Some parents opting to ‘redshirt’ kindergarteners
Aug 29, 2012, 6:33 AM | Updated: Sep 21, 2012, 4:57 pm
PHOENIX — Usually the term “redshirt,” is used in the context of a college athlete sitting out freshman year, but for some parents, “redshirt” means holding their 5-year-old out of kindergarten until they’re 6, when they may be more ready to start school.
Arizona law says a child must be 5 by Sept. 1 in order to enter kindergarten. Melinda Piyis of Phoenix believes that the decision whether to hold kids out until 6 should be up to parents.
She didn’t redshirt her three children, but they all have November birthdays. She’s glad that they were a bit older, especially her son.
“I think he’s a typical boy and wants to move and groove,” she said. “I think that it was really benefiting them to be the older group of kids in kindergarten.”
Piyis knows other parents whose kids entered kindergarten at 5. Some of them did well, but one child had problems by the second grade.
“He was really struggling,” she said.
The boy’s mother ended up holding him back, going to another school, then going back to the original school and enrolling him in second grade again.
“Now, he’s doing fine,” Piyis said.
Those who redshirt their children feel their kids may have an edge. They hope that being an older student will help them do better in school, sports or leadership now or in the future.
The National Association for the Education of Young People disagrees. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, redshirting is a bad idea. While older kindergarten kids may do better when they get to first and second grade, by third grade the differences disappear, the paper said.
Amy Corriveau of the Arizona Department of Education said each kid is different.
“Teachers should be meeting the needs where the children are,” she said. “Some children enter kindergarten when they are five by one day and are very successful. Some have to struggle, but that could be the same if they entered when they were six.”
Corriveau said the decision on whether to redshirt is up to each individual parent.