I am curious- how many of the parents that want to deny Redshirted children access to GT programs have children born within the first 6 months of the school year according to their districts deadlines? Or is it more the parents of the younger kids that did not redshirt that have an issue with it?
I would also love to hear someone give me a really good answer as to how a child born Sept 1 should qualify and a child born say Aug 15- 2 weeks earlier and was redshirted should be denied access? All of us spend a lot of time figuring out how to get the most out of schools for our kids- whether it is subject acceleration, grade skips etc.... So why would you spend you time and focus on a policy restricting other children? I just don't get it. If there is one thing I learned from this board it is all of our kids are different, different strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities- so who is convinced that a school adminstrator can make an exclusionary policy with accuracy when all of our gifted kids present so differently? Can anyone that wants restrictive policies think they can determine who deserves the services and who doesn't?
The way I want to focus on my children's development is what can I do for them and not take away from others. I know life provides challenges and if you are young for your grade- you will deal with that the rest of your academic career-I did and hated it- regardless what I academically was capable of.
JonA- why exclude 19 year olds from competing in high school ball- if your child is good it won't matter. I played 2 college sports- was asked to graduate high school early to play for the top team in the nation in college(did not do it b/c my Mom did not want me going to college at just turning 17- so I went the next year)- I could compete with the college athletes early into my high school career. Once again I feel like people only want the system to benefit their children. Colleges are the one who started the practice of athletic redshirting -they commonly redshirt male Freshman. The fish rots from the head down- all of the athletic redshirting is filtering down from the colleges.
Generally redshirting is then kids whose birthdays fall in then last 3 months of the schoo year- not Sept birthdays. Y'all are trying to restrict kids a few months older than the "age right" kids. It is no different than a Jan birthday upset because a Sept birthday child has an advantAge by 3 months. I live in a heavy redshirt school district and I have yet to meet a child born before March that was redshirted. The norm is June, July and Aug.
