One thing that really bugs me about hard cutoff dates is that only one of the barn doors is closed, if you see what I mean.
Specifically, redshirting/keeping a five-year-old out of kindergarten until he turns six is a widely accepted practice. Schools tell us that acceleration is a Bad Thing because kids need to be with age peers; if this is so vitally important, why do they allow redshirting?
In light of this practice, I get extra annoyed when schools they get wound up about, umm, what I'm going to call greenlighting/early entrance to K (or skipping K to go straight to first).
Val
Val, this is one of the biggest issues for me too! DS6 had a friend in pre-K that would've turned 5 during the last week in August, and his mom held him back a year because he was socially immature. Well, DS6 was slightly immature with me too, BUT once he got into K and had his testing, the school was the one telling me how mature he was!! Schools are worried about 10 years down the line, yet if a parent is redshirting a child, he/she will be driving before anyone! So what's the big deal if my child has to wait an additional year? Driving seems to be the big issue when discussing grade skips around here. My response, other than of course telling them we have to worry about now, not then, is he'll be lucky to get his license at 16 regardless of what grade he's in!
