I think there are 3 reasons parents redshirt kids, or feel that way.
1. They honestly think their child isn't ready and will therefore do poorly in school, or had the experience of their child being the youngest and struggling.
2. They want their kid to be one of the top kids in the class (be it in sports or academics or socially), and older kids have an advantage in the younger grades.
3. Everyone else is doing it, so it must be right, or people are conforming to what everyone else is doing so there won't be an even bigger gap in ages (like a child who is the youngest being with kids who were red-shirted and therefore almost 2 years older).
It would be interesting to see what the percentage breakdown is.
For those who are genuinely concerned their child is not "ready", I think they need to wake up and realize that if the best thing for a child is to "hold them back" because they are immature (or whatever), something is wrong with the school system, not the child. If a school has a certain age cut-off, like a Sept. 1st birthday, then the school should be prepared to deal with ALL kids that fall in that age range that meet the age criteria in a developmentally appropriate way. I seldom hear anyone complain about how strange it is that so many young boys (boys in particular) are held back because they aren't "ready" for school, and therefore challenge the school system for engaging in inappropriate practices. Some schools/teachers actually encourage parents to red-shirt, which I think is absurd.
