This is a really interesting issue, wish I would have seen that show. Fortunately, not many people in our area redshirt. I only know of one and he had an August 15 birthday (our district has a Sept. 1 cutoff), and I really think it was more to get him on par developmentally/socially with his classmates rather than to gain some sort of advantage.
I'm curious, though, did the show offer any research that demonstrates either an academic or sports advantage in the long run, say by high school? Or was it just focused on the parents' belief that there is such an advantage?
My perspective on this comes from my kids' birthdays, neither of whom I redshirted, BUT DS8 was born Sept 4 and DS5 was born May 30. So, DS8 was 6 just about his entire kindergarten year and DS5 will be 5 until the last week of school. Right now, this age difference seems significant, although DS5 has had no problems in K, but by the time they are in high school I feel like that difference will have faded. Sometimes now I wish DS8 had been born a week earlier so that he could be in 3rd grade now instead of 2nd, but honestly at age 5 he would have struggled alot socially (especially since we had not yet recognized his SPD and the related behaviors).
So, I just wonder if there have been any demonstrated benefits of redshirting beyond elementary?
Last edited by LNEsMom; 03/04/12 10:19 PM. Reason: typos
