I haven't seen an outbreak of red-shirting in our area, and I only know one family who held a child back - she was a friend of my older dd's in preschool. It wasn't an extreme case of red-shirting though - her birthday was literally 2 days before the cut-off date for our schools, and her parents didn't do it for academics, they did it for social maturity, and it's worked out ok for her. I have another friend in another state who purposely skipped her not-really-all-that-gifted dd ahead a year by starting her early in a private school and by the time she'd reached upper elementary and middle school she was very frustrated by social things that were related to the wide age difference between her dd and the apparently larger number of red-shirted kids in her area.
I don't really have much of an opinion on red-shirting since I don't really know personally any other red-shirted children and I haven't really seen any in my kids' schools - but - I can tell you that my EG ds is one of the oldest kids in his class (always) because of where his birthday falls. I was really frustrated when he was 4 because he was clearly ready (and beyond ready) for kindergarten "academics" but he was too young to start school and our district made no exceptions at that point in time. For him, in hindsight, being the oldest kid in class has been a really good thing. He's had a ton of times that he's been bored intellectually - but as most of us here have discovered with our kids, just bumping up one grade doesn't guarantee your child will not be bored. OTOH, socially it's been really *really* good for him.
I think the things that make a difference in helping kids learn how to stand up for themselves are only partly related to maturity while in school - another important side of it is how the school staff models for the kids and leads them into becoming independent thinkers, leaders, and socially aware.
polarbear
