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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is this a cultural issue? My Indian neighbor and I are shocked by the number of our white neighbors who are doing this "redshirting" thing. We don't understand the artificially promoted rationale behind it. All of our white friends and neighbors are "redshirters", and many of them were, too. The reasons are all the same, maturity, size, and competitive advantage for sports. I have actually began interviewing people to find other reasons. The same three reasons are reported each time. Nothing new has been shared about delays or academic unreadiness.

None of our Black (People of African descent including Americans, Africans, Carribeans, Native Americans, Canadians) friends support the concept, and really cannot understand why people are so worried about maturity of young children that are just 5-6. Is it possible this is the reason many Black boys get pegged as troublemakers in school, because their white male peers are older and "more mature" than them?

By the way, all the White private and public schools we visited were filled with teachers and principals who encouraged and admitted they even redshirted their own kids, some as far back as decades ago. Black teachers and administrators seemed not to support the concept as much. We were shocked.

We now know about this issue, and have been asking people about it. Nationwide, it seems all of our white friends and family members are huge advocates of this practice, educators and business people alike.

We are just wondering if it is racial cultural norm. I hope we can discuss this respectfully.[/quote]

I think it has to do with the history of retention.  Post-integration, children of color (especially boys) were the kids most likely to be held back (failed, retained, forced to repeat a grade, told to wait to enroll) by school administrators and it became, in part, a civil rights issue in the public schools.  With that history, it's hard to see your kid being the oldest one in class as a perk.   The oldest/biggest black boy in class is more likely to be assumed to be stupid (and maybe a thug) than (like his affluent white boy counterpart) a natural leader.   I still hear variations on this theme in conversations about Wilson High School so I think that the double standard is alive and well.  [/quote]

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