need to add title here

Malcolm Gladwell's solution to redshirting

March 4, 2012 4:00 PM

Author Malcolm Gladwell says he has the solution to the increasing problem of parents holding their children back from kindergarten until they're 6 years old.

Redshirting: Holding kids back from kindergarten
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by LRGDEA December 16, 2012 2:15 PM EST
It is simple - redshirting should not be allowed. Children who qualify should be legally enrolled in a public school by the deadline. You will then have children within 12 mos of each other in the same class. It may then make sense to split the class into two six month groups for the first couple of years. But the option to hold a child back so that they could be anywhere up to 24 mos older than other classmates should not exist. It is unfair to parent, teachers and the children.
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by mfreedman3 July 16, 2012 10:15 AM EDT
Silliness. I use Gladwell's essay in my HS English class, but don't like his solution for the problem he so brilliantly describes.

As long as you organize classes around age, there will always be a selection bias. Then what about other biases built around multiple intelligences, maturation rate, etc. No matter how you slice it, as long as you view classes as groups, there will be group bias.

My suggestion is to educate the teachers on bias, teach them to actually use differentiation strategies to individuate instruction(rather than the three tiered approach: low. middle, high that is used now) to make them all stars. This is the box educators can't get out of: herd management vs. individualized instruction.
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by manuel-tomas July 9, 2012 8:45 PM EDT
Excellent idea. Maturity at that age varies widely. Of course every child is unique. What applies to one may not apply to another. We chose, some 20 years ago, to hold back our daughter. It paid dividends.

Public school format, created in a vastly different era, with different educational fundamentals, needs change.
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by LTG2012 March 7, 2012 1:09 AM EST
Everyone seems to have watched this episode and there's a lot of talk... of course this could be because I have a child in Kindergarten. I have read Gladwell's book and I see many valid points. However, I tend to agree more with the premiss of brain stimulation mentioned in Rebecca Costa's book, "The Watchman's Rattle." Perhaps this is wishful thinking because my child is a summer baby. But, the logic and the statistics support this idea that your brain needs to warm up before use, just as your body does before you go out for a run. Costa claims that kids who do these simple exercises prior to school have a much better advantage academically than those children that do not. Quite interesting. Thanks 60 Minutes for bringing up the topic. Anyone interested in reading Costa's book can find it on Amazon or www.rebeccacosta.com.
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by HOLLISROBERTL March 6, 2012 10:17 AM EST
This is a silly topic because it doesn't figure in all the variables. For example what is the average age and income of the parents of the kids studied who were held back? Socioeconomic status of the parents give the child more of an advantage than their age. Nutrition alone gives a child huge advantages. If you are going to study this then list most influential variable in a child development the parents. How old are they what are job occupation and how does this infer an advantage.
Bottom-line Kobe Bryant had an advantage in basketball because his father was a pro basketball player who mentored and taught him the game at an early age. If you analyze any sport or activity and success of children look at the interactions of the parents and children. It is funny how one study can find a meaningless correlation and other people just jump on it like it is a universal fact.
Parents prepare their children for success by teaching principles, character, ethics and emotional intelligence. No, wonder American children are lagging behind other western and Asian countries in education. Because , instead of challenging a child to reach their full potential we want to give them false self-esteem and sense of achievement which withers in the face of real adversity. Holding a child back so they will be older and more mature infers what advantage over a tiger mom? Absolutely none. In fact the kids that are held back are more successful in what fields of study besides athletics? Certainly not mathematics, engineering, or other hardcore sciences. My hypothesis is that any one study can point to a possible conclusion that is absolutely false.
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by hharrison22 March 6, 2012 12:54 AM EST
This is such an interesting topic. Gladwell has some really great points. I've read the book and you can't argue with statistics. Check out all of my thoughts on the matter at www.themommypsychologist.com.

"The child psychologist who thought she had all the answers to parenting until she became one herself."
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