My son's first grade class

[Anonymous]

One option would be to withdraw her child from this school and find another first grade in which her child is the eldest (by calendar years) therefore optimizing the perceived advantage for her boy. Perhaps test tube babies are the solution; then one could control the timing of fertilization/conception to precisely one year increments.

[Anonymous]

I would picket.

[Anonymous]

This is a trend I only hear about locally. Friends from other areas of the country I've spoken with think "red shirting" is ridiculous.

Are most parents who red shirt planning on staying the DC area forever? I would imagine it might be odd for their kids if they end up moving to an area where this practice isn't prevalent and their kids are the ONLY ones who are so much older than their same-grade "peers."

[Anonymous]

OP, you are an idiot
Not your problem, not your business. Your kid does not care, not a big deal.
Shut up and raise your kid, the other parents will raise theirs.

[Anonymous]

It's not just in DC. I have lots of friends in Southeast and they told me it would be unheard of to send any child with a Jul or Aug. b-day on time -- boys or girls (here it seems to be more limited to boys).

I have an Aug. boy and they told me it would be bordering on child abuse if I did it (OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was several people and they all thought I was NUTS for even considering it.)

[Anonymous]

It's been going on for years, by the way. We know people in Pittsburgh who did it 10 years ago when their son entered private school.

[Anonymous]

Why should anyone care? Do you care about parents that train their kids in academics or athletics at home? Do you care if parents give their children music, art and other activities outside of school? Do you care if parents do not enroll their kids in private or public school but choose to homeschool? Do you care if athletes are redshirted in college? Do you care if parents redshirt their kids in Pre-K, K, 1st or 9th grade? Do you care if kids do a 13th or PG year before going on to university? Who care's but the truly infirm!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As a parent who didn't redshirt, but could have, it was the best decision ultimately because it identified LDs that another year of pre-K would not have. I think a lot of parents are deluding themselves.

Maybe another year of Pre-K would have eliminated the learning disability.

[Anonymous]

OP, I can commiserate. My ds with an August birthday just started K at a private school. He turned 5 a week before school started and then jumped right in. He, too, has 6 year-olds in his class. He reported that 2 of the kids out of 15 are six, but my guess is that there are more than that. In visiting the classroom, I noticed that there are quite a few summer birthdays. However, I strongly suspect that many of them have just turnd 6 and not 5, like my ds. That said, the school tested him and told me that he was ready for K. Had they said that he wasn't ready for K, I would not have sent him. I still struggled with whether to send him, given the trend of redshirting. Only time will tell whether it was the right decision, but so far he is holding his own and getting into the routine. He was already reading and doing math when he started K and is very tall, so pre-school didn't seem to be a great fit, either. I've accepted the fact that he probably will not be as mature as some of his classmates, but he should mature with time. IMO, there is a difference between a parent holding a child back who is not ready and a parent holding a child back "just because" he has a summer birthday.

IMO, the parent should look at the individual child. I have no issue at all with a parent holding a child back if he is not developmentally ready to start, but I do have an issue with a parent holding a child back just to give him some perceived competetive advantage over the other children.

I was just talking to a neighbor who said that she "had heard" that you should never send a child just turning 5 in July or August to kindergarten. So, basically the implication was that I had made a huge mistake by sending my son. Another neighbor is not sending her ds to kindergarten, and he turned 5 in February. So, he will be turning 7 in the February that he is in kindergarten. She said it was because she was concerned that he was not "mature" enough, and did not take him in for evaluation at the school. Now, I have no idea whether he is mature enough to start or not, but I do know that the school where he will attend pushes redshirting very hard, so that is probably affecting her decision. Hes daughter went to the same school as a spring birthday and ended up having to repeat K.

I say, if you have started your child "on time," be confident in his abilities, and don't worry about the redshirts! You can't do anything about it, and you don't know what the situation is with those kids. I know you would not begrudge them a late start if they truly would have struggled had they started "on time."

[Anonymous]

PP My son has an early September birthday, he is the youngest in his Middle School class, some of his classmates are 18 months older than he is. It's fine for him. I do not understand why everyone is so caught up in the idea that a 12-month range is the ideal. 20 month ranges can work, too.

[Anonymous]

For those that understand biologic variability: There is no fine correlation between chronologic and physiologic age. Homo sapiens ( and other animals ) mature (physically, emotionally and intellectually) at different rates irrespective of chronological age. Therefore, it is pointless to worry about a 5 year-old sharing a classroom with a 7 year-old. The next thing you know, you will be influenced by your sage neighbors that will convince you children's gestational ages (35 vs. 42 weeks) must be factored into true chronologic age. Absolutely pointless. Only the insecure, infirm and uneducated care about this issue. Children are not all at the same maturity point in time, in part, due to biologic variability; therefore, it remains wise to do what's best your individual child. Do not worry about the younger or older children in the class. If your child is an abject failure this will clearly not be the cause.

[Anonymous]

My DS has a July birthday and I am planning to send him to school on time. My mother was a teacher and instilled in me the belief that school readiness is a parent's responsibility. She taught all of her children to read before entering kindergarten, and I intend to do the same. If my DC was not ready to enter kindergarten at age 5, I would consider it a personal failing.

That said, I understand that others have different philosophies when it comes to how their children learn and believe that it is the schools/preschools job to make sure their children are "ready".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That said, I understand that others have different philosophies when it comes to how their children learn and believe that it is the schools/preschools job to make sure their children are "ready".

Exactly, the other philosophy is to dumb down our society and schools by not challenging our kids to achieve as our generation and our parents generation did. The idea of voluntarily holding kids back at such a young age for some perceived advantage, when the age spread does have an impact in the classroom from a social and maturity standpoint for the children who are the normal age. So I am glad that your second grader will have had a nice year in First Grade.

Let's be honest and call it what it is.

[Anonymous]

Brain development differs from child to child. Readiness should not be determined exclusively by an arbitrary 12-month window. It is absurd! This is not about advantage. It's about readiness. My child had several "redshirted" classmates in early ES and it was obvious that they were working at their level, that holding them back was the right thing to do. It was never an issue. They got no advantage. They were where they belonged. The spirit that opposes redshirting does not seem to be a pretty one. I repeated: They were where they belonged.

[Anonymous]

Brain development differs from child to child. Readiness should not be determined exclusively by an arbitrary 12-month window. It is absurd! This is not about advantage. It's about readiness. My child had several "redshirted" classmates in early ES and it was obvious that they were working at their level, that holding them back was the right thing to do. It was never an issue. They got no advantage. They were where they belonged. The spirit that opposes redshirting does not seem to be a pretty one. I repeat: They were where they belonged.