MCPS to ban redshirting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was definitely not ready for K at first access and might have been an issue in the classroom. Redshirting alleviated that ahead of time and guaranteed a better K year for everyone, including the other kids and their families. DC went on to be very successful and hasn't taken any advantages (or attention, or sports positions) away from anyone else.

You sound both privileged and oblivious. You were not in the classroom at all times or in any position to know what resources your child took up or took away from others. And the fact that he was "very successful" could be due to the fact that he was a year older than many other kids in his class who went through their schooling following the prescribed norms for entrance year.

We've necessarily kept close with teachers and staff to ensure we supported them, so yes, we do have a good sense _from them_ of what it took to keep DC on track (vs. how things would have been a year earlier). But success doesn't have to be competitive. DC needed that extra time in good part to make things easier for everyone else.

Why do you assume they could not be successful and go on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unlike DCPS, MCPS doesn’t have universal PreK. It would be a little harder to implement here.

People can spend that extra year in private pre-K if they can afford it, but MCPS can and will place your child according to their age throughout elementary school.

It’s one reason why DD did private all of ES. I saw no reason why she should be forced to wait a year when she had the skills due to an excellent private pre-K.

Mcps tried to get us to hold our fall child back after a few years of private and we refused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

Lol keep telling yourself you're doing some kind of public service rather than seeking the best advantages for your own kid.

I don't think MCPS needs to ban anything but you sound ridiculous.

Np. I have a bunch of K teacher friends. They’re convinced that red shirting boys is the best for everyone. They sit better, better attention spans, more social maturity. The whole classroom benefits. The teachers have gone as far to say that girls should start at 5 and boys start at 6.

I have to agree. I feel like school is made for well behaved little girls and boys just flounder. I feel bad for little boys

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who redshirted her boys. Of course now she complains that they are bored at school.

Thanks because schools have unreasonable demands on young boys behavior and maturity, but refused to provide academic content.

They don't have unreasonable demands on young boys behavior--any more than they do for young girls. Some Malcolm Gladwell devotee parents look for any excuse to redshirt, and then humblebrag that the school isn't challenging there kid who is 18 months older than their peers, which is a huge chunk of a kid's life when they're in the early elementary school years.

You have no knowledge of child development if you believe this.

The demands on five year olds is age appropriate. The problem is preschools and parents are not preparing them with the current preschool models.

And irrespective of whether the "demands" of kindergarten are appropriate, public schools don't kick out misbehaving 5 year olds. They have to meet every kid where they are. I'm not speaking about kids who are truly struggling--at that point the school is often the one who suggests to hold the kid back. But some upper middle income parents just can't accept that their "less mature" child may be in the middle of the pack, so they prefer to red shirt them so they have an unfair advantage over their younger peers.

+1 This. You don't see poorer families trying to redshirt, even when the developmental rationale is there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

Lol keep telling yourself you're doing some kind of public service rather than seeking the best advantages for your own kid.

I don't think MCPS needs to ban anything but you sound ridiculous.

Np. I have a bunch of K teacher friends. They’re convinced that red shirting boys is the best for everyone. They sit better, better attention spans, more social maturity. The whole classroom benefits. The teachers have gone as far to say that girls should start at 5 and boys start at 6.

I have to agree. I feel like school is made for well behaved little girls and boys just flounder. I feel bad for little boys

Your "K teacher friends" sound like a bunch of sterotyping nitwits. Signed-mother of active girl

[Anonymous]

As a HS teacher I can say, the "nice well behaved little girls" often turn into highly entitled, can't be told anything teenage girls that are a nightmare to manage in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

Lol keep telling yourself you're doing some kind of public service rather than seeking the best advantages for your own kid.

I don't think MCPS needs to ban anything but you sound ridiculous.

Np. I have a bunch of K teacher friends. They’re convinced that red shirting boys is the best for everyone. They sit better, better attention spans, more social maturity. The whole classroom benefits. The teachers have gone as far to say that girls should start at 5 and boys start at 6.

I have to agree. I feel like school is made for well behaved little girls and boys just flounder. I feel bad for little boys

That’s not a reason to hold back. They sound like bad teachers. And, hate boys. I would not want my child to be with a teacher like that. You don’t hold back impacting a child life long for teacher bias to make it easier for the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a HS teacher I can say, the "nice well behaved little girls" often turn into highly entitled, can't be told anything teenage girls that are a nightmare to manage in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who redshirted her boys. Of course now she complains that they are bored at school.

Thanks because schools have unreasonable demands on young boys behavior and maturity, but refused to provide academic content.

They don't have unreasonable demands on young boys behavior--any more than they do for young girls. Some Malcolm Gladwell devotee parents look for any excuse to redshirt, and then humblebrag that the school isn't challenging there kid who is 18 months older than their peers, which is a huge chunk of a kid's life when they're in the early elementary school years.

You have no knowledge of child development if you believe this.

The demands on five year olds is age appropriate. The problem is preschools and parents are not preparing them with the current preschool models.

And irrespective of whether the "demands" of kindergarten are appropriate, public schools don't kick out misbehaving 5 year olds. They have to meet every kid where they are. I'm not speaking about kids who are truly struggling--at that point the school is often the one who suggests to hold the kid back. But some upper middle income parents just can't accept that their "less mature" child may be in the middle of the pack, so they prefer to red shirt them so they have an unfair advantage over their younger peers.

+1 This. You don't see poorer families trying to redshirt, even when the developmental rationale is there.

Developmentally delayed kids who are in PEP and other MCPS programs are not allowed to be held back. So, many of the parents holding back are creating their own narratives to do so. They should be required to show kids who are in a specialized preschool for developmental delays and engaging in OT, PT, SLP, or ABA, or a combination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Here: Thanks for the replies so far.

I have reached out to the registrar of our home elementary school for clarification and I will update this thread when I get a response.

Of course, it seems some of the families affected by this in DC had received assurances they could redshirt and were still not allowed to so a reply from the school is not binding.

I am a DCPS teacher and MCPS parent. They were not given assurances, they assumed based on previous years happenings and when a new principal came in and followed the clearly stated rule (it was a DCPS rule that the previous principal had been skirting) they got mad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Here: Thanks for the replies so far.

I have reached out to the registrar of our home elementary school for clarification and I will update this thread when I get a response.

Of course, it seems some of the families affected by this in DC had received assurances they could redshirt and were still not allowed to so a reply from the school is not binding.

I am a DCPS teacher and MCPS parent. They were not given assurances, they assumed based on previous years happenings and when a new principal came in and followed the clearly stated rule (it was a DCPS rule that the previous principal had been skirting) they got mad.

That was the problem; the principals had discretion to bend the rules and this one principal in particular often did. These families had been allowed to redshirt their older children. They didn’t anticipate that principal leaving and a new one refusing to allow redshirting. They redshirted under the old principal, then the new principal came in and wouldn’t allow their kids to enroll in Kindergarten. They were told their kids had to skip K and go straight to 1st grade. Understandably, they weren’t fans of that idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Here: Thanks for the replies so far.

I have reached out to the registrar of our home elementary school for clarification and I will update this thread when I get a response.

Of course, it seems some of the families affected by this in DC had received assurances they could redshirt and were still not allowed to so a reply from the school is not binding.

I am a DCPS teacher and MCPS parent. They were not given assurances, they assumed based on previous years happenings and when a new principal came in and followed the clearly stated rule (it was a DCPS rule that the previous principal had been skirting) they got mad.

That was the problem; the principals had discretion to bend the rules and this one principal in particular often did. These families had been allowed to redshirt their older children. They didn’t anticipate that principal leaving and a new one refusing to allow redshirting. They redshirted under the old principal, then the new principal came in and wouldn’t allow their kids to enroll in Kindergarten. They were told their kids had to skip K and go straight to 1st grade. Understandably, they weren’t fans of that idea.

The DCPS parents were ridiculous. They thought rules don't apply to them/their special snowflake kids, even when they're written clearly for all to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Here: Thanks for the replies so far.

I have reached out to the registrar of our home elementary school for clarification and I will update this thread when I get a response.

Of course, it seems some of the families affected by this in DC had received assurances they could redshirt and were still not allowed to so a reply from the school is not binding.

I am a DCPS teacher and MCPS parent. They were not given assurances, they assumed based on previous years happenings and when a new principal came in and followed the clearly stated rule (it was a DCPS rule that the previous principal had been skirting) they got mad.

That was the problem; the principals had discretion to bend the rules and this one principal in particular often did. These families had been allowed to redshirt their older children. They didn’t anticipate that principal leaving and a new one refusing to allow redshirting. They redshirted under the old principal, then the new principal came in and wouldn’t allow their kids to enroll in Kindergarten. They were told their kids had to skip K and go straight to 1st grade. Understandably, they weren’t fans of that idea.

The DCPS parents were ridiculous. They thought rules don't apply to them/their special snowflake kids, even when they're written clearly for all to see.

The problem stemmed from the old principal who didn’t enforce the rules. The parents just exploited that weakness in the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

Lol keep telling yourself you're doing some kind of public service rather than seeking the best advantages for your own kid.

I don't think MCPS needs to ban anything but you sound ridiculous.

Np. I have a bunch of K teacher friends. They’re convinced that red shirting boys is the best for everyone. They sit better, better attention spans, more social maturity. The whole classroom benefits. The teachers have gone as far to say that girls should start at 5 and boys start at 6.

I have to agree. I feel like school is made for well behaved little girls and boys just flounder. I feel bad for little boys

Sounds like their teaching methods are the problem, then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

Lol keep telling yourself you're doing some kind of public service rather than seeking the best advantages for your own kid.

I don't think MCPS needs to ban anything but you sound ridiculous.

Np. I have a bunch of K teacher friends. They’re convinced that red shirting boys is the best for everyone. They sit better, better attention spans, more social maturity. The whole classroom benefits. The teachers have gone as far to say that girls should start at 5 and boys start at 6.

I have to agree. I feel like school is made for well behaved little girls and boys just flounder. I feel bad for little boys

Sounds like their teaching methods are the problem, then.

+1 Not surprising that the PP redshirted, if her universe is surrounded by teachers like that.