The practice of delaying a child’s start in Kindergarten to gain advantages in education is known as redshirting, borrowed from the term in athletics. The theory was made popular in the 1980’s, over the last few years with the No Child Left Behind Act, and a question for millions of American families with five and six year old children.
In June 2007, The New York Times magazine published an article suggesting that keeping your 5 year old child at home one more year (until the age of 6) would overall have better effects on education. They’d have one more year to mature socially, have higher test scores, and excel in physical aptitude. Teachers were encouraging of this practice, as more mature children are easier to handle in classrooms, and administrators welcomed this practice, because they are more accountable for testing and performance.
New York Times published an opinion page September 24, 2011 titled “Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril” which can be summarized in these 5 excerpts.
1. “The first six years of life are a time of tremendous growth and change in the developing brain. Synapses, the connections between brain cells, are undergoing major reorganization. A 4-year-old’s brain uses more energy than it ever will again. Brain development cannot be put on pause.”
2. “In high school, redshirted children are less motivated and perform less well. By adulthood, they are no better off in wages or educational attainment — in fact, their lifetime earnings are reduced by one year.”
3. “The benefits of interacting with older children may extend to empathetic abilities. Empathy requires the ability to reason about the beliefs of others. This capacity relies on brain maturation, but it is also influenced by interactions with other children.”
4. “Redshirted children begin school with others who are a little further behind them. Because learning is social, the real winners in that situation are their classmates.”
5. “In other words, school makes children smarter.”
Sources:
- 1. Weil, Elizabeth. "When should a child start Kindergarten." The New York Times, June 3, 2007. Online. Available: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E2DC1430F930A35755C0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
- Wang, Sam and Aamodt, Sandra. "Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril." The New York Times Magazine, September 24, 2011. Online. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html?src=me&ref=general
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