Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Kindergarten redshirting on 60 minutes tonight

bgbarnes, what I am is frustrated and bitter, not competitive. One of the excuses I have gotten from my son's school as to why acceleration will not be allowed is that he is already so young for his grade, there are already several kids a year or more older than him in grade, and that it would be even worse if he were skipped a grade. My son's birthday is early spring, we live in Texas with a 9/1 cutoff, and yet he is the youngest boy in his grade. It's ridiculous.

I know that there are times when a child should be held out for another year, especially in times of medical issues like with your son or in cases where there are actual learning or developmental issues. I said in my post that I don't want children pushed to school before they are ready- but for some, how do we know until they are in school? What the parents or even the teachers *think* will happen might not. It just seems crazy that we don't even let the kids try, for heaven sake. And as others have mentioned, it's just one more way for the poorer children to be further diadvantaged.

And I guess I've also run into the competitive parents too often to think that the legitimate delays exceed the frivolous. I know anecdotal doesn't trump scientific, but... For example, when my son first started school I was approached by a mom who I later learned thought that I had held my son back because he could read so well. She started talking to me about how she agreed with me about holding boys back, that she had held her son back to gain an edge, but that he wasn't reading as well as she'd hoped and she was wondering what program I'd used? I must have looked at her like she had 3 heads, and I couldn't even respond because at that point I was quite naive about schooling issues and didn't know what the heck she was talking about. Long story short, where I live, this redshirting nonsense is all about gaining an edge, making their kids appear smart by pitting them against those 1 year younger, and planning ahead for the all important football years.

I'm sorry if my post offended you. I know there are times when children need an extra year, but I really can't believe that 15% do (the most recent estimate I've seen).


And on edit, in case I wasn't clear (and I'm sure I wasn't!): The reason I care is that redshirting indirectly hurts advanced students in those instances where the range of students' ages is used as an excuse to justify refusing acceleration. Fairly common reason given, from what I've been able to determine.