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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My late summer boy was not redshirted. He is now in 3rd grade and super good friends with a kid in his class two years older than him. 
Maybe this is NBD, people.[/quote]

see, this is what i don’t get. how is this any different than a ,omtessori ckass, where kids at a few different age groups are grouped together, so you would have kids hanging out and learning socially for, kids a year or two older or younger. why is it desirable there and not in traditional schools?. [/quote]

I think a multi-year age span IS desirable in traditional schools.  But that's not how schools are set up.  The Montessori classroom has lessons and materials to cover the three year age span (actually, usually a 4 or 5 year age span to account for advanced and lagging kids.)  The fundamental concept of montessori is to teach each child where they are in the progression, rather than in adherence to a rigid age system.  So Larla, age 6, and Larlo, age 8, could easily be working on the same material in a montessori room, and that's fine.  And likewise, a 6 and 8 year old could be working on two totally different things.  And that's also fine.  Likewise, if you stay for all 3 years in a Montessori room, you will start out being the youngest, learning from your older classmates.  Eventually, you'll be one of the oldest, being the peer model and teacher.  So *all* kids will get the benefit of being one of the youngest and the benefit of being one of the oldest.

Unfortunately, that's not how traditional classrooms are set up.  The idea is that all kids within a ~12 month range should be taught the same material.  The classroom structure, lesson plans, and curriculum all cover only 9 month's worth of material. Teachers have limited ability to differentiate - certainly not enough to cover a typical three year age span. 
So if the ages start to range too much, the classroom just isn't structured in such a way as to handle it.  And the youngest kid is the youngest kid for 12 years.  And the oldest kid is always the oldest.

I would *love* to see more multi-age classes in public schools, but comparing redshirting to montessori (or any other intentional multi-age/multi-grade structure) misses the point.[/quote]

You haven't been in a tradiational classroom lately.  At good schools there is very little cookie cutter teaching and tons of differentiating.  The rage of abilities and maturity and age spans at least 2 years and often 3.[/quote]

Why do you think I haven't been in a traditional classroom lately?  I have two elementary school kids, and I'm in their classrooms a fair bit.  The differentiating in a traditional classroom isn't remotely like the structure of a montessori classroom.  I'm not saying montessori is better, necessarily, but it easily accomodates a much wider range of ages and abilities.  In my kids' classrooms, they break down for reading groups, and their math differentiation is via "challenge questions" and "support clues" and things like that.  Other than that, there's not much differentiating going on.  All of the first graders learn about monarch butterflies.  Even the most advanced reader can only be in the "top" reading group.  
I also haven't ever been in an a classroom at my kids' school where the age range is "at least 2 years" - even with redshirting you still only get ~18 months difference.[/quote]

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