I’ve Signed with Miskantonic U.

There are many reasons that parents make decisions about their child’s education and development.  Over the years, various school districts have adjusted the birth dates by which they determine cutoffs for grade eligibility.

Recently this article over at DeadSpin started making the rounds in GorT’s facebook and neighborhood circles.  It’s worth a read.  I’ve seen cases where parents decide to “reclassify” their children with summer birthdays so they are “old” for their class.  I’ve also seen cases where parents “reclassify” their children due to social immaturity or educational struggles.  And yes, I know of cases where neither seem apparent.  Now, I could be making an assumption, but when a family does it for multiple children in what looks like a pretty defined pattern, it starts sounding more like a decision for purely athletic reasons.  I can attest that some of the concerns raised at the end of the article hold true.

This will continue to be an issue – especially as the competitive athletic landscape edges closer and closer to our kids.  By this, I mean that professional leagues recruit from the college ranks and colleges recruit from the high school ranks.  High schools are now recruiting in various forms from elementary schools as well.  In each case, there is the potential, and many will argue the evidence, that this is fraught with problems.

Note: GorT know many Mater Dei families and the generalizations don’t apply across the board.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.