Pat on back for parents
There are a few precious moments in every parent’s life when you realize you didn’t inadvertently torpedo your kid’s chances at success and happiness. Last week, I had one.
My vindication came courtesy of a new paper to be published in the Summer 2017 issue of Education Next, a policy research journal. The paper focuses on all the reasons that “academic redshirting” — delaying a child’s entry into kindergarten in order to derive benefit from an extra year of physical growth and social-emotional maturity — can potentially do more harm than good.
“Redshirting is generally not worth it,” write authors Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, and Stephanie Howard Larson, the director of a Montessori school in Wilmette, Illinois.
In fact, they write, “the benefit of being older at the start of kindergarten declines sharply as children move through the school grades.” And, notably, “For the older students (who were redshirted) ... the positive impacts of being more mature are offset by the negative effects of attending class with younger students.” This was music to my ears. My youngest son’s childhood nickname was “The Wiggler” because even in the womb he was in perpetual motion. He was that toddler who could not sit still, and eventually became a