Redshirting
Sep. 2nd, 2012 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutOK, on redshirting.
"Redshirting" kindergartners (the term is borrowed from college football, see "redshirt freshman") refers, for those of you who don't know, to the practice of holding back your five or nearly-five year old from entering kindergarten. You wait a year and then send them when they are older, bigger, and more developmentally advanced. This is sometimes, but not always, done in part to give kids a supposed competitive advantage as compared to their peers in terms of academic performance and such down the line.
This is a particularly big issue locally right now -- by "locally" I mean in Oakland. Oakland Unified is rolling back their kindergarten eligibility dates over the course of several years:
2011-12: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Dec. 2nd
2012-13: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Nov. 1st
2013-14: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Oct. 1st
2014-15 (and beyond) school year: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Sept. 1st
(http://publicportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/1994101130191626693/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=58005)
This leaves a lot of kids with fall birthdays in kind of a gray area. Including mine: my children make the 2013-14 cutoff date by the skin of their teeth. They are, however, eligible for "transitional kindergarten," or, basically, Kindergarten Year One, traditional kindergarten now becoming Kindergarten Year Two.
Oakland Unified has in theory implemented some "transitional kindergarten" programs that kids who fall into the gray zone between September 1 and December 2 can enroll in. In practice, it's hard to find information on these programs other than where they're held. A lot of parents I talk to, rather than considering transitional kindergarten, are considering another year of preschool for their kids (or, in some cases, a private transitional kindergarten program) instead.
It is perhaps notable that none of the Oakland Unified transitional programs are held in elementary schools in the hills, if you see where I am going with this. You bet that "redshirting" is a class marker.
So this is all background.
For me, I cannot imagine waiting two years to get these kids into kindergarten. I think they would be bored out of their mind by the time they got there. Nobody I know who knows my children think they would benefit from redshirting.
But lots of people are starting to ask me if I've thought about it.
Lots of people with their kids' birthdays very near my children's are more than just thinking about it.
And while I remain resolute in my decision -- in fact I am hugely grateful that my children fall on the side of the transitioning cutoff date that allows them to go to kindergarten next year -- I am not immune to the simple anxiety created by the disparity between my actions and those of parents around me. I don't let it affect my decisions, but I can't help but to experience it. (Yes! I do have parenting anxiety! A lot of it! Just not in the usual places! This case somewhat excepted.)
Also I have a lot of anxiety, to be honest, just having these conversations with parents who have barely questioned the underlying premises of redshirting. I spend a lot of time going "please please please don't ask any follow-up questions" in my head after I say that no, my kids will be going to kindergarten on schedule next year. Because if I get the follow-up questions I am going to have to discuss buried assumptions about class and pedagogy and child development and I'm already so tired and so alienated all the time. I want to smile and superficially bond with other parents, not challenge their very reality, please.
Meanwhile I will be over here making a big list of elementary schools to tour this fall.
(And if anyone wants to pay me to write an article on "Why I am not redshirting my children this year"...)
Back to the background, some semi-biased links to the larger phenomenon of redshirting:
"Redshirting: Holding kids back from kindergarten"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57390128/redshirting-holding-kids-back-from-kindergarten/
"Kindergarten redshirting is popular, but is it necessary?"
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/kindergarten-redshirting-is-popular-but-is-it-necessary-201203064455
"When should kids start kindergarten?"
http://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/4165-redshirting-kindergarten.gs
"Delay kindergarten at your child's peril" (op-ed)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html
"The pros and cons of 'holding out'"
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/news/coverstories/pros_cons_holding_out.php
"Redshirting" kindergartners (the term is borrowed from college football, see "redshirt freshman") refers, for those of you who don't know, to the practice of holding back your five or nearly-five year old from entering kindergarten. You wait a year and then send them when they are older, bigger, and more developmentally advanced. This is sometimes, but not always, done in part to give kids a supposed competitive advantage as compared to their peers in terms of academic performance and such down the line.
This is a particularly big issue locally right now -- by "locally" I mean in Oakland. Oakland Unified is rolling back their kindergarten eligibility dates over the course of several years:
2011-12: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Dec. 2nd
2012-13: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Nov. 1st
2013-14: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Oct. 1st
2014-15 (and beyond) school year: entering Kindergarteners must turn five on or before Sept. 1st
(http://publicportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/1994101130191626693/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=58005)
This leaves a lot of kids with fall birthdays in kind of a gray area. Including mine: my children make the 2013-14 cutoff date by the skin of their teeth. They are, however, eligible for "transitional kindergarten," or, basically, Kindergarten Year One, traditional kindergarten now becoming Kindergarten Year Two.
Oakland Unified has in theory implemented some "transitional kindergarten" programs that kids who fall into the gray zone between September 1 and December 2 can enroll in. In practice, it's hard to find information on these programs other than where they're held. A lot of parents I talk to, rather than considering transitional kindergarten, are considering another year of preschool for their kids (or, in some cases, a private transitional kindergarten program) instead.
It is perhaps notable that none of the Oakland Unified transitional programs are held in elementary schools in the hills, if you see where I am going with this. You bet that "redshirting" is a class marker.
So this is all background.
For me, I cannot imagine waiting two years to get these kids into kindergarten. I think they would be bored out of their mind by the time they got there. Nobody I know who knows my children think they would benefit from redshirting.
But lots of people are starting to ask me if I've thought about it.
Lots of people with their kids' birthdays very near my children's are more than just thinking about it.
And while I remain resolute in my decision -- in fact I am hugely grateful that my children fall on the side of the transitioning cutoff date that allows them to go to kindergarten next year -- I am not immune to the simple anxiety created by the disparity between my actions and those of parents around me. I don't let it affect my decisions, but I can't help but to experience it. (Yes! I do have parenting anxiety! A lot of it! Just not in the usual places! This case somewhat excepted.)
Also I have a lot of anxiety, to be honest, just having these conversations with parents who have barely questioned the underlying premises of redshirting. I spend a lot of time going "please please please don't ask any follow-up questions" in my head after I say that no, my kids will be going to kindergarten on schedule next year. Because if I get the follow-up questions I am going to have to discuss buried assumptions about class and pedagogy and child development and I'm already so tired and so alienated all the time. I want to smile and superficially bond with other parents, not challenge their very reality, please.
Meanwhile I will be over here making a big list of elementary schools to tour this fall.
(And if anyone wants to pay me to write an article on "Why I am not redshirting my children this year"...)
Back to the background, some semi-biased links to the larger phenomenon of redshirting:
"Redshirting: Holding kids back from kindergarten"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57390128/redshirting-holding-kids-back-from-kindergarten/
"Kindergarten redshirting is popular, but is it necessary?"
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/kindergarten-redshirting-is-popular-but-is-it-necessary-201203064455
"When should kids start kindergarten?"
http://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/4165-redshirting-kindergarten.gs
"Delay kindergarten at your child's peril" (op-ed)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html
"The pros and cons of 'holding out'"
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/news/coverstories/pros_cons_holding_out.php
