Why don’t schools make you just through some hoops for redshirting?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
But the refrain from the OP of this thread, and many of us in agreement, is not "send on time." It's that there should be broad leeway within a few months of a cutoff for parents to make that choice themselves based on maturity and their assessment of readiness, but that outside that time period, you should have to make a formal request to redshirt and there should be a more concrete reason than "he doesn't seem ready" or "he's small for his age." Because at some point, it does become burdensome to have such a broad age range in a single classroom. I am tired of the conversations about redshirting on this website being viewed in such black and white terms. I am not anti-redshirt at all (the opposite, sometimes I think it's imperative that people redshirt) but I get call anti-redshirt on this website because my position is not that anyone should be able to redshirt at any time. I also don't trust all parents to make good choices, which is why I support a system with some limits that would still allow for redshirting when it is really important, but prevent the minority of parents who are just trying to game the system in a misguided attempt to get their kid an advantage. We could have a reasonable discussion, but now you're just going to scream at me that I'm an "anti-redshirter" because you have this weird belief that the only two positions here are "no redshirting ever" or "redshirt forever, if a person wants their kid to be 8 years old in 1st grade, that is their business." But the reality is that almost no one actually holds either of those positions except the handful of total whack jobs on this site. |
Anonymous
You do understand she will have to eventually go to kindergarten right? If she’s so advanced now she’ll be even more bored in another year. |
Anonymous
Why are you proposing a solution to a problem the schools don't even think exists? That's the issue here. |
Anonymous
AHAHAHA it IS you. Hi, Natural Law Lady! I think last time you suggested that redshirted kids should not be allowed to run for school government positions. Possibly they should wear an R on their foreheads. For what it’s worth, I don’t care about sports (I also don’t know a lot about sports, but I’m told that many of them are in fact segregated by age so sure why not), and I’m not sure what kind of competitive academic competitions you’re thinking of. Academic Decathlon? That’s a team competition. Like.. spelling bees? Please tender a list of activities you want to ban redshirted kids from. |
Anonymous
Why grading? The purpose of grading is to assess mastery of material. Unless, of course, you think the purpose of grading is to… beat all the other kids? Grading should be accurate. |
Anonymous
I don’t know which side you are on, but your post gave me the ick with your word choices. |
Anonymous
It’s entirely unreasonable to demand the institution of an entire bureaucratic system to deal with your own anxieties. No matter how much you want to style yourself as “reasonable,” you aren’t. That’s your core problem, frankly: you view yourself as “reasonable” but your position is wildly unreasonable and remarkably entitled and demanding, and given that, I suspect your analysis with respect to the impact of redshirting is similarly distorted. I’m sure you’ll tell me I am “screaming” now. |
Anonymous
Yes and in another year she’ll have more emotional maturity to sit still, to deal with boredom, to make it through the afternoon without napping without melting down, etc. Academic advancements aren’t— and shouldn’t be— the only way to measure readiness for kindergarten. I certainly wouldn’t send a four year old to sit in a classroom all day because someone else is scared she’ll outperform their five year old if she goes when she’s five. It’s absurd. |
Anonymous
What about “send your kid to school by six” which is literally the law? Why is that not sufficient for you? |
Anonymous
Where’s the hyperbole? The anti-redshirters tell us exactly what they do on DCUM. We can all read their posts. |
Anonymous
I would be happy to pay for another year of daycare, where he currently gets itinerant services. If we redshirted him, he would still be entitled to services, but would no longer get itinerant services - I would have to get someone to bring him back and forth to PT, OT, and ST. That is not feasible for working parents, esp where we are also taking him to private therapies already. His school therapists work on different things than his private therapists. It's not a cost savings measure for the school (since we could still technically use the services), but they have a blanket rule that it is better for children to start "on time," even though his special ed teachers all think another year of preK would be good for him. |
Anonymous
DP. What word choices? What the PP is describing is exactly consistent with positions that the Natural Law anti-redshirter poster has proposed before. The PP is repeating what that poster has said. If that makes you uncomfortable, it should. Natural Law anti-redshirter is certifiable. |
Anonymous
Are you feeling ok? Would you like us to recommend a therapist for you? How do you think a child would feel if they are in 5th grade, while the rest of the team is in 6th and they are actually older than some of the kids in 6th? |
Anonymous
And, yet, many of us with similar kids managed to get our kids to their therapy appointments and work. It doesn't sound like you are getting all the help your child needs and just hoping the school system takes care of it not realizing how bad most school services are or how you are hurting your child. |
Anonymous
Uh, the PP you are responding to is clearly not the person who desperately needs a therapist here. Maybe do a little self-reflection? |