[eratia]

Could that holdback continue to be on the academic team.......member of the band.....member of FCA? All of those things are extra-curricular.

Seriously, if a kid is good enough to make the academic team, he or she probably has no reason or desire to hold back. In addition to that, I can't think of a single example of a kid holding back so he or she can really rack up points in quick recall.

Band is not a sport, and therefore, not relevent to this discussion. FCA is a club that every athlete should participate in, but not something to be governed. Again, there's never been an occasion of someone holding back to play a smoother trumpet solo, or to pray for athletics. There's no competitive edge to be gained there, so they'd only be held back if there was a specific academic or social need.

Everyone's justification for 'holding back' just for sports seems to be that everyone else is doing it, or I don't want my kid to go to college at 17, or I want my middle school team to be really good. Does that mean, someday, you'll encourage them to wait a year before they take that job, or get married, or have that first child? Maybe they should wait a year to go to church, or to drive a car. After all, we want them to be as prepared as possible for the world. Another year waited on everything would do that, right?

The truth is, having a kid 'hold back' just for sports is bad for the quality of the game. We should raise the quality of play for everyone, not just the schools who cooperate with the 'hold back' mentality. Nothing makes a kid shine more than to stand out among his peers, rather than standing out when playing against kids younger than him. That would be cosmetic standing out, not actual standing out.

Who would it hurt to limit each student to one year only per grade level?