NJ schools all have different cutoff dates. It's difficult when moving from town to town. I'd like to see a national cutoff date to try to help younger children who may end up in a classroom with much older children.
Some towns in NJ have parents who are so competitive that they'll hold a child back whose birthday is within 6 monthes of the cutoff date. While I understand and can appreciate the parents' concern, it's gotten a bit crazy around here. Using that scenario a child could potentially be a year and a half older than the youngest child in the class. That creates social, emotional and educational difficulties for everyone in the classroom in my opinion. It also skews testing scores. A classroom which has 1/3 of its students who have been held back one year will usually test considerably better than a classroom that doesn't. It creates a hugely competitive environment in an unlevel playing field. Someone is always trying to play catchup.
I'd love to see a half year program for kindergarten, and indeed, all of grammar school. Start a rolling admission on a six month basis with the oldest children grouped together. Six months later, do it again. This way, the younger children will be "entering" kindergarten at roughly the same age as the older. Half year classrooms could continue til a child reaches middle school years. Then they would gradually move into a middle school classroom which would meet their potential. It's a pie in the sky idea, though. No money for that many sets of classrooms.
Some towns in NJ have parents who are so competitive that they'll hold a child back whose birthday is within 6 monthes of the cutoff date. While I understand and can appreciate the parents' concern, it's gotten a bit crazy around here. Using that scenario a child could potentially be a year and a half older than the youngest child in the class. That creates social, emotional and educational difficulties for everyone in the classroom in my opinion. It also skews testing scores. A classroom which has 1/3 of its students who have been held back one year will usually test considerably better than a classroom that doesn't. It creates a hugely competitive environment in an unlevel playing field. Someone is always trying to play catchup.
I'd love to see a half year program for kindergarten, and indeed, all of grammar school. Start a rolling admission on a six month basis with the oldest children grouped together. Six months later, do it again. This way, the younger children will be "entering" kindergarten at roughly the same age as the older. Half year classrooms could continue til a child reaches middle school years. Then they would gradually move into a middle school classroom which would meet their potential. It's a pie in the sky idea, though. No money for that many sets of classrooms.
), the smartest (although they are high honor students and in the top 10 percent of their class) or to be Class President (nope, DS is on the JV Golf Team and in his own words, "the worse player on the whole team, but I sure do have fun." and DD was a cheerleader and also on the danceline.) Holding my kids back did not give them an advantage for making these teams - 14 years of dance enabled my DD that chance and showing up for every practice 3 days a week earned my DS a slot on the team, just like the boys who are a whole year younger than him.
