Reply to Redshirting consequences at Lafayette

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Redshirting consequences at Lafayette"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This rage around (gasp!) possible disrespect for the apparently sacrosanct birthday cutoff date - which was several months later when I moved here not that long ago - is (sorry) ridiculous. I say this as someone with the opposite complaint as these families have: my own kid - who would have been on the right side of the old, pre standardized test era cutoff - now has to spend 90% of PK4 as a 5 year old learning absolutely nothing new, because they’re a few weeks on the wrong side of this apparently magic, infallible and universally applicable birthday cutoff.

Maybe a solution might be, you know - just let people make decisions for their own damn kids, whom they know better than anyone else does…or at least, create an appeals process where you can advocate for a smidge of flexibility for your child. Are you seriously going to contend there are ZERO kids in the system who might not benefit from being in an earlier or later grade anytime in the four years of school before age 7…even though a significant percentage would have been in a different grade at the same age as recently as 2012 (or even now, if they lived somewhere less enlightened like [checks notes] New York City, which has both a 12/31 cutoff and much greater flexibility around delays)?

Kids aren’t cookie cutter identical - there’s a VERY wide range of abilities and needs. Forcing a delayed kid into a grade he’s not ready for isn’t great. Neither is holding back a gifted kid - especially in a school system with almost zero support for gifted kids to begin with besides grade advancement! - for the first four years of their DCPS education (long enough for them to not only fail to reach their potential, but develop a deep and abiding aversion to school.) If grade skipping is an option for some advanced kids - why not during the most pointless years of schooling, where you learn the least? If some socially delayed kids need extra time to mature - why not let them start a bit later? The objective isn’t supposed to be making everyone “follow the rules” - which usually represent zero burden for those who insist loudest, who seem to delight in forcing those most affected to suffer. It’s supposed to be supporting and educating kids.

Pretend these women live in a neighborhood or belong to a demographic that you believe allows them the right to advocate for their children. Pretend that all of us do. You can still make whatever choices you want for your own kids - if you find DC to be infallible and all decisions of its education system to be perfect ecosystem and bear no questioning, by all means act accordingly. Others may beg to differ. Get over it.[/quote]

Why so many SAT words? Did you redshirting and therefore think you’re smarter than everyone else? [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics