I see exactly what Howler is seeing in my area. I do believe these parents feel they are helping their children. The ones that are really annoying will be in any venue. They are the 1-uppers in life and I truly try to avoid them.
My district uses CogAT, Olsat, and State achievement testing all grade normed. I know CogAT and Olsat offer age norming, but my district specifically uses grade normed results. My dd6 has 9 year olds in her 2nd grade & my DS13 has kids turning 16 as freshman. It's not the kids right on the line of cut offs. I don't know in my mind that I see that as redshirting. These kids are 18 months to 2 years past the cutoff. At the end of high school, I am not seeing these kids excel. Given the numbers in my school, these are not all kids that had some other issue going on.
Ultimately, the parents aside, I feel for these kids. They have so much pressure on them from the parents and they are being taught that being #1 comes first and foremost. The parents believe you gotta be the best. Our circle of friends are the goofy lets go splash in the mud type of parents. I am thankful I have found sanity amount the parents I have befriend. Parents that understand that raising gifted children is not as easy as some believe. I never even thought about my kids being gifted when I had them. I just hoped for them to be healthy and not have to many struggles or obstacles in their lives. Gifted has been challenging and it's topped off with a variety of 2E and/or health issues with each one of my kids. I don't think these parents really want to be in my shoes if they understood it.
Here interesting little article about why it may not be such a good idea
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html?_r=0Ahhh yes, I see ... Yeah one - uppers are always toxic, whether their kid is gifted or not (and parents of gifted children are also guilty of this). And interesting that some districts use grade norming! As much as our district likes to sing the praises of red-shirting the tests ARE age-normed (so far as I can see the sports are too, When I register DS for anything I have to plug his birthdate in and he is placed according to that not his grade... but for now these are the community sports as I don't believe their are any school sports teams in elementary). I agree this kind-of parent is not good but they'd be that way with or without redshirting and you find them in parents of gifted children and not-gifted imo ... Poor kids either way. And yes they are annoying and toxic.
This is what I see and my point in it not being really all that big of deal:
In general, they don't seem to get the results that lead to their decision to redshirt. We all have an aptitude limit. They falsely believe holding their children back is going to change that fact. Truly average is not going to become gifted by redshirting.... The real impact is not on my children. It's on their children.
At the end of the day, 'normal red-shirting' (and by that I mean within a month or two of the cut-off NOT holding a kid back two years!) is not going to make a child gifted so to me it's not that big of a deal. Like I said, as far as I can see many parents just want to do the best by their kids given their child's maturity level, self-esteem, strengths and challenges, etc. I just don't see it as that big of a deal. If a parent wants to hold a child back because it serves their child's individual needs best, to me that's fine just as fine as grade-skipping if a child would be best served by that.
