing. Though we are a LAX family, school comes first. We are very proud of his sports accomplishments, but even more proud of his academic accomplishments.

No, it's a suburban thing. None of the schools mentioned in the article are in "DC proper."

No it is a prep school thing. If the Prep school is in DC or the Suburbs. There just happens to be more in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I red-shirted for similar reasons but at a much younger age. Schools in VA place children in grades not by birth year, but by age in September. Keeping my LO on the state's track would have made her the youngest every year. Not fair to her, so I kept her back to give her an advantage. I have no guilt or shame.

Both my kids are youngest in their class every year, too - summer babies. They are at above grade level for reading and math. DS is smallest in his class, but extremely bright. I could not imagine how bored he'd be if I held him back. He got into GT. Yes, he has some physical disadvantages in sports, but life is not fair. I am not going to manipulate his life to make it fair for him. I tell him some kids are going to be better than others in some things, like he is better in academics than most of his peers. He's not perfect and will not excel in every single thing he does. But we still encourage him to try sports and compete with his grade level peers. He is probably going to be one of those kids who are picked last for sports. Yes, I feel bad for him, but like I said, I will not remove every obstacle in life for him -- now that would be unfair to him.

My take on redshirting to be "fair" is if every parent felt that way, then all of our kids would start K at 7 or 8 because we'd just keep one uping each other and wanting the "best" for our kids.

You do know everything you wrote has nothing to do with the subject of,the thread, right? In a similar vein, I had oatmeal for breakfast and my favorite color is green. Didn't that add a lot to the topic of lacrosse and holding back middle school kids? No?

You do know that I was directly answer the PP stating the child redshirted because of age...that had nothing to do with LAX, either. You do also know that threads tend to diverge from the original topic? I had an egg omelette for breakfast, but my favorite color is green, too. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I red-shirted for similar reasons but at a much younger age. Schools in VA place children in grades not by birth year, but by age in September. Keeping my LO on the state's track would have made her the youngest every year. Not fair to her, so I kept her back to give her an advantage. I have no guilt or shame.

Both my kids are youngest in their class every year, too - summer babies. They are at above grade level for reading and math. DS is smallest in his class, but extremely bright. I could not imagine how bored he'd be if I held him back. He got into GT. Yes, he has some physical disadvantages in sports, but life is not fair. I am not going to manipulate his life to make it fair for him. I tell him some kids are going to be better than others in some things, like he is better in academics than most of his peers. He's not perfect and will not excel in every single thing he does. But we still encourage him to try sports and compete with his grade level peers. He is probably going to be one of those kids who are picked last for sports. Yes, I feel bad for him, but like I said, I will not remove every obstacle in life for him -- now that would be unfair to him.

My take on redshirting to be "fair" is if every parent felt that way, then all of our kids would start K at 7 or 8 because we'd just keep one uping each other and wanting the "best" for our kids.

You do know everything you wrote has nothing to do with the subject of,the thread, right? In a similar vein, I had oatmeal for breakfast and my favorite color is green. Didn't that add a lot to the topic of lacrosse and holding back middle school kids? No?

You are wrong. Her post is clearly relevant. You may not like what she had to say (lemme guess - you redshirted your kid) but that doesn't make her post irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I red-shirted for similar reasons but at a much younger age. Schools in VA place children in grades not by birth year, but by age in September. Keeping my LO on the state's track would have made her the youngest every year. Not fair to her, so I kept her back to give her an advantage. I have no guilt or shame.

Both my kids are youngest in their class every year, too - summer babies. They are at above grade level for reading and math. DS is smallest in his class, but extremely bright. I could not imagine how bored he'd be if I held him back. He got into GT. Yes, he has some physical disadvantages in sports, but life is not fair. I am not going to manipulate his life to make it fair for him. I tell him some kids are going to be better than others in some things, like he is better in academics than most of his peers. He's not perfect and will not excel in every single thing he does. But we still encourage him to try sports and compete with his grade level peers. He is probably going to be one of those kids who are picked last for sports. Yes, I feel bad for him, but like I said, I will not remove every obstacle in life for him -- now that would be unfair to him.

My take on redshirting to be "fair" is if every parent felt that way, then all of our kids would start K at 7 or 8 because we'd just keep one uping each other and wanting the "best" for our kids.

You do know everything you wrote has nothing to do with the subject of,the thread, right? In a similar vein, I had oatmeal for breakfast and my favorite color is green. Didn't that add a lot to the topic of lacrosse and holding back middle school kids? No?

Actually it does have something to do with the subject. The rest of the parent that don't redshirt have to take the same approach. Hey, life is not fair, some people cheat the system, that is life but I am not going to lower my moral standard to play the redshirt game. You are going to have to work harder to be a 14 yo freshman playing varsity against somebody that is 5 years older than you. It is the same thing! I will not manipulate this situation because these kids parents were afraid they could not make the cut playing against kids their own age.

Yes. It is easier to make this statement when you have a 14yo freshman that can play against 19 yo seniors, and I get these parents know they can't say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I red-shirted for similar reasons but at a much younger age. Schools in VA place children in grades not by birth year, but by age in September. Keeping my LO on the state's track would have made her the youngest every year. Not fair to her, so I kept her back to give her an advantage. I have no guilt or shame.

Both my kids are youngest in their class every year, too - summer babies. They are at above grade level for reading and math. DS is smallest in his class, but extremely bright. I could not imagine how bored he'd be if I held him back. He got into GT. Yes, he has some physical disadvantages in sports, but life is not fair. I am not going to manipulate his life to make it fair for him. I tell him some kids are going to be better than others in some things, like he is better in academics than most of his peers. He's not perfect and will not excel in every single thing he does. But we still encourage him to try sports and compete with his grade level peers. He is probably going to be one of those kids who are picked last for sports. Yes, I feel bad for him, but like I said, I will not remove every obstacle in life for him -- now that would be unfair to him.

My take on redshirting to be "fair" is if every parent felt that way, then all of our kids would start K at 7 or 8 because we'd just keep one uping each other and wanting the "best" for our kids.

You do know everything you wrote has nothing to do with the subject of,the thread, right? In a similar vein, I had oatmeal for breakfast and my favorite color is green. Didn't that add a lot to the topic of lacrosse and holding back middle school kids? No?

You are wrong. Her post is clearly relevant. You may not like what she had to say (lemme guess - you redshirted your kid) but that doesn't make her post irrelevant.

I get thread drift, but both PPs were so clearly chomping at the bit to just talk to someone, ANYone, about their solid-in-math kids, who are young for their grades because they didn't hold them back at age 5.

If this were now simple thread drift, and we're just going where the subject takes us naturally, I would now tell you that my daughter recently won a national math prize and she, too, is the typical age for her grade. I just want the best for her. Her name starts with an "L" and so does "lacrosse," which is what the article was about on page one.

I really want anonymous people to validate my choice to encourage my daughter's interests in math. Let's talk about math some more, shall we? Or how girls get the short shrift in mathematics programs in universities.

[Anonymous]

It's not limited to lacross. Quick example is Johnny Manzeil an almost 22 year old college sophomore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I red-shirted for similar reasons but at a much younger age. Schools in VA place children in grades not by birth year, but by age in September. Keeping my LO on the state's track would have made her the youngest every year. Not fair to her, so I kept her back to give her an advantage. I have no guilt or shame.

Both my kids are youngest in their class every year, too - summer babies. They are at above grade level for reading and math. DS is smallest in his class, but extremely bright. I could not imagine how bored he'd be if I held him back. He got into GT. Yes, he has some physical disadvantages in sports, but life is not fair. I am not going to manipulate his life to make it fair for him. I tell him some kids are going to be better than others in some things, like he is better in academics than most of his peers. He's not perfect and will not excel in every single thing he does. But we still encourage him to try sports and compete with his grade level peers. He is probably going to be one of those kids who are picked last for sports. Yes, I feel bad for him, but like I said, I will not remove every obstacle in life for him -- now that would be unfair to him.

My take on redshirting to be "fair" is if every parent felt that way, then all of our kids would start K at 7 or 8 because we'd just keep one uping each other and wanting the "best" for our kids.

You do know everything you wrote has nothing to do with the subject of,the thread, right? In a similar vein, I had oatmeal for breakfast and my favorite color is green. Didn't that add a lot to the topic of lacrosse and holding back middle school kids? No?

You are wrong. Her post is clearly relevant. You may not like what she had to say (lemme guess - you redshirted your kid) but that doesn't make her post irrelevant.

I get thread drift, but both PPs were so clearly chomping at the bit to just talk to someone, ANYone, about their solid-in-math kids, who are young for their grades because they didn't hold them back at age 5.

If this were now simple thread drift, and we're just going where the subject takes us naturally, I would now tell you that my daughter recently won a national math prize and she, too, is the typical age for her grade. I just want the best for her. Her name starts with an "L" and so does "lacrosse," which is what the article was about on page one.

I really want anonymous people to validate my choice to encourage my daughter's interests in math. Let's talk about math some more, shall we? Or how girls get the short shrift in mathematics programs in universities.

How does those posts show the posters were chomping at the bit? We are just posting our experiences. The thread is about redshirting, and has evolved as PPs have stated, whether its LAX or other non SN reasons. Why is that so hard to digest? But you did forget about the above-grading reading as well as math. Those were stated to show that being the youngest doesn't harm the child academically.

I don't know about others, but I post on here to share my viewpoint, not to have some anonymous person, or otherwise, validate my choices in life.

You should tell Jeff that if anyone adds anything extra to a thread that is no completely 100% directly relevant to the OPs statement then that said post should be deleted. Would that make you happy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not limited to lacrosse. Quick example is Johnny Manzeil an almost 22 year old college sophomore.

I know it happens but.. Manzeil was born December 6, 1992
Entered K September 1998 (5yo)
Entered HS 2007 (14yo)
Entered College 2011 (18 yo) Redshirted - now that makes sense.
2012 - 19
2013 - 20 (sophomore)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What child would allow this - I can't imagine anything more humiliating than being held back in 6th grade.

If LAX is your world and your best friends are doing it too- AND your parents want you to. Why not?

So strange. My son play LAX and is quite good and his best friends play LAX and my husband coached until my son moved to professional coaches and NEVER EVER would we ever hold him back. I've never heard of it, however I don't live in DC proper, so must be a DC thing. Though we are a LAX family, school comes first. We are very proud of his sports accomplishments, but even more proud of his academic accomplishments.

No, it's a suburban thing. None of the schools mentioned in the article are in "DC proper."

And students from DC attend the schools as well. Geography has nothing to do with it.

[Anonymous]

There is such an irony here, because college coaches and pro scouts look at "upside". If you are already physically mature by the time you have reached college, you are peaked out. Others who are still growing and filling out can get stronger and faster. Not that there is a viable pro lacrosse league, but the tables have turned, and the oldest are not the ones being considered as highly at the top college and pro level.

[Anonymous]

Deadspin missed the gap year program these kids do.