Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Holdbacks are born before sept1 2003


They are not. A holdback is a reclass. It is a kid who repeats a grade -- usually eighth grade -- for non-academic reasons. It is for the purpose of gaining an athletic advantage. A child who holds off beginning kindegarten because he has a late summer birthday is not a holdback. Ask any kindegarten teacher: he or she will tell you that boys are better off waiting if they are a late summer birthday. You might thing: what difference does a couple of months make. Well, it makes a tremendous amount of difference. If you know anything about development or have ever taken an developmental education class, you would know this. Particularly in the modern classroom where kindergarten is what first grade used to be. Students are expected to be reading! This is why pre-first came about in private schools. Kids simply are not ready for the rigor of the curriculum when they are months younger than classmates. It gives parents the prerogative of waiting until the child is ready so that they do not fail from the beginning. If you do not have the option and are not a private school person, you can opt to wait to begin kindergarten in public school if you are a late summer birthday. Do some research about school readiness. Any kindergarten teacher will agree it is advisable. And don't even get me started about a co-ed situation. Boys are typically a full year behind girls in readiness and maturity.


Don't bring logic to this conversation. Those parents knew little Tommy was going to be good at lacrosse when he got to middle school so they signed up to pay an extra $25,000 for him to go to prefirst because they knew he wouldn't be able to compete with kids his own age. HOLDBACK HOLDBACK HOLDBACK


Logic has nothing to do with it. If you think that there are not MANY MANY children held back in kindergartner for the sole purpose to get an advantage, you are either clueless or have no child in a MIAA school... The advantage could be sports for some and academics for others...and of course some could use the extra time before going to First grade...Saying all that..Youth sports is for age and letting a select group get an advantage due to them holding their child back goes against all values in youth sports.


My boys are at an MIAA school. And there are lots of prefirst kids. But you know what? Most of them don't even play sports. All of them were late spring summer birthdays that the school recommended prefirst to based on cognitive skills and preparedness for first grade.

Please tell me. When did youth sports get to the point where a 12 year old couldn't play with and against 13 year olds? My high school age son did. And my middle school son played in 2 year groupings in rec when he was younger. What is the concern? The kids aren't being recruited in 6th and 7th grade, so who cares if there are a few kids that might be a few months older than the rest?