If you’re fine with your kid being accelerated in math to accommodate his needs, you should also be fine with holding back kids to accommodate theirs. Yours was ready to learn above grade, other are not ready and need more time. Why are you ok with 2-3 years age difference in math classes but not elsewhere? If you want to hold the age cohort within one year, everyone should take the same classes K through 12, problem solved. No acceleration, no APs, no electives. But as soon as your child is disadvantaged you’ll scream the loudest. |
This thread is about Lafayette parents wanting to redshirt their six year olds into kindergarten not about whether any kid should be allowed to be held back in any grade. These parents want to basically make this solely about birthdays giving them flexibility and not about the assessments of teachers and staff. That's why they themselves have a May 31st and then June 30th flexible cutoffs in their own proposal. Which given the two different dates over two different years seems to be crafting a policy entirely built around their children alone. Nowhere in the discussion from Lafayette parents did they themselves push for more intervention funding for students who need extra help. What if you need extra help but your birthday is April or February or even October? This policy and lobbying doesn't help that. Now we can absolutely have a conversation about schools, including DCPS and charters, who fail miserably at addressing kids who need early intervention. And it may be behavioral or subject specific. But again that's not what these parents are asking for. |
You can make the same stupid argument about anything you’d like the school to offer but currently doesn’t. Taxes are not marked for that little thing you care about therefore it’s a waste of time and taxpayer money to even discuss it. If you want it, you’re entitled. If there enough community demand for redshirting, which from the news it looks like there is, the school should at least consider it. The hypocrisy of antiredshirters is truly astounding. |
Lafayette has a high IB attendance rate. A couple of angry parents are not going to suddenly close a school of over 900 that's like 3/4 white. I realize it seems like an issue because this is 25 pages long but I'd venture to guess these parents don't even have that many allies at their own school if they're out there soliciting from others. |
What news and significant community support suggests there is a lot of support for this? Genuinely curious. |
No. I think the parent should not get 100% say in these decisions. *That* is what these parents are asking for. I don't think I should get to opt into whatever math class I feel like. |
Ok got it, you’re ok with age differences of 2-3 years in accelerated math as long as your kid benefits, and you approve with the rationale for mixing kids of different ages, because of “assessments”. Then if you don’t like the Lafayette parents reasoning, ie the kid is not emotionally mature, doesn’t have the executive function etc, then their sole motivation is based on birthdate alone and they are just looking for unfair advantages and “flexibility” because you said so. To turn the redshirting arguments around, if other parents don’t like your kid in accelerated math because the impact the other kids “self esteem”, or they are not ready and the teacher expectation are skewed and curriculum is watered down, then you know what, they should go to private if they don’t like how the public is run. Public is for kids to grow, learn and flourish, particularly yours. Cognitive dissonance much? Your whole argument is rooted in ferocious selfishness. |
l Fact: these parents are perceived by their peers as selfish entitled brats. |
Again no one is arguing against holding kids back when appropriate. But by giving two different still arbitrary dates that parents can flexibly redshirt their kids these parents aren't advocating for others they're advocating to codify their own personal interests potentially at the expense of others who do need to be held back but whose birthdays are before May 30th. |
These are rich parents who can afford private interventions or their insurance can pay depending on the diagnosis. These is no diagnoses for them. Low income kids can get therapies through Medicaid. There are also universities and other programs that have more affordable therapies, which is particularly what we did. |
If there is a special need, yes but that’s not what’s happening. And, the issue comes into play in high school where you have 13-14 year olds in the same class as 18-19 year olds. Some older kids are great, some bully. I have the young for the grade, as in a fall birthday in some advanced classes so as a freshman they were with mostly juniors and seniors for art, pe and math. Sophomore year they are the only sophomore in their math class. Your older held back kid is not more advanced as they are not with age appropriate peers or the age appropriate grade. They are on target for the grade level they should be in, not the one you choose for them. My kid is accelerated, your is not. |
Astounding that you don’t see how it’s the same argument you’re making. On one hand you object to kids being too far apart in age due to redshirting, because it skews the expectations of the teacher and affects the self esteem of the other kids. At the same time you’re happy to send your kid to advanced math where the age difference is even larger, 4-5 years. You’re not worried about bullying anymore, and age differences are fine as long as your kid benefits from that setting. According to you, advanced kids can mix with different aged kids, but non-advanced kids can’t, they should stay in the grade level they’re assigned, you can only mix up in age. What if the parents at your school would complain that your child in advanced math is ruining their kids self esteem, that it skews the expectations of teachers and colleges, arguments you made against red shirting. Your kid is not with age appropriate peers and in the age appropriate class! Or if you’ll be told to go to private if you want accelerated math, because the school doesn’t have the resources to waste on these things, and that you do all this because you want unfair advantages for your child. You really are ferociously selfish! |
Look, there are places where redshirting is broadly accepted or even encouraged. Including in this area at many private schools and in some of the suburban districts.
DCPS is not one of those places. They take a pretty hardline on redshirting for better or worse. There are a handful of upper NW schools that have had principals who turned a blind eye to it when it happened, largely for political and "keep the peace" reasons. But those were outliers and it makes sense to bring Lafayette into line with the rest of the district where this practice is simply not allowed at parents' discretion (there are situations where it is permitted because of demonstrated need -- I know parents who have delayed school because their kids had diagnosed delays and it made sense for them, but those parents jumped through hoops to make it happen and it wasn't just "eh I don't want my kid to be the youngest or smallest"). That's just how it is. I'm sorry these parents thought that this little exception would continue to apply at this one school after the old principal left and they screwed up. Sometimes that happens. I screwed up with a decision related to my kid in K (was offered a lottery spot at another school but decided to stay out our IB and later regretted it) and it's hard to accept you messed that up. But parents make mistakes. You accept it, do what you can to address it, and move on. What you don't do is throw a giant hissy fit in the media and demand the entire district change its age policies to accommodate your mess up. Come on. These parents made a mistake and I'm not going to indict them for that but they are taking it WAY too far. Your kid will recover from missing K (especially given their SES and the high education levels of parents) but at this point these people are embarrassing themselves. |
No, they shouldn’t as it’s not healthy or developmentally appropriate. Your entitlement is astonishing. Follow the rules or homeschool or pay for private. The rest of us follow the rules. Why can’t you? |
What I am saying is the age differences are unhealthy and are difficult for most kids. You are selfish by not following the rules. Why don’t rules apply to you? The privates cannot accommodate the accelerated math. We tried to switch in middle school but the age difference and math were both issues. They did not have the advanced math in middle school You are trying to get others to hold back their kids to justify you holding back yours. I don’t get why you’d do that to your child. You aren’t making them smarter, you are dumbing down a smart kid who deserves more. |