Reply to Since people are now redshirting spring bday kids

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The people I take issue with are those who redshirt in order to give their kid the "advantage" of being the oldest/biggest/most mature/etc kid in class.  Those are the people in a race to the bottom, in my opinion.

That's different from the argument that all kids should start K at, say, 6, instead of 5.  Assuming you're working within an annual grade framework, you're still always going to have an oldest kid and a youngest kid in class, and all of the challenges associated with having kids nearly a full year apart operating under the same curriculum.  But at least you could argue here that even the youngest kid was "ready" to start K at the start of the school year.

One is wanting to redshirt because you want your kid to rule over all of the others; the other is in favor of redshirting everyone for the sake of community.[/quote]

What is your issue with the first family?  They want their kid to be the most mature in the class.  So?  What does it have to do with you or your kid?  [/quote]

[b]My issue is that it's an arms race that ultimately widens the developmental range within the classroom.[/b]  I'm not arguing that there's no benefit to being the most mature in the class, but you realize that when everyone skirts the "rules" (recognizing that it sounds like most of the schools in question are soft on the rules) you're just left with a bunch of older kids -- only one of whom will still be the "most" mature in class -- and a bunch of kids who are much much younger.  The system starts to break down.  Certainly other factors influence the classroom dynamics, including teaching styles, curriculum, and different family values (some prioritizing sports prowess, or wanting school to be a platform for excellence rather than a place where one can learn about failure and resilience, and excellence), but I strongly believe that redshirting contributes to an environment that I think is ultimately destructive to the community.

I'm the PP from several pages ago with a kid in the NYC public school system, where red shirting is not an option.  I will not hold the NYC public school system up as the gold standard, but I will defend its prohibition on red shirting.  FWIW, DD has a November birthday; grade cutoffs are Dec 31, so she's certainly among the youngest in her class.  But there are kids ranging from Jan 1 to Dec 31 in her grade.[/quote]

Exactly.  This also reminds me of anti-vaxxers--sure, if just one family makes a decision outside the norm for their particular child, no biggie, right?  But what happens is that when more and more people do it, it creates issues.  In the case of redshirters, when enough people do it, it changes class dynamics, creates challenges for teachers, etc.  For anti-vaxxers, when enough people do it, it compromises herd immunity.  What's fine for an individual doesn't serve the greater good.[/quote]

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