Several readers asked that we discuss the growing practice of kindergarten “redshirting” in which parents wait a year to enroll their children in school in the hope that the kids will benefit from being the oldest in the class. The Sunday AJC had a good story on the growing practice.
It’s a vexing issue because the research runs in all directions. I spent Sunday evening reading a half dozen contradictory studies and a slew of advice columns urging parents to ultimately trust their own judgment on whether their child ought to go to kindergarten or whether their child needs the “gift of time” and should sit out a year.
The problem with that advice is that parents, especially first-time parents, may not know what school readiness looks like in a 5-year-old. I have friends who fretted over whether their sons with summer birthdays would suffer from being the youngest in their classes. In one case, the boy turned out to be valedictorian and is now in medical school. At the same time, I have a friend with twin girls born in late August who wishes she had waited a year to start them in kindergarten; her girls excel academically, but are grappling with social problems now that they’re in middle school.
AJC education reporter Rose French tackled this issue in a Sunday piece. Here is an excerpt:
The term "redshirting" is taken from college athletics and refers to the practice of athletes sitting out competition temporarily in order to extend
