Has anyone heard of the argument of starting boys a year or two later in school because they do not conform to the class environment? This was a conversation I had with a F of mine a few months back. There is a push to adjust boys ages as schools are becoming more and more structured in the earlier years. I just thought how interesting the gifted comment ties into my previous conversation.
"Academic redshirting" is very, very common in our school system and is one of the reasons I rejected the idea of putting DS7 in K a year early, though I did consider it. He's got a late spring birthday, so he's already one of the youngest in his class. Factor in that literally half the boys I know in his school have been redshirted--his best friend in the neighborhood is older than he is by a couple of months, but is a year behind--and that puts DS7 almost two years younger than some of the boys BEFORE a grade skip! I simply couldn't see putting him in early and making him THREE years younger...
Even so, he was bored out of his skull in 1st grade.
The part I have trouble with is that redshirting is totally accepted around here, but grade skips are unheard of. It just doesn't make sense to me. If one is sensible and okay, philosophically speaking, why isn't the other? It makes me sad, actually.
