Anonymous wrote:Pp again - I was naive With my first as to how often red-shirting occurs. It becomes more apparent once kids are older and more social and into sports.

DP - I agree with this. According to DCUM, classes with large numbers of redshirting, especially in a regular middle-SES public school, are unicorns. I suppose my fall birthday DS goes to a school for unicorns.

Anonymous wrote:Pp with June birthday - this is at a public school. I have other children there as well so this is not a one-grade reference point

It is always remarkable to me how DCUM is full of anti-redshirt parents whose children are all in classrooms that are far, far off the statistics on age distributions in class. Truly quite remarkable how their snowflakes all landed in such statistically unique environments.

Pp again - I was naive With my first as to how often red-shirting occurs. It becomes more apparent once kids are older and more social and into sports.

Pp with June birthday - this is at a public school. I have other children there as well so this is not a one-grade reference point

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except when schools allow red shirting it’s not an even playing field of kids with a range of ages within one year. I have a June birthday child who is the youngest in his grade (kids all figured this out and teacher confirmed this in earlier grades). The next youngest is a May birthday. There are about 5 birthdays in each month which means the 15 kids who would have been his younger cohort that year have been replaced by kids who are a year OR MORE older. Maybe not a big deal in kindergarten or first grade but certainly quite a difference in older grades now. It does change the dynamic when you are testing within grades and rank/percentiles matter...not to mention socially in later years. That younger cohort is just...gone.

Is this a private school? Sounds unlikely in public, at least in this area. If you have options, and don’t like the policy at your child’s school you have the right to move your child. You don’t have the right to force your opinion on others. There are plenty in the younger cohort at most public schools, that whole equity in education thing, lol.

Also, if at my child’s school my Sept. was going to be the youngest by 3 months there is NO way I’d send him early. How in the world is that fair, it’s only better for your June kid.

Exactly! This is exactly it. People like you are creating this k arms race - because you’re choices are affecting others and it’s the kids who can’t afford it who get screwed. Great system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS turns 5 on September 27th and in our state, any kid who turns 5 by September 30th is eligible to go to Kindergarten. His preschool teachers have me advising us to redshirt him though. However, I feel like this would be morally wrong. I feel like redshirting him would would be cheating and giving an unfair advantage over his classmates. In our family, playing by the rules is heavily valued. Even though I know he will probably do better if we wait a year, I'd much rather he learn the value of hard work and fair play. In general, I would a lot better if he did okay in school, playing by the rules, than if he excelled in school by cheating. I also don't want criticism from other parents for gaming the system.

No because its not cheating. If it were cheating schools would not permit it. Stop overthinking.

And don’t listen to people who say it is. Haters gonna hate.

Anonymous wrote:Except when schools allow red shirting it’s not an even playing field of kids with a range of ages within one year. I have a June birthday child who is the youngest in his grade (kids all figured this out and teacher confirmed this in earlier grades). The next youngest is a May birthday. There are about 5 birthdays in each month which means the 15 kids who would have been his younger cohort that year have been replaced by kids who are a year OR MORE older. Maybe not a big deal in kindergarten or first grade but certainly quite a difference in older grades now. It does change the dynamic when you are testing within grades and rank/percentiles matter...not to mention socially in later years. That younger cohort is just...gone.

Is this a private school? Sounds unlikely in public, at least in this area. If you have options, and don’t like the policy at your child’s school you have the right to move your child. You don’t have the right to force your opinion on others. There are plenty in the younger cohort at most public schools, that whole equity in education thing, lol.

Also, if at my child’s school my Sept. was going to be the youngest by 3 months there is NO way I’d send him early. How in the world is that fair, it’s only better for your June kid.

Anonymous wrote:DS turns 5 on September 27th and in our state, any kid who turns 5 by September 30th is eligible to go to Kindergarten. His preschool teachers have me advising us to redshirt him though. However, I feel like this would be morally wrong. I feel like redshirting him would would be cheating and giving an unfair advantage over his classmates. In our family, playing by the rules is heavily valued. Even though I know he will probably do better if we wait a year, I'd much rather he learn the value of hard work and fair play. In general, I would a lot better if he did okay in school, playing by the rules, than if he excelled in school by cheating. I also don't want criticism from other parents for gaming the system.

No because its not cheating. If it were cheating schools would not permit it. Stop overthinking.

Pp again and yes my child was not “ready” in the way red-shirters here describe - socially very young, shy, and used special services in early years just to keep up.

Pp and yes I was conservative with the numbers - there are red- shorted kids with even earlier birthdays. And socially yes, what the kids are interested in (movies, books, dating, just gathering socially, etc) - well a year or more makes a big difference. It’s not that they wouldn’t also mix with some older kids on occasion but it sure would be nice if there were a larger pool of classmates closer in age with whom to find friends

Anonymous wrote:Except when schools allow red shirting it’s not an even playing field of kids with a range of ages within one year. I have a June birthday child who is the youngest in his grade (kids all figured this out and teacher confirmed this in earlier grades). The next youngest is a May birthday. There are about 5 birthdays in each month which means the 15 kids who would have been his younger cohort that year have been replaced by kids who are a year OR MORE older. Maybe not a big deal in kindergarten or first grade but certainly quite a difference in older grades now. It does change the dynamic when you are testing within grades and rank/percentiles matter...not to mention socially in later years. That younger cohort is just...gone.

Yes, when half the boys in my sons 5th grade class are 12 and actively in puberty they look crazy creepy compared to the almost 11 year olds

Except when schools allow red shirting it’s not an even playing field of kids with a range of ages within one year. I have a June birthday child who is the youngest in his grade (kids all figured this out and teacher confirmed this in earlier grades). The next youngest is a May birthday. There are about 5 birthdays in each month which means the 15 kids who would have been his younger cohort that year have been replaced by kids who are a year OR MORE older. Maybe not a big deal in kindergarten or first grade but certainly quite a difference in older grades now. It does change the dynamic when you are testing within grades and rank/percentiles matter...not to mention socially in later years. That younger cohort is just...gone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

some do and it doesn’t mean they are LD

We're not talking about the rare outliner We are talking about the widespread practice
for ordinary learners. It is cheating.

SN kids benefit from going earlier to have all the services and supports, especially the ones whose parents only use school services and no private pay.

That’s if you believe the school is giving appropriate services with fedelity, which most don’t. students are pushed through and expected to achieve the same standards as all others despite and age difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The irony is that the only reason I care about your kids is that I believe if your child is so slow that they need a full year to catch up, they should be seen by a professional. Redshirting parents buckle against that.

They are a few year older then just a few. Anti people always say thing, but really it’s putting these kids at a level playing field, not giving them them this great advantage. Not all kids need it, but some do and it doesn’t mean they are LD. Get off your high horse.

A level playing field? Why? School isn’t a competition right? Who cares what the field looks like - your child and their needs are all that matters I thought? Also- dropping them onto a “field” of kids a year younger because you could afford a year more of school or daycare certainly doesn’t level the field for the kids whosec parents couldn’t afford that.


It’s not actually a level playing field you want, it’s one that gets your kid off the bench.

Hyperbole. It’s not a whole field of kids a year younger. It’s a range of kids, some who are younger, but many who close to her age, just as it would be if she was the youngest, but there is one clear difference: my kid was not ready to Start K at age 4. Not the K of today in public school. She was ready to start about six months later when she was just shy of 5 1/2, but at that point it was February and school doesn’t start in February (I wish it did). You could say, “see! She would have been fine eventually!!” But in reality she would have always been little behind because she wasn’t ready. It’s not just what I think, I am a teacher and see it all the time. I don’t need my kid to have a whole year advantage on other kids, just start at a time where she will succeed.

Anonymous wrote:

some do and it doesn’t mean they are LD

We're not talking about the rare outliner We are talking about the widespread practice
for ordinary learners. It is cheating.

SN kids benefit from going earlier to have all the services and supports, especially the ones whose parents only use school services and no private pay.