60 Minutes

[Country Kids]

Did anyone see the show 60 Minutes last night. One of the articles was very interesting. I hope I understood it right because I was trying to finish organizing for this week and my little boy kept saying "I'm so glad I'm not in kindergarten anymore". He was saying this because he was watching it also but not understanding what it was saying.

So here is what I understood. More and more parents are keeping there kids out of kindergarten until they are 6 years old on purpose (more boys then girls). Now they are doing this so the kids will have an advantage over the younger kids. Better grades, better at sports, more popular, and a whole bunch of other things. It is called Red Shirting.

Some school districts are putting their foot down though and saying if your child is 6 and hasn't attended kindergarten they will automatically go to first grade. I think the plan to keep their boys out backfired on two sets of parents because of this.

Like I said not sure if I go the story right but was pretty interesting to watch. Might try to bring it up on the internet.

[Springdaze]

I wish I would have seen that! It would be a shame because some kids may benefit from waiting. Nasty people ruin everything!

[Springdaze]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7400898n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

you will have to copy and paste I guess.

[Springdaze]

there it is!

[Country Kids]

Thanks I want to rewatch it. If you watch it please let me know what you think of the article.

[Springdaze]

To be extremely blunt, I think its a bunch of rich people who want to be the best at everything and I feel like it just pushes the gap between the haves and the have nots even bigger than it is. if your kid is less mature, ok, fine. I think that it probably evens out anyway.

Of course it is going to look like a 6 yo is better in school than a 5 year old. They have longer attention spans, they have better fine motor skills, etc.

[nannyde]

They are going to have a senior in high school that is 18 the entire year at best. Good luck with that.

[Kaddidle Care]

Yep! At 18 they can sign themselves out! (My husband used to all the time because he was in the Fire Company.)

I know a Kindergarten Teacher that told me she has never seen anyone regret keeping the child home until 6 and she said for boys it's almost a must. (In her district, the Kindergarten has a vast curriculum - must be reading, must be writing sentences before 1st grade.)

[wahmof3]

I have an 18 year senior

We kept her in preschool another year from the recommendation of her preschool teacher. That academically she could do it, but socially she would benefit another year. We did not "red shirt" her . She turned 18 right after this school year started. We have had our "But I'm 18" issues, but nothing major. I wouldn't have it any other way. And she cannot sign herself out in our school system.

Now our younger 2 kids are both the youngest in their classes and I wouldn't have that any other way. If we would have waited they would both be extremely bored right now.

[Blackcat31]

I was an 18 yr old senior! Both my kids were too! I was able to sign myself in and out and make excuses for my absences. Luckily, I was a "good" kid and loved school so I never abused the priviledge. Neither of my kids did either.

[daycare]

starting in 2014 in california all children MUST be 5 years old when they start kinder. This will mean that many children will be 18 throughout their senior year.

My families kids have bdays in december, they missed the dead line by a few days and therefore are 18 in highschool.

I plan to hold my son back this fall from starting, because that would mean he would be 4 when he starts and he is a very immature young 4. He comes from a family where he is the youngest by 10 years and is very babied by his siblings; despite my request to NOT baby him.

I feel it will give me the chance to mature and he will do much better in school.

[Heidi]

It's kind of interesting that as we push down what used to be first grade curriculum to kindergarten, more people are waiting to put their children in kindergarten, eh?

It's a little ironic that several children in my extended family have actually been skipped a grade because they were bored, and most of our schools no longer have any "gifted" programs due to financial issues.

[sharlan]

I'm finding in my area, that it's the youngest boy child that's being "red shirted".

My neighbor's son will be 6 the first of June. He'll start K in the fall and will be 19 when he graduates. He's exactly 1 year and 4 days older than my grandson and would be in the same class if they went to the same school.

[Hunni Bee]

That's a ball of crap in my opinion. "Redshirting", that is. I'm sorry.

The grades that children are in are based on what abilities the average child has at each age and what they should be learning at that age to do well in their school careers. Kindergarten is for five-year-olds because its developmentally appropriate for most five year olds. It's NOT for six year olds because at six, most kids are ready for more challenging curriculum. Especially these kids, who have access to the best preschools and such. If your four-year-old is reading, what sense would it make to have a child who's been reading for two years in the same class with kids who don't know their letters?? In my opinion this has nothing to do with academics, its about having the "best" kid.

Working in an environment with there's heavy poverty and low socioeconomic status, some boys (and girls) simply aren't ready for kindergarten at 5 because of their home life, poor diet, lack of health care, or lack of social exposure. Pre-K is very, very important here and just about every child attends, for those reasons. The Pre-K program here is called VPI and is basically just kindergarten without the tests and learning standards, a training camp for kindergarten. By going to VPI when you're four lessens the chance that you won't be ready for kindergarten when you're five, which lessens the chance that you'll have the stigma of the "big slow kid" who's a year and half older than everyone in their class. I really can't see how they think this is going to be a good thing in the long run.

Like someone else said, I think this is just another case certain people gaining advantage over other people through unfair tactics and loopholes. Yes the six-year-old kindergarteners might be able to blurt out all the answers and win all the school yard races because they're bigger, but how is that really helpful? It tells the him that he should "always win" because he's being set up to win. What happens when he doesn't?

[jojosmommy]

Where I live we have a huge social gap of haves and have nots. I live in a medical community where physicians attempt to do this all the time to give their kids an edge. Trouble is if they have access to things others do not they typically end up better/smarter anyhow. Nonsense holding them back just to widen that gap. In our district they are cutting gifted programs because there isn't funding to pay for them. So what happens to these older and better off kids when there isn't any system in the schools to support them???

I think it's a bunch of crap. I also think it backfires when they get old enough to make decisions on their own. My own brother just missed the cut off for kindergarten because of his bday. He was always smarter than the curriculum offered in school and never put in much effort because he didn't have to try. Got to college and flunked out. Had no study skills because he never had to develop them. Still hasn't done much with his life because he always had it easy being smarter than his class.

I also laugh at the sports idea. What if your kids have no interest in sports??
Overall bad idea.