Reply to Why don’t schools have stronger policies about redshirting?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you have a normal, bright child, then redshirting seems crazy. They're going to be bored repeating the same grade, they should be with children at similar maturity levels and you're going to give the kid an inferiority complex. They're going to wonder why they were held back when kids who are the same age moved ahead. [/quote]

If you have a bright child, school will be a bore for them and they will not be learning anything new anyhow.  It’s meant to teach to the bottom half of the class.  If you already have a 99th percentile kid, it won’t matter whether you redshirt or not. They won’t be learning at school, and probably know all the material for the next grade up as well.  So you do what any good parent would do, put the in the grade they most align socially and maturity wise and you take care of their education needs outside of school. [/quote]

If I had a very bright kid who was bored with school, why would I increase the number of years before they can get to college?[/quote]

Or even just to MS or HS where there will be more opportunities for bright kids to take differentiated classes that actually do challenge them.

Also I'll note that my kid's public school has done a lot to keep her engaged and challenged. Yes we supplement a lot outside school but this idea that she's just totally bored at school and there's nothing to be done is wrong. Her teachers always work to give her supplemental reading that actually meets her reading level, since the on-grade reading is generally way too easy for her. She's also done pull outs to small groups in higher grades so that she can do a reading or math unit that will challenge her more than what her class might be working on. I was nervous about those because of the age gap (she did a 4th grade reading group in 2nd grade, for instance, so that she could read a full novel and do reading comprehension focused group discussion, something that wasn't available in her regular classroom). She did fine. Yes she felt a little shy but she was academically capable so she overcame it and was able to participate. It wound up being a great learning experience both academically and socially.

Now she's entering MS and is so excited to take differentiated math classes and also to participate in more academic extra curricular offerings like mathletes, history day, etc. I can't imagine holding a kid like this back. Kids are actually pretty adaptable socially, and there's enough variation within any grade that your kid will find peers to connect to. My kid has never been the ultra-popular superstar in any classroom, but those kids tend to be sporty and gregarious, and redshirting was not going to change my child's entire personality so that was likely not in the cards no matter what.[/quote]

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