BINKY BARNES NATION :

Should you redshirt your child? (Steve Sailer, 7/25/02, UPI)

Jamie Horowitz, a Washington, D.C., father of three small boys, faced a dilemma increasingly common among parents, especially middle-class families with boys. Should he and his wife "redshirt" their oldest son so that he spends a second year in pre-school and then finally enters kindergarten at the age of 6, rather than the traditional age of 5?

It's a family decision that is beginning to have a broader social impact as the number mounts of parents voluntarily holding back their children for an extra year before starting kindergarten.

Redshirting was a major question for the Horowitzes because it would mean their boy would be older than most of his classmates for the rest of his educational career. "We had to consider it because we knew so many children who were being held back," Horowitz said. "There's a big difference between a child who is 5 years and a day and a child who is 5 years and 11 months. The older child is just much more advanced and, in theory, ready to learn. Some kids, however, if you hold them back, they may be bored."

Thus continues the war against boys... Posted by Orrin Judd at July 29, 2002 8:16 AM