Redshirting is when you hold your kid back from kindergarten so that he or she will be one of the oldest kids in the class (and thereby one of the smartest and most developed kids as well, so the theory goes). This practice is spreading like wildfire across suburbs in the US such that the median age for a lot of kindergarteners is now 6 instead of 5. Pretty soon they'll have to move it back to 7, then 8, and then we'll see boys shaving in kindergarten! Just kidding.
But seriously, this kind of advantage is pretty well supported, most recently by pop-academic Malcom Gladwell in his book Outliers. Gladwell writes about how a small edge gives a kid a bigger edge the next year, which gives him an even bigger edge the next, etc. until it snowballs into a great advantage--this is what Gladwell terms "cumulative advantage."
The more developed kindergartener gets a bit more attention from the coach, who will develop him a little more, and becomes the better player in 1st grade, and 2nd grade, and eventually the star player in little league.
Although it works in sports, most parents who 'redshirt' do it for social reasons. They want their kids to be the leaders, the popular ones, the alpha dog. They want their kid to go from success to success, snowballing their sense of confidence and esteem in themselves.
Spouse and I recently watched a 60 Minutes episode on Redshirting and looked at each other in disbelief. After we clicked off the TV, he turns to me and says:
"I don't want Judah to be a winner, or the most popular kid, or the top dog. What I want most is for him to be kind, and compassionate, and gracious, and charitable."
"Wow," I thought to myself, "I sure married the right guy. Those are exactly my values too."
But then I said, "So...you want Judah to be an anti-jerk. That's basically the opposite of you. Ha ha."
Hey, we all want our kids to be better than ourselves!
3 comments:
haha - that photo really says it all
Homeschooling sounds more and more appealing to me...!
But seriously, How do we raise our children to value kindness and charity more than winning and popularity?
Ha ha, oh homeschooling. Frightening spector. I suppose the transfer of these values is no different than other values--consistent reinforcement through words and actions. Of course, it only works to the extent the parents actually have these values too. It's frightening how close the apple truly falls to the tree.
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