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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A PP here.  As the parent of recent HS graduates, I would like to make three points to the anti-redshirters (especially the parents of younger ones).

1.	If you are this worried about this issue at the K level, you are in for a VERY rocky road as your child gets older.  As a PP noted, once your kid gets into MS and HS, all bets are off.  There will be some grade level courses, but a lot of the courses will be ability based. So you may have a 14 YO 8th grader in the same pre-algebra class as a just turned 11YO 6th grader.  You will have a 18-19YO HS senior in the same language class as a 14YO freshmen.  If your kid is into sports or the arts, they will often be competing against kids who are older (especially in HS).  Folks, it is a fact of life.  At a certain point in your child’s student career, it WILL happen – even at private schools.

2.	Your kid may be the “lead dog” right now with respect to their peers, but it often does not stay that way.  For your sake, I hope and pray that you and your kid never have to deal with some of these issues from the other side. Kids (even of the same age) do not develop at the same rate.  So in some cases, either academically, athletically or socialally, your kid may become the “trail dog” at some point.  It will not make them any less valuable.  But please bear that in mind while you are dumping on “older” kids.  Calling these kids “slow” or "dinosaurs” is petty and mean.

3.	As a couple of PP’s mentioned (and the point has generally been ignored), you get redshirting when the market demands an accelerated curriculum.  The stuff that my kids learned in K was the stuff that my generation learned in 1st grade!  Now, schools feel compelled to offer a curriculum that screams “K is the new 1st grade” because that is what parents demand.  The schools realize that not all capable 5YOs are ready for the type of work.  So as one PP pointed out, the schools arrange things so the child fits the system – not vice versa. That being said, at K, I would rather have my kid in classroom with kids who are at DC’s current intellectual level – I do not care how old the kids are.   
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I hear you

Now, the study I would like to see is how 5YOs in a class of only 5YOs compare to 5YOs in a class with some older kids.  I would venture to say that the latter would have a competitive advantage over the former if and when they end up in the same classroom.  They have hold to their own against older kids instead of running the table on age level kids.

That raises the question as to whether some of these folks would allow their 5YO to “play up.”  One PP mentioned that the school suggested that DC start attending the reading class the next grade up – so DC was competing with older kids instead of being bored at age level.  It seems to me that some of these bright and intelligent children would benefit from that.  However, based on the logic of some of these parents, “redtrousering” is just a bad as redshirting. 
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