My son's kindergarten class has several 7 yr olds in it.

[Anonymous]

This is what you get your feathers ruffled about? Perhaps you could have used the "gift of time" because you sound bitter and immature. Every kid I know who has been redshirted including my own has been due to maturity issues or learning challenges. All of us consulted with multiple trained professionals including teachers, speech therapists and world renowned developmental pediatricians and neurologists. Consider yourself lucky that this is what gets you in a tizzy because most of the people I know have real problems and don't have time to whine about kids taking an extra year. Why not spend your time obsessing about the people losing their homes due to natural disasters and families who can't afford to feed their children. Do some volunteer work. Heck travel to an impoverished part of Africa or a war torn country or something. You need real issues to care about rather than spending your time stomping your feet and complaining about kids with special needs needing some extra help and more time. Have you no empathy?

Nonsense and poppycock. Speak about your kid and your eclectic network. This statement is not true. There are normal kids that redshirt for a variety of sundry reasons (e.g., moving and travelling abroad)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense and poppycock. Speak about your kid and your eclectic network. This statement is not true. There are normal kids that redshirt for a variety of sundry reasons (e.g., moving and travelling abroad)

Just because there's a thesaurus function doesn't mean you should use it. It doesn't strengthen your argument.

[Anonymous]

According to the antiredshirters, their 4 year old reaps benefits from the 6yo in the class. And any perceived differences between the 4 and 6 yo disappear by the third grade.
So what is all the fuss?

[Anonymous]

Poppy cock right back at you buckaroo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense and poppycock. Speak about your kid and your eclectic network. This statement is not true. There are normal kids that redshirt for a variety of sundry reasons (e.g., moving and travelling abroad)

Just because there's a thesaurus function doesn't mean you should use it. It doesn't strengthen your argument.

Bahahaha! i couldn't resist, I'm the buckaroo poster. I love the thesaurus comment-made me laugh. Frankly I wonder about a person who use poprcock and sundry in the same post. Have no idea who this person is sampling, but I have yet to meet a parent who didn't redshirt due to developmental, social and/or learning issues unless the child's birthday is close to the cut-off date. I am still baffled that someone could get this up in arms about the subject. Parents have a right to make a decision about what they think is best for their child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know how Harvard decided a few years ago to end early admission? And because it's H.A.R.V.A.R.D, well, everyone took notice and additional schools followed suit. It's probably doing the right thing for the right reasons, and because it's Harvard .... it can.

I wish one or more elite private schools in DC would, for once and all, put children in the correct grade. When the admission committee is holding the application of a nearly 6 yr old, I wish, say, Sidwell's admission committee would have the balls to say Hey guess what? You don't belong in kindergarten. I wish that Beauvoir, for example, would put 4 year olds in preK and 5 year olds in K. The applicants whose child will turn 7 will have to apply elsewhere, in my dream scenario.

Where I come from, this is known as being "held back" and there's a negative stigma attached to it.

How ironic.

[Anonymous]

You know how Harvard decided a few years ago to end early admission? And because it's H.A.R.V.A.R.D, well, everyone took notice and additional schools followed suit. It's probably doing the right thing for the right reasons, and because it's Harvard .... it can.

Funny that after 5 months and 50 pages of posts no one has called OP on this statement. You know that "early admission" in college has nothing to do with the age of the applicant, right? Ending early admission in college was intended to level the playing field a bit for students needing financial aid and couldn't commit to attending any college before the financial aid packet was known.
So, fear not, it is still legal for parents to start their kids in kindergarten at age 4 turning 5 or 5 turning 6 at the beginning of the school year. If you're holding back a NT kid born before April or May, then I don't think any comments here can help you.

[Anonymous]

Poppycock. Parents and/or institutions redshirt for a variety of reasons including poor academic performance, immaturity, developmental delays and frank abnormalities and for perceived "ill-gotten" advantages in the classroom, the gridiron, the stage and the ballot box. Some redshirt due to planned/elective or emergent surgery for the child and/or parent and unforseen family tragedies. Institutions may advise redshirting to "smooth" the composition of their matriculating classes.

I've seen it all in my educational and medical practise over the decades.

[Anonymous]

So after 50 pages we're all agreed that there is more redshirting in the private school worlds? Oh wait, there's still no way to confirm/disprove that assertion....

[Anonymous]

Redshirting and/or repeating a grade (hold back) before entering private school has been around for more than 50 years. No need for 50 pages. This phenomenon is rather customary. We don't call it redshirting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Redshirting and/or repeating a grade (hold back) before entering private school has been around for more than 50 years. No need for 50 pages. This phenomenon is rather customary. We don't call it redshirting.

So you are saying that private school academics is over inflated. We should compare all private schools education to public schools education from one grade earlier. I guess this makes magnet programs, and elite publics look that much better. I'm sure there is data on average age of public student vs private just like there was a recent report on the average age of public students has increased they believe it is due to redshirting and timing their pregnancy near the cut-off (which seams far fetched to me).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redshirting and/or repeating a grade (hold back) before entering private school has been around for more than 50 years. No need for 50 pages. This phenomenon is rather customary. We don't call it redshirting.

So you are saying that private school academics is over inflated. We should compare all private schools education to public schools education from one grade earlier . I guess this makes magnet programs, and elite publics look that much better. I'm sure there is data on average age of public student vs private just like there was a recent report on the average age of public students has increased they believe it is due to redshirting and timing their pregnancy near the cut-off (which seams far fetched to me).

Who cares? Really, this does not matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redshirting and/or repeating a grade (hold back) before entering private school has been around for more than 50 years. No need for 50 pages. This phenomenon is rather customary. We don't call it redshirting.

So you are saying that private school academics is over inflated. We should compare all private schools education to public schools education from one grade earlier. I guess this makes magnet programs, and elite publics look that much better. I'm sure there is data on average age of public student vs private just like there was a recent report on the average age of public students has increased they believe it is due to redshirting and timing their pregnancy near the cut-off (which seams far fetched to me).

White Americans are the greatest advocates of redshirting, and no they do not call it holding back or redshirting. It is a tradition that schools, both public and private, are forcing on people who do not support the concept. Private and public schools advocate it all over Montgomery County. I have personally visited 26 of them to find a school for my son to attend in the Fall of 2012. All except 4 of the schools recommended redshirting as the best thing for boy children.

Many of the redshirters send the boys to private schools for multiple years of preschool including formal Kindergarden programs, then send them to public schools after they have already completed Kindergarden once or twice. The reasons they tell you they do it are the boys get a chance to grow larger and stronger to have a competitive advantage to play sports. The other reasons they say it is a good idea is they want to prevent their boys from being bullied, by letting them grow bigger and older; and they want the boys to be more "mature". The funny thing is - the redshirted boys I know are still being bullied in MoCo Kindergarden classes. Also, it is not surprising they do well academically in Kindergarden, afterall, they are repeating the same class 2 and 3 years.

I am not judging anyone, just sharing what I am being told by redshirters' parents in Montgomery County. I can't really say if I think it is right, wrong, or really matters if they are happy with it. I do believe the tradition is quite mainstream, though.

[Anonymous]

In Kindergarten, there are kids who are reading chapter books and kids who don't know phonetics yet. But more importantly, there are social issues - understanding how to make and keep friends, deal with frustration, etc.... I, personally, feel the reason to get a later start has more to do with emotional maturity than cognitive ability. Know your kid, assess the situation, and place them where they can do their best well rounded. Age is relative and there isn't a magic cut-off where everyone works best. Academically, they all catch up by third grade anyway. Forget the term "redshirt" and think about where your kid fits best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
White Americans are the greatest advocates of redshirting, and no they do not call it holding back or redshirting. It is a tradition that schools, both public and private, are forcing on people who do not support the concept. Private and public schools advocate it all over Montgomery County. I have personally visited 26 of them to find a school for my son to attend in the Fall of 2012. All except 4 of the schools recommended redshirting as the best thing for boy children.

Many of the redshirters send the boys to private schools for multiple years of preschool including formal Kindergarden programs, then send them to public schools after they have already completed Kindergarden once or twice. The reasons they tell you they do it are the boys get a chance to grow larger and stronger to have a competitive advantage to play sports. The other reasons they say it is a good idea is they want to prevent their boys from being bullied, by letting them grow bigger and older; and they want the boys to be more "mature". The funny thing is - the redshirted boys I know are still being bullied in MoCo Kindergarden classes. Also, it is not surprising they do well academically in Kindergarden, afterall, they are repeating the same class 2 and 3 years.

I am not judging anyone, just sharing what I am being told by redshirters' parents in Montgomery County. I can't really say if I think it is right, wrong, or really matters if they are happy with it. I do believe the tradition is quite mainstream, though.

OMG, you're so full of it. It's hard to know where to begin.