Where should you draw the line? (solutions to redshirting, school entry age, being the oldest/youngest in your class)

[CarnivalGal]

I am a teacher, and although I think there are some kids who do benefit from waiting an extra year to start Kinder, I think far too many kids who are ready are held back for no good reason. Here the cutoff is September 1. It's almost become automatic for parents of August babies to hold their kids back. I think parents wildly underestimate what their kids can handle.

In my area, I have also seen a lot of parents hold their kids back so they will be one of the oldest kids in school - for the sole purpose of athletics. Yep, I have seen parents hold back perfectly capable March babies so that they will be the oldest and biggest kid in high school and hopefully be the start of the football team, get a scholarship, etc. They make this decision when the kid is 5. I really want to follow up with these parents when the kid is 19, still in high school, and has no propensity, desire, or ability to play sports.

[Tinawina]

Originally Posted by It is 57 below zero

I just thought of this one. Is the following idea considered a good idea or a bad idea? In order to make things more uniform and less confusing, and less of an issue:

What if the "school entrance age" was just based on "birth YEAR"? As in every person born in (year X) are in the same grade level. Those who turn 5 in the calendar year of the fall they start kindergarten.

Like, all people born in 2000 should be in grade 10, all 2001 babies should be in grade 9, all 2010 babies in kindergarten, like that. This just about guarantees that the gap in any classroom is no more than a year, from January 1 to December 31 of that year, so it should minimize the issue in large age gaps between classmates.

Anyone born in a "calendar year" are all in the same class, regardless of the month of that year they were born. So, when registering your children for school, instead of using a cutoff, you can just say "if your child was born in 2007, for example, then this is the year you should start school".

Would that idea reduce redshirting issues, *and* early entry issues for kids who just miss the cutoff, if more parents will just look at the fact that everyone in their class is born in the same calendar year?

Example: The absolute oldest child allowed is born on January 1, 1983. The absolute youngest child allowed is born on December 31, 1983. Regardless, all the children in the class are born in 1983, and I also think it's easier for parents to accept the grade level placement of their children if it was in the same birth calendar year.

I'm sure age gap, maturity issues, redshirting, and pushing ahead for missing cutoffs, can all be reduced if all states put this idea in place.

That doesn't change much of anything. All that does is change the cutoff dates from whenever they are to January 1st of a particular year.

There will always be parents, particularly those whose kids are close to the cutoff, who will argue that thier kids need to start kindergarten earlier or later. Sometimes they will be right. And you will still end up with kids a little older or a little younger while most of the kids remain born in the same 12 month period.

You just shifted the 12 months. That's it.

[It is 57 below zero]

Originally Posted by Tinawina

That doesn't change much of anything. All that does is change the cutoff dates from whenever they are to January 1st of a particular year.

There will always be parents, particularly those whose kids are close to the cutoff, who will argue that thier kids need to start kindergarten earlier or later. Sometimes they will be right. And you will still end up with kids a little older or a little younger while most of the kids remain born in the same 12 month period.

You just shifted the 12 months. That's it.

I already knew that, so I guess that statement made no sense. I wasn't thinking properly, it was early in the morning when I typed this.

Long story short: With a Dec. 31 cutoff, one positive thing about that, is that at least all the kids will have one thing in common: same birth year. So maybe the kids would be less likely to be taken advantage of, or bullied, because of being younger, if they just think of a birth year.

This idea can work even better if the "school year" started in Jan/Feb. and ended in Nov/Dec. The 2 1/2 month long summer break would then be replaced with a 2 1/2 month long winter break. So since January 1st is a Happy New Year, the start of a school term should also be considered a Happy New Year same as the holiday, rather than a schools's New Year being in August or September.