Blog by Linda Keenan: The Scourge of Redshirting. Kindergarteners... Not Athletes

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The Scourge of Redshirting. Kindergarteners... Not Athletes

This Mom I had just met at the ice rink was nearly frothing with rage. "There are four boys in Jonah's kindergarten class who are turning 7 in APRIL! 7!" She had been telling me about the elementary school that my son will attend in the coming years and I had asked her about some of the problems she had encountered. One of the biggest grievances she had was the growing practice of redshirting, parents who decide to hold their children, mostly boys, back from starting kindergarten. She felt that these older kids put her child at a distinct disadvantage. Little did this Mom know that one of the potential perpetrators of this spreading plague was standing right before her: me. Because I'm considering redshirting my own boy.

Linda Keenan worked 7 years as a head writer/senior producer for various programs on CNN...read more

My son is a late July birthday, and his district's cut-off date is September 1st. That means he will be one of the youngest children in the class. On top of this, my son has a suite of behaviors that have been evaluated and fall into the realm of the troublesome boy stuff: he has a hard time sitting still, staying calm, and writing letters. Do I really want my boy, with his irrepressible energy, to be the youngest kid in his class? No, I don't. Would you?

I've read the arguments against redshirting. There are some broad social concerns that I never would have fathomed. One is that redshirting hurts Social Security because it delays the entry of young people into the workforce. Revoke my Girl Scout Badge if you will, but the possible deleterious effect of redshirting on Social Security is not going to keep me from doing it. Then there is the general complaint by other parents that redshirting is unfair to the children who aren't held back. I'm not really sure how exactly this unfairness would manifest. It's not as if young children are graded on a curve. Most children I know who've been redshirted were both young for their grade and had a notable deficit in their development. I'm not sure I see these kids easily racing ahead of their peers, even if redshirting turns them from the youngest kids in class to the oldest.

I am under no illusion that holding my son back will be the magic bullet that he needs: there's little hard evidence that redshirting will do that. And so I was quite surprised when I had barely finished my question about redshirting, my pediatrician said "Do It". I had mentioned the lack of evidence but she had no doubt that boys mature a lot later than girls, and younger boys need more time, especially since kindergarten expects a lot more of kids than it used to.

As for the Mom I met at the rink, I sat silently and nodded during her mini-tirade because, well, I just didn't have the cojones to wage a comeback. But I was thinking about one in my mind. I might ask her "would you like to have your kid's teacher spending much of her precious class time getting MY child to settle down and helping him better grasp his pencil? Then I'll send him to school right on time. See you at the PTO!"...read more blogs

markbecker ??Mon, 09/14/2009 ?? 11:11

I think the problem lies in

- submitted by Anonymous on 01/27/2009

I think the problem lies in the different reasons why people redshirt. There are the folks like you -- with boys who are younger and who *need* another year. For you I am so glad that the option to redshirt exists. But then there are the parents I see more of -- the ones who *do* redshirt their sort-of-short boy who was born in February so that he will be larger in 8th grade for lacrosse. Or the folks who want their March birthday kid who has no learning or behavioral issues to be the academic superstar and so hold him out a year so that he'll blow the other kids out of the water come first grade. I know multiple numbers of both these kinds of parents.

The teachers, in my experience, get sucked in. They make a HUGE deal out of kids' ages now. My son is a May birthday, sent to kindergarten at five, right on schedule. Every teacher he's had has made a big deal out of how he's "younger" than the other boys, as if this is his fault. And he's NOT YOUNG. He is a May birthday, with no academic or behavioral issues. But simply being born in May was enough for many of his preschool peers to be held back.

There is an epidemic of parental competition out there that distorts the issue and I think the kids who really benefit from being redshirted get short-changed, because there are so many more who don't need it and they do throw the behavioral and performance curve off for *all* of the other kids. I wish there was some official guidance for kids whose parents want to redshirt; some way for schools to say which kids need it and which parents are off base. But again, I see schools and teachers consider boys "too much work," and so they prefer them to be as old as possible before they have to be dealt with. But prejudice against boys is a whole 'nother issue...

Not sure why anybody should

- submitted by Anonymous on 01/27/2009

Not sure why anybody should care. So what if there's competition or it's done sometimes for "bad" reasons. If you're grounded and keep perspective the whole thing is nonsense. I mjean worrying aobut what or why others do this kind of thing. Grow up, I say, act like adults and this kind of issue won't be one at all except for the warped few.

Well, but it *is* an issue

- submitted by Katie on 01/27/2009

Well, but it *is* an issue when a teacher's idea of a first-grader goes from being six years old to eight. An eight-year-old is far more mature socially and learns differently than a six-year-old does. So the parents of the six-year-old then hear that their kid is "immature" and "needs academic help," when really, he is simply six, which is the traditional age for most first graders. And if you've got a kid who needed to be held back, then he's really going to be at a disadvantage in a roomful of kids who *didn't* need to be held back and who are all older.

Redshirting for the wrong reasons is messing up standards for all kids. There have always been a handful of kids who were redshirted or who repeated a grade; that's nothing new. But having half of a grade be redshirts (as is the case for the kindergarten at our school) is new. There is no way 50 percent of these kids *needed* to wait an additional year. And if that is the case, then the grade levels need retooling across the board, because the old system is not working.

It's not a question of not caring what people think. It's a matter of a large number of parents trying to play the system, and the result is that many other kids get screwed.

don't judge

- submitted by Anonymous on 02/02/2009

Katie, may I assume your child's birthday is nowhere near the cutoff date?

You could, but you would

- submitted by Katie on 02/03/2009

You could, but you would assume wrong. And it is my recent experience that "near" is subject to interpretation. Around here, for a Dec 31 public school cutoff, September is considered "near" the cutoff. For September 1 private school cutoff, May birthdays are considered "near" the cutoff date. I know a kid who was born in March and is the youngest in his class.

I have no issue with the kid who was born in November being given an extra year of preschool. Or the kid who was born in July for a September cut-off date. Or even with the occasional kid who *was* born in March but needs more time. But my original argument stands -- fully 50 percent of kids in a grade were technically not born near the cutoff date (I'm sorry, but a full one-third or one-quarter year is not "near" the cutoff.) And yet 50 percent of kids in any year are being held back. The numbers do not line up.

You'll have an issue when an

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/06/2009

You'll have an issue when an eight year old first grader tells your child there's no Santa Claus.

You'll have an issue when the twelve years olds in fifth grade make fun of your daughter because she doesn't wear a bra, like boys or get her period yet.

You'll have an issue when a 15 year old drives HIMSELF to his eighth grade graduation with his learner's permit and YOUR eighth grader wants to know why he can't ride with him.

You'll have an issue when the nineteen year old boy in your daughter's algebra class asks her out when she's fourteen and she wants to know why she can't go.

You'll also have an issue when there are kids in your son's college class who are TWENTY FOUR to your son's eighteen and he's expected to compete with them for summer internships.

My favorite was the mean seven year old kindergartener who made all the five years old cry because she told them they were "babies who still had their baby teeth." I don't remember losing any teeth until second grade but now they all lose them BEFORE kindergarten.

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