The 60 Minutes ran a story on this this past Sunday. They intimated the trend in Texas for kids to "redshirt" was athletics related rather than academics. Parents thinking like that should be shot.
It's funny, but I think it really depends on the child. I wish we had held back our oldest son (July Birthday) not for any advantage, but just maturity level. It seems like he could never catch up in school. My daughter (April Birthday), we actually pondered starting her early cause she was so far ahead in K, that even now in 6th grade she is bored. The great thing is she loves to read so she can go through a dozen books in a week in her classes because she finishes her work so fast. I am not sure what we would have to do if she didn't love reading so much.
I had 2 daughters that both are UT grads. My take: you have to assess what the kid needs. Our oldest with a Nov birthday was beyond everyone in Pre-K. So we skipped K and went straight to 1st grade. Ended up in top 10 in HS and cum laude at UT. Always youngest in her class. Other daughter with May birthday was just right for her class and was 15th in HS and summa cum laude at UT. Just depends. Hook'em!!!
If holding back late summer babies became standard practice, wouldn't mid and early summer or even late spring babies now be at a disadvantage? I'm guessing the "doing everything possible to give your kid an edge" philosophy would now dictate they too would be held back. And now late-winter kids are getting the short-end.
Rex- I hear you. Holding back anyone, arbitrarily, after April 1 is a joke. As mentioned, about 100 times, it is mostly dependent on the kid. Are they smart, mature, physically normal for their age, etc. If so, there is no reason to hold back. However, if they are defiecient, compared to their peers, in one of those departments, I would argue for holding them back. Kids aren't lab rats that we get to experiment with. As parents, we owe them the best chance to be happy, productive adults. 6 months is a very small time in a lifeline, but at age 6, a ton of development and growing and maturity and understanding occurs in a 6 month window. You know your child. If they are ready, no worries. it sort of sounds like you are against the practice of possibly holding them back based on some principle/anger you have with the practice. Make a decision based purely on your own kid and not what others are doing. It was amazing to me the facts in the book outliers about the candian hockey team (and also looked at in european soccer leagues). A huge majority of the top players have favorable birthdays relating to when they are eligible to start youth sports. It can not possibly be a coincidence that the youth (10 year old) hockey leagues in canada start on january 1 and that close to 80% of the now olympic hockey team have birthdays in the first 4 months of the year. Same with elite european soccer players. I have no idea about the relevance of these things, other than that they seem to be on to something. Were it my kid, I would like them to have an even playing field from the beginning.
My sister was five days too young to enter first grade in 1961. She had the option to go to private school or wait. She waited and was always glad she did. We lived in a rural community where education - school and students - were poor. My sister could read better than anyone entering second grade. When she entered first grade she was a better student than most all third graders. Looking just at age six or so she should have begun school, but she had more fun in high school.
