Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 16:35     Subject: Just another redshirting vent

So then you have no idea what it's like in our shoes, as parents of children who turn 5 in July or August, starting K with kids who turned 5 LAST summer, and are now more than a full year older than them, and teasing them on the playground for being babyish and not wanting to play them them. I'm not worried about academics for my son I'm worried about the social aspect of him being picked on for being the youngest, smallest, and least socially mature boy in a class with kids who were held back, are over a year older than him, and then pick on him for being small!


Yes, THIS. I don't think redshirting should be allowed in any school.

I have a child with special needs with a spring birthday who I sent on time. He is physically small, with a speech delay and physical delays. Every one thinks he is younger than he is. He has physical delays, so being around older and bigger kids with more coordinated physical skills is not only intimidating, but can be unsafe for him. It does not help that many kids in his grade were redshirted so they are a year or more older than him. More mature, bigger, etc.

If everyone was sent on time, including special needs kids, things would be much more even.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 15:50     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
OP, is this child attending McDonough? I also live in Baltimore and McD takes redshirting to an entirely different level than the other privates.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 15:33     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:First rule of good parenting is not to skew things to your kid's advantage. Parents who redshirt are (attempting to) do just that. It's the only reason they do it. It is a red flag re: what kind of people they are.

-of course not talking about SN here.


Look, here's the thing about SNs: it's not like the kids are born with a magic diagnosis certificate. You don't know and there are often years of not knowing. It has taken me years to get a definitive diagnosis for one of my kids. Years after K, I will note.

The rigid jerks on this thread live in a world where it's easy to scream don't redshirt except if there are diagnosed SNs, and are generally the blindly privileged types who have no actual idea what it's like to live in a district with limited SN support and a kid who defies easy diagnosis. They are selfish, self-absorbed types who are clearly obsessed with college admissions. Meanwhile I am hoping this year will be okay.

You are one of them. Just admit it.


Oh and I didn't redshirt. I just have a sense of empathy and don't spend my days patting myself on the back about my good parenting.

It's so crazy how convinced the anti-redshirt parents are that they are so superior and yet which each post reveal themselves to be the opposite.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 15:26     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:First rule of good parenting is not to skew things to your kid's advantage. Parents who redshirt are (attempting to) do just that. It's the only reason they do it. It is a red flag re: what kind of people they are.

-of course not talking about SN here.


Look, here's the thing about SNs: it's not like the kids are born with a magic diagnosis certificate. You don't know and there are often years of not knowing. It has taken me years to get a definitive diagnosis for one of my kids. Years after K, I will note.

The rigid jerks on this thread live in a world where it's easy to scream don't redshirt except if there are diagnosed SNs, and are generally the blindly privileged types who have no actual idea what it's like to live in a district with limited SN support and a kid who defies easy diagnosis. They are selfish, self-absorbed types who are clearly obsessed with college admissions. Meanwhile I am hoping this year will be okay.

You are one of them. Just admit it.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 15:26     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Who cares?! My kid has an October birthday.

She will start preschool when she’s about to turn 3. She’ll do PK when she’s about to turn 4, junior K when she’s about to turn 5, K just before she turns 6, and 1st just before she turns 7.

It has nothing to do with anything except that she misses the cutoff for MCPS by about 6 weeks, and the cutoff for appealing by about 4 days. I don’t see why you care.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 15:14     Subject: Re:Just another redshirting vent
I saw a hint in one of those previous posts about what this is really about: money. Somebody is afraid somebody else’s kid will get a scholarship to college and theirs won’t. Or they’ll get into a better college and make more money someday.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 15:02     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
First rule of good parenting is not to skew things to your kid's advantage. Parents who redshirt are (attempting to) do just that. It's the only reason they do it. It is a red flag re: what kind of people they are.

-of course not talking about SN here.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 12:10     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:PP, there is no law on when to apply to college or that all applicants must be the same age. Your kid will be competing with all kinds of people - veterans, kids who took gap year or years, kids who had to work for a few years before college to save money, late bloomers, foreign transfers etc. Leave the age considerations to the admissions officers and keep eyes on your own paper.


True enough, but you're overlooking the fact that the older kid will have had advantages during his earlier schooling that are more likely to result in better grades. With a higher GPA and possibly higher test scores, as well as possibly better opportunities to participate in extracurriculars (better at sports because he's older, and perhaps more likely to take leadership roles in other types of activities/clubs), he'll be applying for college with advantages that are more likely to get him accepted and get a merit scholarship.


DP. Lady, you are totally crazy. Totally, utterly nuts.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 09:54     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:PP, there is no law on when to apply to college or that all applicants must be the same age. Your kid will be competing with all kinds of people - veterans, kids who took gap year or years, kids who had to work for a few years before college to save money, late bloomers, foreign transfers etc. Leave the age considerations to the admissions officers and keep eyes on your own paper.


True enough, but you're overlooking the fact that the older kid will have had advantages during his earlier schooling that are more likely to result in better grades. With a higher GPA and possibly higher test scores, as well as possibly better opportunities to participate in extracurriculars (better at sports because he's older, and perhaps more likely to take leadership roles in other types of activities/clubs), he'll be applying for college with advantages that are more likely to get him accepted and get a merit scholarship.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 07:52     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wait, your kid is on time and you're upset some super moron was held back twice? Like envious of the doofus?


That doofus is unfortunately not labeled as such and will be competing against the 'started on time' kids in college applications along with whatever academic competitions they enter before then. You can't seriously suggest that an 16 year old isn't at an enormous advantage sitting any academic test against a 14 year old, regardless of what their formal education has been. There's a reason the criminal justice system considers minors as minors - because their brain is still developing. And it continues to develop rapidly until the age of 18 or even slightly beyond that. The average 16 year old will outperform the average 14 year old in an IQ test, regardless of the stuff they've learned in classes.


There is so so much wrong with this post! It’s “unfortunate” that a small child is not labeled a “doofus” and will not be disadvantaged in college admissions by a decision his parents made when he was 6? I’m no psychologist, but the differences in teenage brain development generally have more to do with impulse control, risk taking, and susceptibility to peer pressure (all very relevant in the criminal justice context) than academic performance. When I took Spanish 3 as a freshman there were juniors in the class and I was not disadvantaged by that in the least. I still think it’s likely there is something going on OP doesn’t know about with her acquaintance’s kid. But in any event, her kid is not going to that school and this redshirting of older fall birthday kids is not happening in public school.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 06:45     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Redshirting is an athletic term applied to the keeping of an athlete out of college competition for a year in order to develop the athlete's skills and extend their period of playing eligibility. The term has crept into the early education field as the practice of postponing entrance into kindergarten of age-eligible children in order to allow extra time for socioemotional, intellectual, or physical growth. But there is a problem here: in athletics, yes, redshirting may be used to give an advantage to the team by keeping an older, stronger or more skilled player around longer. That concept simply DOES NOT APPLY to classes. Read the definition; the child's entry is being postponed in order to give the child a chance to grow up as needed. It will have little to no impact on your kid. Grades are not comparative or competitive in K, 1 or 2. And the research show that whatever early advantage slightly older kids might have washes out after a few years (usually by 5-6th grades.)
Don't worry about it. Your kid will be fine.


There was a study recently showing that advantages of starting school later sustain through HS and into adulthood.


citation please

http://www.nber.org/papers/w23660


This article does not study redshirting. It looks at kids who are naturally older for the grade within the cut off.


It does study red shirting (and retention) as part of the larger question of whether older for their grade kids do better. It finds that they do. It conflicts with some other studies but it finds clear evidence that older kids for their grade do better
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 06:36     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
PP, there is no law on when to apply to college or that all applicants must be the same age. Your kid will be competing with all kinds of people - veterans, kids who took gap year or years, kids who had to work for a few years before college to save money, late bloomers, foreign transfers etc. Leave the age considerations to the admissions officers and keep eyes on your own paper.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 02:46     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wait, your kid is on time and you're upset some super moron was held back twice? Like envious of the doofus?


That doofus is unfortunately not labeled as such and will be competing against the 'started on time' kids in college applications along with whatever academic competitions they enter before then. You can't seriously suggest that an 16 year old isn't at an enormous advantage sitting any academic test against a 14 year old, regardless of what their formal education has been. There's a reason the criminal justice system considers minors as minors - because their brain is still developing. And it continues to develop rapidly until the age of 18 or even slightly beyond that. The average 16 year old will outperform the average 14 year old in an IQ test, regardless of the stuff they've learned in classes.


Treat your significant anxiety issues.


Seems pretty obvious to me that the people with anxiety issues are the parents who don't feel that their little Larlo can possibly cope learning alongside the other kids their age in school.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 01:33     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
I am sorry but I have not seen a 7 year old in K or an 8 year old in 1st or...you get the drift. OP saw one kid in private school who was two years older for his class and flips out?! Get a life OP, seriously! The children are always content and happy, it’s parents like you who cause all the trouble.
Anonymous
Post 09/01/2018 01:29     Subject: Just another redshirting vent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wait, your kid is on time and you're upset some super moron was held back twice? Like envious of the doofus?


That doofus is unfortunately not labeled as such and will be competing against the 'started on time' kids in college applications along with whatever academic competitions they enter before then. You can't seriously suggest that an 16 year old isn't at an enormous advantage sitting any academic test against a 14 year old, regardless of what their formal education has been. There's a reason the criminal justice system considers minors as minors - because their brain is still developing. And it continues to develop rapidly until the age of 18 or even slightly beyond that. The average 16 year old will outperform the average 14 year old in an IQ test, regardless of the stuff they've learned in classes.


Treat your significant anxiety issues.