Comments on: Should You Redshirt Your Kindergartener?

By: Redshirting doesn’t work at Joanne Jacobs

Redshirting doesn’t work at Joanne Jacobs — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:18:16 +0000

[...] Of course, late starters may be less mature and early starters may be especially bright. However, another study looks at Norwegians, who are required to start school in the year they turn seven. Older starters — those with early-in-the-year birthdays — had no advantage over the younger starters with late birthdays. Matthew Ladner writes: “This fad is like many previous education fads: intuitively plausible but actually worthless.” [...]

By: matthewladner

matthewladner — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:46:51 +0000

So do you gentlemen find fault with the study, or rather trust your own instincts over that of empirical research?

Don’t get me wrong, empirical research can be wrong and/or incomplete, but the one of the main benefits of doing it is to let us know when instinct has led us astray, as it may have with this red-shirt trend.

By: dcowart

dcowart — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:56:22 +0000

I agree with the other comment that there may be no research but the students who struggle the most in Kindergarten and 1st grade are almost always our youngest students. I would continue to encourage parents who have young, developmentally delayed, or struggle socially children to give them the gift of time. Plus, I think there is a benefit on the other end. I would much rather send an 18 or 19 year old student out into the real world/college than a 17 year old.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:04:50 +0000

Eek.

As a first grade teacher I’ll invoke personal experience to say that the majority of the time the kids who struggle are the ones with summer birthdays, i.e. they turned 6 only a few weeks before coming to school for a full day for the first time. I don’t know if keeping them home for an extra year helps, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

I’ll also offer up that the brightest student I’ve ever had was a September 5th birthday who skipped kindergarten, so it’s certainly dependent on the child and their background.