Redshirting: Holding kids back from kindergarten

 

(CBS News) Kindergarten "redshirting" is on the rise. That's the practice of parents holding their children back from kindergarten so they can start school at age 6 -- older, bigger, and more mature than their 5-year-old peers. Some research shows that redshirting will give these youngsters an edge in school, and maybe even in life. But is it fair? After all, as Morley Safer reports, boys are twice as likely to be held back as girls. Whites more than minorities. And the rich redshirt their kids more than the poor.

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The following script is from "Redshirting" which originally aired on March 4, 2012 and was rebroadcast on July 8, 2012. Morley Safer is the correspondent. Deirdre Naphin, producer.

60 Minutes Overtime

Kindergarten Redshirting: What would you do? »

Kindergarten was once milk, cookies and finger paints. In a countrywide epidemic of hyper-parenting, it's becoming blood, sweat and tears. So maybe you played Mozart for your baby while he was still in the womb and gave him Chinese lessons at age 2, tried everything to give your kid an edge and then when he's 5, well you don't exactly cheat, but you game the system.

As we first reported last March, it's called "redshirting": holding your 5-year-old back from kindergarten 'til he's 6 so he'll be among the oldest and smartest kids in class. Parents of a 5-year-old with a late birthday despair that little Johnny will forever be a failure if he has to compete with kids six or eight months older so they put the fix in; hold him back a year so he has the edge in class and ultimately an edge in life.

In the high stakes world of early education, Barrett Hoffecker was unlucky enough to have a summer birthday. If he'd started kindergarten just after turning five in August of 2009, Barrett would have been among the youngest in his class so his mother Megan played the numbers game and put him in a Canton, Georgia, preschool. He went to kindergarten at age 6.

Megan Hoffecker: We wanted to give him that extra year of growth for both size for later on, as well as maturity for him.

Morley Safer: But do you think that gives him an advantage not just in school, but in life?

Hoffecker: I think it does. I would prefer him to be an older in the class and become a leader in his environment, rather than a younger and be more of a follower.

Barrett is now 7, a first grader, oldest in his class and among the brightest.

Hoffecker: He was already reading when he started kindergarten and was pretty ahead of a lot of the people in the-- in his class when he started.

And she has few qualms about giving Barrett a leg up on the competition.

Hoffecker: I don't think it's really cheating the system. I'd do whatever I think within my realm as a parent to make sure that my child is as prepared as they can be for the life challenges.

Safer: And have every advantage?

Hoffecker: Yes.

She's hardly alone. It used to be that everyone started kindergarten at age 5. Today nearly a quarter of some kindergarten classrooms are populated by 6-year-olds. Kindergarten redshirting has more than tripled since the 1970s. Boys are twice as likely to be held back as girls, whites more than minorities and rich more than poor.

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[AnonMom]

2 of my 3 sons have summer birthdays-- my oldest, now 20, would have been well served to have been held back to be the oldest instead of the youngest. The whole concept was unkknown to me when he entered Kindergarten and the issue didn't come up until he was half way through first grade -- it was raised on "maturity" -- he was not reading at the start of 1st grade but then was reading at a 3rd grade level by the end of 1st. He's done fine -- but baseball wound up being very important to him and he was always at the "bottom of the top" of the class -- trying to keep up with the tippy top -- he would have benefitted from not being with a group of kids that were all 12-18 months older -- that was the piece of information I was missing: that all the other boys (save for 2) that were going to be in his high school graduating class were going to be held such that he was going to appear to be really young.... So much for crystal balls. If everyone sent at age 5, it would not have mattered at all. Then, my youngest, 5 years later -- I aksed the question: "Hold him?" and the principal said "no" -- now he's 15 and the reality is that it would have been a huge mistake to have held him -- he's at the top atletically and academically -- having spent his whole life keeping up with 2 older brothers and being the youngest is just something he prides himself on. It hasn't been a problem at all and I think holding him would have been a disaster -- real boredom as he was doing multiplication in 1st grade and reading in kindergarten. So, you've got to approach it by child. The "little guy" is lucky because he went through puberty young --he's not the "smallest" in his grade even though there is only one child in his grade who will turn 15 after he does. He's on the "big side" (for now, he won't be for long). He's shaving. So he doesn't appear to be so young... But the "hold" decison" is very difficult when they're 4 -- you don't know when puberty will hit (there are legal consequences to harmonal boys in class with girls at certain age differences....); you don't know what their interest level will be for sports and what their skill set will be for academics. It's very difficult -- I kind of like the Chicago: send them at their age rule, which is the one I grew up with.

[unicornkc]

I live in Florida, am a retired teacher and find this interesting. In the state of Florida students are not allowed to start kindergarten until they are 5 years old, and if their birthdays do not come before Sept. 1st they are not allowed to start and are required to wait until the following year. For example my daughters birthday is Nov. 8th and was not allowed to start until the school start date after she turned 5, so in other words was not allowed by the school system to start until the August/September before she turned 6. The thing that upset me is that people told me she would have been better to be older and at the top of the class instead of younger and at the bottom of the class. Problem was that we realized later she would have been at the top of the class no matter which year she started - therefore after her 7th year in school we withdrew her and home schooled her (I was not teaching at the time) and then at the age of 16 went and passed the GED received a high score and started college 1 1/2 years before she would have graduated from high school. Even though I taught several years after thisin the public school system I now would not put my child in a public school. They don't know what is best for your child only you do.Do what is best for your child and fight the system if you have do. We did and she has now graduated from college and is very successful, has worked since she was 15 and greatly admired by her fellow workers.

[Aurealia]

Because my birthday was in February, I was required to wait until I was six before entering the first grade. I wanted to learn to read when I was five. I never felt like waiting was an advantage; I was ready when I was ready.

Oh, by the way, the best indicator of a child's success in school is the length of maternal education. Children whose parents are from Mexico where 6th grade is the highest level of free education are disadvantaged. My mother quit school at the 8th grade. In high school and college I was on my own. Not only was my mother unable to help with home work, she was intimidated by my teachers and school administrators. But my mother believed in education and supported me through college.

The Latina in the wood pile

[MichiganDude]

I remember when I was a kid, we went to school when it was time to go to school (1978). Actually, back then, it was "the earlier the better", mainly so mom could get a break from our craziness. Once again, adult fears of failure and rejection have encroached on the lives of children. Give them the best advantage, saddle them with unrealistic expectations. "Son/daughter, if you fail, I've failed - failure is not an option."

[ewcollins]

I did not see a single father interviewed. Do all these boys come from single-parent families? Perhaps their fathers are to busy to be involved, or perhaps their mothers are the type who like to always be in control. Are only boys red-shirted? What about the girls with summer birthdays?

[retiredgustav]

Maybe they were working?

[smittyc]

The drop out rate in H.S. is as high as 40% .(Chicago) Pretty clear something is wrong with the way they run the P.S. system.

[commemorative]

Just because your child is the biggest, tallest or oldest does not guarantee nothing. Every child is created differently. My oldest was advised to say in kindergarten for another year, but I refuse, was it going to guarantee he would do better, no. My decision turned out to be the right one, he didn't do well in school but being held back had nothing to do with it, he was slow and it just took more time for him to catch on to everyday life activities. Today he is a successful cook in a retirement home and is doing fine on his own, I could not be more proud and surprise. I realized that it all had to do with his maturity level, which you learn from responsibility, commitment and everyday life experiences.

[wolfpackred]

The problem is how we structure school in the first place. Chronological age does not determine where children are in their developmental readiness for academic success. Rather than make children/parents feel as though their children are problematic, there is a concept of multi-age classrooms that is designed to think outside of an industrialized concept of education. This is NOT a 21st century concept, yet we cling to traditional ideals of education that promote inequity and stereotypes. http://php.scripts.psu.edu/dept/jrre/articles/v3,n3,p111-115,Pratt.pdf. We continue to assign negative connotations to those who do not attain certain academic/athletic goals by a certain age rather than nurture and recognize that every child has strengths and value in our society.

[nikonkos]

My son shares a birthday with my nephew, separated by 15 years. My nephew was the oldest in his class, my is the youngest in his class. I knew from watching my nephew struggle constantly throughout his school life with being the tallest, oldest, not-fitting-in, bored kid. I would have moved if I had to in order to get my son into kindergarten when he was 5. He ended up starting preschool at age 2, and kindergarten at 4. His is the 1st birthday of the year at school, and is soon followed by classmates turning a year older just as he had caught them in age.

No matter, he is well adjusted, intelligent, engaged in learning and most of all he is happy. I am glad I could give my son the opportunity to get AHEAD instead of being held back.

[abby_del_abbey]

This is the height of stupidity -- I remember that the older child in class was once presumed to be "slower" than the other children in class -- he was presumed to have been "held back" because he couldn't keep up...

Parents have stopped letting children be children and are so hung up on being # 1, the alpha dog, that the children are going end up basket cases if they aren't #1

[christinaaon]

Amen!!