Hi,
Just thought I would bring up the issue of academic red shirting (when a parent holds their child back a year, regardless of birthdate, before kindergarten soley to gain an academic advantage over peers).
This has become quite an issue in our school as many kids in the gifted program are a year older than their classmates. Since our school relies soley on achievment testing at the end of 2nd grade to determine eligibilty for the gifted program, many bright, more mature children who are not really gifted get into the program. The immature gifted kid often gets passed over.
Our PTO moms brag about how holding their children back gave them an advantage & some have held all of their kids back for the same reason.
I cannot imagine a Mom of a truly gifted child ever wanting to hold their kid back "so he gets more practice with the basics". Maybe if the gifted child has other special needs I could understand. However this has not been the case here. It's more the "thing to do".
Anyone else have experience with this?
