60 Minutes tonight- kindergarten segment

Court0026 · March 2012

I guess the episode will be discussing how many people are choosing to hold their children back an extra year. DVRing!

lawry13 · March 2012

I will have to watch it. California is changing the date you have to be 5 by (moving to November 1 next year I believe, October 1 the next until eventually September 1st). DD will miss it no matter what so won't be able to start kindergarten until 5 years 9 months.

franciscaz · March 2012

Thanks I will add that to my TiVo list! My husband and I were just talking about that with the twins and their August birthday.

Meg&Jesse · March 2012

Just posted this in the AP board. I am curious as to what other parents think about this. I missed the 60 minutes episode.

RoxBride · March 2012

I thought it was an interesting segement.

I have to say I am against redshirting, but I thought they did a good job of showing both sides.

Court0026 · March 2012

RoxBride:
I thought it was an interesting segement.

I have to say I am against redshirting, but I thought they did a good job of showing both sides.

I agree. At first I thought it was going to be all about red shirting, but it really wasn't.

The only reason I would even consider it for my son at this point is if his allergies get "scarier" and I think he would be more mature to deal with them a year later. I think there are definitely circumstances that make it a logical decision...different for the individual children. I thought it was really interesting that an area (was it Chicago?) didn't allow it.

rsd12 · March 2012

Bummed, I missed it. We had already decided to hold out our middle son with support from the school district and we were considering (pretty much decided) to hold out our youngest son (even though we have a few years to decide ; ). Our current state is one of three states with a dec 31st cut off. I am not worried about kindergarten, but do worry as they get to middle and up. Fortunatley we are moving in a couple of months and MA has a Sep. 1 cut off (phew).

Wally3 · March 2012

This topic gets me so upset. You can still watch the 60 minute segment on there website. I think that you should go with what the cut off it. There has to be a cutoff and somebody is going to be the oldest and somebody is going to be the youngest. I was glad the school was putting kids who tried to start late in 1st grade. It is not fair to children who follow the cut off the redshirt child can be 15 - 18 months older. If a child truely is not ready for kindergarten then they should be evaluated by the school system and should be provided with the services they need.

smilejenn · March 2012

Wally3:
This topic gets me so upset. You can still watch the 60 minute segment on there website. I think that you should go with what the cut off it. There has to be a cutoff and somebody is going to be the oldest and somebody is going to be the youngest. I was glad the school was putting kids who tried to start late in 1st grade. It is not fair to children who follow the cut off the redshirt child can be 15 - 18 months older. If a child truely is not ready for kindergarten then they should be evaluated by the school system and should be provided with the services they need.

I politely disagree. My oldest son is a summer birthday (was also born 4 weeks premature) and we are holding him back a year with support from our school district. We had him evaluated to see if he would qualify for any special services for certain areas like fine motor skills, and he did not qualify. The educators we spoke to from the school district supported our decision to hold off a year on Kindergarten. One of them even told us that they had a son with a summer birthday who they started on time in K, and one of the big regrets they have is not giving him an extra year to mature. Additionally, many K teachers will tell you that if a younger child can not keep up with the fine motor skills of the older kids in class, they will fall behind with handwriting activities and assignments within the first few weeks of school.

Sorry, but it is not always cut and dry on when to start Kindergarten.

howleyshell · March 2012

Link for those who want to watch it:

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7400898n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

I was a bit disappointed by the segment. It frames everyone who red shirts as someone who's looking to give their kids a "leg up" over the other children and speaks a lot about competitive advantage.

As someone who agonized over this and did in fact red shirt - for us it was NEVER about how he stacked up against other children for academics, sports or anything else. It was all about his individual personality and trying to put him in a situation where he felt competent about academics and continued to love school and learning.

I kinda wished they at least interviewed one parent who talked about the benefit to their individual child vs using the terms "advantage over other kids" all the time. I couldn't care less about how he ranks in his class or if he's good at sports. I really couldn't care less if he's a "leader" which they mentioned several times. I just want him to be happy, confident and comfortable in his own skin.

That sports mom made me sick. Don't even get me started there....

And my personal favorite? As someone who struggled with infertility I LOVE having someone say that the answer to all of this is to just not have a summer baby. If only I could plan a pregnancy that easily.

Big eye roll on that one.

Court0026 · March 2012

howleyshell:
Link for those who want to watch it:
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7400898n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
I was a bit disappointed by the segment. It frames everyone who red shirts as someone who's looking to give their kids a "leg up" over the other children and speaks a lot about competitive advantage.
As someone who agonized over this and did in fact red shirt - for us it was NEVER about how he stacked up against other children for academics, sports or anything else. It was all about his individual personality and trying to put him in a situation where he felt competent about academics and continued to love school and learning.
I kinda wished they at least interviewed one parent who talked about the benefit to their individual child vs using the terms "advantage over other kids" all the time. I couldn't care less about how he ranks in his class or if he's good at sports. I really couldn't care less if he's a "leader" which they mentioned several times. I just want him to be happy, confident and comfortable in his own skin.
That sports mom made me sick. Don't even get me started there....
And my personal favorite? As someone who struggled with infertility I LOVE having someone say that the answer to all of this is to just not have a summer baby. If only I could plan a pregnancy that easily.
Big eye roll on that one.

Howleyshell, you are totally right! I have been teaching young kids for years. Pre-k for 3 years, resource for a few years and then kindergarten consultant (working with 5 kindergarten classes to catch up the kids who were struggling). Anyway, I am so defensive lately about my decision NOT to redshirt, that I was distracted and totally missed that they didn't talk about some of the OBVIOUS reasons TO do it...you know, aside from the sports (also eye rolling over here) and "advantages". I have sat in on SO many meetings discussing students and their age frequently comes up. Maturity, readiness, speech/OT/PT concerns, emotional stuff, etc. It all factors in. I actually wanted the segment to be longer. Anyway, just wanted to add my thoughts. And the birthday thing was such a ridiculous thing to say.

shouldbworkin · March 2012

howleyshell:

It was all about his individual personality and trying to put him in a situation where he felt competent about academics and continued to love school and learning.

ITA with this. That is what the focus should be on whether your redshirt or not. Unfortunately, the trend is to do it for other reasons and Malcolm Gladwell's book has only made it worse.

And, I don't think this issue is so much with redshirting kids born w/in a couple months of the cut off either. That will not allow for an 18 mos range of kids in one grade.

A big part of the problem is also KG classes that are not developmentally appropriate. KG should be a time of social growth with emerging reading, writing and math skills. Unfortunately, in some areas it's become the new 1st grade, which I completely disagree with. Yes, I think kids are capable of doing more than we were asked to do as children, but KG should never be 1st grade. Treating it as such doesn't make our kids smarter in the end.

macchiatto · March 2012

This topic always makes me glad my boys have a January birthday so I don't have to think about it! My tendency would definitely be to simply go by the cutoffs, though I agree if a child is close to the cutoff you need to do some real thinking about what will most benefit him/her as an individual.

jlw2505 · March 2012

Sorry but I have a huge issue with those that have a blanket "i disagree with red shirting" and have them start on time but get extra services. Sometimes just getting extra services is not enough and having an extra year to grow and mature is huge. Yes, I am against holding a child back simple because they have a summer birthday with a 9-1 deadline and for sports or other stuff like that. When you have a child like mine - holding her back has given her the worlds biggest gift in that she now has a change to be successful in school vs always struggling to stay at the bottom of her class. My DD was born with a brain injury and while totally fine, she has a sever speech delay and even after 2 intense years of speech therapy, she still has I'm guessing a few years to go. She was diganosised with ADHD in August. She is also a June birthday with a Sept 1 cut-off and is tiny for her age. She has been in full time daycare/preschool and is now completing her second year of an amazing full time PreK run through the public school. She has an IEP. Every single teacher, therapist and specialist that sees her told us to hold her back without a doubt - she was so not ready a year ago. By having an extra year of PreK, she has been able to work on her speech so new people can now understand most of what she is saying, we have had time to work on the ADHD issues (getting her the right meds and working on behavioral issues and methods to help her deal), she has matured overall and she is now interested in learning. She was way beyond her peers a year ago. Please, before you give a blanket "no red shirting period" think about what you say. There are many kids that simple need an extra year to mature so that they can succeed, many of these kids will not qualify for special ed services if they start on time but will also not have a great chance at doing really well. 1 year can make a world a difference. And just for the record, I know 2 kids that tested to start early because they just missed the deadline - I personally would not have my kids start early in their shoes but I would never give a blanket statement stating that this should not be allowed. There are special situations in the world and everyone needs to be able to do what is best for them. I don't think a child who is 6 months from a cut off should be held back (and yes, this has happened with a child my DD was in school with last year) but I do think there are gray lines with the cut off dates and yes, someone will always be the youngest and someone will always be the oldest.

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