How does this happen? Are their parents waiting until they are 7 or 8 to enroll them in kindergarten? Are they getting left back two and three times? And how are the legitimately taking college courses if they did get left back that many times? Or are they being held back strictly for basketball purposes in the majority of the cases?
1. this could be legitimate reason. . outside of NYC most parents today will keep their children, especially boys, back a year if they are born after July 1st... so some of the kids that are one year older had no say in the matter...
2. Today, kids are being held back in grammar school, on purpose, to gain an advantage atheltically.. this happens all the time in south for football and is happening more frequently for basketball...
3. Lastly... and sadly.. a lot of the inner city kids today are under educated and can't make the grades needed to get past the NCAA Clearinghouse... and instead of being a Prop 48, remember that rule, they go to Prep school for 1 or 2 years and get to enter college at 20 or even 21 as Freshman...
Parents of kids who have the potential to even maybe get an athletic scholarship today are going to do everything they can to get their child every advantage they can... I understand it to a point but the big issue for me is that there is no way that these kids should be permitted to have 4 years of eligibility remaining when they enter college... especially the kids who are in Prep school because of the lack of academic progress or because they just didn't do their work in high school.