I don't know if it helps the redshirted boys. Good question. I don't see evidence that it makes any difference, but then I don't know how bad it would be for them if they had started school a year earlier.
Some of the redshirting is sports-related, I'm sure. But mostly it's truly academic: it's an attempt to give rambunctious boys more time to mature so that they can sit still in class and keep up. And many MANY parents consider it here. "Will you send him this year or next?" is almost as common a question as "Where will he go to K?"
It sure made it hard on us! I could have handled two years difference in the classroom, but to have 3 years difference? After just one skip? With at least one more skip potentially necessary down the line? That seemed pretty scary to me!
