elementary
Considering Kindergarten Experts weigh pros and cons of ‘redshirting’
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sk most parents, and they’ll readily admit that they want to provide their children with every advantage possible and every opportunity to succeed. In some cases, that means making important decisions during those first critical years of formal education: Will the right preschool lead to the best prep school and college? What professors will help further their careers? What careers will afford them the life they want? It’s a lot to consider when planning the future for someone who has yet to master the alphabet, but one of the first such decisions some parents have to make is:
68 BACK TO SCHOOL | FALL 2019
Should we redshirt? Delaying kindergarten takes children who would be among the youngest in one class and postpones advancement so that they are among the oldest in the next class. Once a relatively rare occurrence, “redshirting” has become more common — and controversial — in the past decade. “Many parents think everybody is doing it, but it’s a small percentage,” says Laura Saunders, a psychologist at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living in Connecticut. Most children are enrolled in kindergarten at age 5. In 1968, 4 percent of kindergarten >
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BY VALERIE FINHOLM