I was a December birthday in that system and graduated at 17 without a problem. You would have had to start kindergarten at age 3 in order to be 16 when you graduated. Nobody's talking about that.

Anonymous wrote:I was in a school system like this with a December birthday. It was TERRIBLE always being the youngest. To compound matters, I was advanced and ended up skipping a grade. I graduated at 16. No 16-year-old should be allowed to go to college.

I wasn't aware life was a race.

Most people work for 40+ years, often 50 years. I feel no need to worry about my children missing one year of work.

Anonymous wrote:

Seriously? The kids I knew who started school early or skipped a grade were not the ones at risk for that

I know one. Mom who put her in school early, asked later "Why didn't anybody tell me about high school". It is anecdotal but I know more who regret sending early.

DH graduated HS when he was 16 and went onto college. While academically he was fine, socially it was not a great thing as he was behind that way. It really took till graduate school for him to be on the same wavelength. He also was a much better graduate student as he got older. He always says that if he had it to do over again, he would not have skipped the grades and would have stayed on grade level. The maturity, even for a smart kid and a boy just does not kick in till they are older. Yes there are exceptions but now raising 3 boys of our own, I see this with my own kids. I also went to college young at 17 and I certainly would have benefitted from being older.

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying that starting Kindergarten one year late is the reason they were getting out of school later and putting off pregnancy? I find it hard to believe that the one extra year made that much of a difference. I definitely agree with your premise - that people are putting off children longer but I really don't think it has anything to do with redshirting.

Yes, I am the PP that made the argument about graduating college early to jumpstart your career. While I agree that a year probably doesn't mean much in the scheme of things, it seems equally ridiculous in the long run to delay kindergarten by a year to provide advantages Malcolm Gladwell's outliers-style as it does to skip people ahead only for the sake of jumpstarting their career. I'd almost say that being able to graduate college early provides even more advantages, because you feel less of a squeeze to get your adult life going if you are a year or two ahead given how many women in their late 20s and 30s worry about their biological clock. Keep in mind that any academic advantage due to redshirting has been shown to even out by 8th grade, anyway.

I find it ironic that people complain about how young people are delaying their careers, marriage, moving out of their parents house, etc. while at the same time parents are purposefully holding kids back at many different levels. People start their kids off in kindergarden a year late, encourage gap years between high school and college, and so on and so forth. While on an individual basis, it might be beneficial for a small minority of children to start kindergarden late, the trend to hold kids back with birthdays as early as April seems to be ridiculous. Children have a lot more resilience than people think, and having a year of struggle because you are slightly developmentally behind a few peers is probably not going to cause lasting damage.

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying that starting Kindergarten one year late is the reason they were getting out of school later and putting off pregnancy? I find it hard to believe that the one extra year made that much of a difference. I definitely agree with your premise - that people are putting off children longer but I really don't think it has anything to do with redshirting.

Yes, I am the PP that made the argument about graduating college early to jumpstart your career. While I agree that a year probably doesn't mean much in the scheme of things, it seems equally ridiculous in the long run to delay kindergarten by a year to provide advantages Malcolm Gladwell's outliers-style as it does to skip people ahead only for the sake of jumpstarting their career. I'd almost say that being able to graduate college early provides even more advantages, because you feel less of a squeeze to get your adult life going if you are a year or two ahead given how many women in their late 20s and 30s worry about their biological clock. Keep in mind that any academic advantage due to redshirting has been shown to even out by 8th grade, anyway.

I find it ironic that people complain about how young people are delaying their careers, marriage, moving out of their parents house, etc. while at the same time parents are purposefully holding kids back at many different levels. People start their kids off in kindergarden a year late, encourage gap years between high school and college, and so on and so forth. While on an individual basis, it might be beneficial for a small minority of children to start kindergarden late, the trend to hold kids back with birthdays as early as April seems to be ridiculous. Children have a lot more resilience than people think, and having a year of struggle because you are slightly developmentally behind a few peers is probably not going to cause lasting damage.

Anonymous wrote:

Seriously? The kids I knew who started school early or skipped a grade were not the ones at risk for that

I know one. Mom who put her in school early, asked later "Why didn't anybody tell me about high school". It is anecdotal but I know more who regret sending early.

Anonymous wrote:I agree. First the kids get held back a year. Then they do a gap year between high school and college. Then they do a year where they travel or do an internship where they don't make much money to move up or they go onto grad school. It all adds up. Just having one of those scenarios doesn't necessarily change things, but when you're constantly delaying the next move up in your life it does.

Seriously? The kids I knew who started school early or skipped a grade were not the ones at risk for that