OT - moving daughter up a grade - opinions?

[slinkedog]

I got the impression, from reading the article, that this is only talking about kids with summer birthdays... not kids who are still 4 when school starts.

Also, I found this closing comment interesting...

"School districts should consider the impact of redshirting as well, he said.

“While it may be an attractive option to encourage parents to hold off sending their ‘younger’ kids to kindergarten because the younger children are often a little more difficult to teach the more difficult academic concepts to, perhaps we should structure curriculum to be age appropriate.”

That statement tells me that most schools DON'T have their curriculum structured in a way to be age appropriate to the younger kids yet, which, again makes me glad we made the choice we did.

Also, this paragraph stood out for me:

Parents whose child has a summer birthday should just send him or her to kindergarten, Painter said. “If for some reason, they are unsuccessful in kindergarten, they are better off repeating kindergarten than simply having them start a year later and having them waste a year of their productive life.”

I watched in my son's kindergarten class, last year, the kids who were failing in the class and they were very cognizant of the fact that they were behind. I felt sorry for them because they often looked forlorn and confused. I also have an issue with "having them waste a year of their productive life." Not sure what's he's trying to say, but I see playing and being a little kid as a very productive and good thing!!