A few items of note:
- I was really fascinated, though not surprised, by the long term effects of high stakes testing on this issue. This is an area of public policy that I studied in the high school arena during my scholarly law school years; it's interesting to note the trickle down effect;
- I'm glad that the author addressed the economic disparity issue. It does seem that so-called redshirting is much more a privilege of the wealthy; and
- I can only hope that Maryland does in fact change their laws by the time the Captain is 4, because I certainly will have a hard time swallowing an extra $10K in private school tuition if he is "ready" for public school kindergarten. The arguments towards the end of the article on the long range investment of that 10k are compelling, though difficult to contemplate in an immediate sense.
I'm sure some of my Montessori-lovin' peeps could have some interesting input on this issue. Long article, but well worth it.
3 comments:
I can understand your desire to get a well-deserved break by getting the kid out as early as possible, and without having to pay through the nose for it, but we can attest to the value of red-shirting. Thanks to the different cut-offs between VA and TX, Aidan got to do kindergarten twice, and he was vastly improved the second time around.
I agree and I'm sure we're going to have to look at the whole picture. I've known too many people that have reaped the benefits of being the oldest, rather than the youngest.
BTW, Happy Birthday ;-)
MM
meh. I think it is a very individual thing. Some kids are ready, some aren't. Most commonly, girls are ready, boys aren't. I was the youngest by a year all the way through college- no permanent mental damage here.
H is staying behind for an extra year, but only because he is in Montessori. His academics are good and getting better, but emotional maturity is lagging. In public school, I would insist that he go on to first grade, because I'd be afraid that he would just repeat everything again, and come to dislike the boredom of school. In Montessori, there is no rigid syllabus for the year, so staying in primary does not restrict his learning opportunities.
What bothers me the most about starting kids at school so late is that they are so eager to learn by the time they are 2 or 3. We are wasting those most valuable years by starting them when they are 5 or 6, and already developing their own agendas. I can not overstate how valuable the first couple of years of Montessori school were to us, in terms of teaching us how eager the kid is to learn, and how much he is capable of.
Post a Comment