Reply to Redshirting consequences at Lafayette

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[quote=Anonymous]I live in NYC. The public school cut off here is Dec 31, i.e., all the kids born in the same year enter school together. That was done many years ago to allow immigrant families to enroll their kids in school as early as possible so the kids could learn English ASAP. It was felt, and it is probably true,that the younger the child, the easier for the child to learn English as a second language. I think early studies indicated that after age 5 it becomes more difficult to learn a second language.

In Massachusetts many years ago our school district was required to administer a kindergarten readiness test. It was embarrassing for my cousin, a school principal, and his wife, a high school science teacher, when one of their kids--the only girl of 4--flunked it twice. She was almost 8 when she started kindergarten.

The test wasn't about whether you could recognize letters or count. It had a component in which a small group of kids had to sit still and follow a teacher's simple directions. She was one of the kids who immediately got up and roamed around the room, started talking at inappropriate times, etc. I remember it also involved ability to skip and use scissors properly. She couldn't do either. I think the test was given in the spring and IIRC, parents of kids who failed had the option of havng the child retake the test closer to the beginning of the new school year. After a full summer of her mom--off from work for the summer--trying desperately and unsuccessfully to teach her to use scissors, she failed again.

So, I think that if a child struggles in pre-K and either the teacher OR the parent thinks the child isn't ready for kindergarten, there should be some objective or quasi list of criteria used to decide if the child is ready.
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