Red Shirting ....What!!

I'd never heard of it until tonight on 60 MINUTES program.

It's holding your child back a year when entering school, so they are among the oldest in the class. It's supposed to give them the "edge in life" - "more chance to do better" - a "better adult life" and etc.

60 Minutes gave the one-side study that it is so, and a book by this guy, that has led so many parents to practice "red shirting" and then they gave the other "expert" guy who gave the other studies that prove it ain't so, and as he said "I guess then the two studies obliterate each other."

Now I was born September 11th, and hence I was just about always the oldest in my class, with no "red shirting" going on back in England in the 1947 when I went to grade 1 at age 5. Did I even think about it as a kid, that I was the oldest in my class? Nope did not! Did it give me some advantage over my class buddies? Nope, don't think it did. Many of them were from grade 1 to 6 better than me in academics! I was what they call a late bloomer - not getting into top gear in academics till after 11 years of age. Then I was always near the top of the class. Did my being older in class give me an edge in athletics and sports? Never thought it did per se. I was born a fast runner, so won the sprint races, not because I was older, but just born a fast runner. What about sport games? Being older or the oldest in class, did that mean I was going to be better at soccer and cricket? Well if it did I sure did not know it. I liked soccer and cricket, so did many of the other boys younger than me, and seemed to have natural gifts in playing those two team sports. I realized I needed to practice and work hard to be skilled at those team sports, if I was going to be on the school team that covered about a 3 grade span. So I worked and practiced, and worked and practiced and practiced more. I eventually become captain of the soccer team. I made it on the cricket team, and was captain in my last year of High School for cricket also.

As people on the 60 Minutes program said, if everyone practiced "red shirting" then there would be no "red shirting" - it would cancel itself out.

Red Shirting ..... it's a bunch of hog-wash folks. Somebody will be the oldest in a class and somebody will be the youngest in class. If your going to send your child to the public school system, do your work with them before they enter grade one, and forget about red shirting, and remember some kids, like myself, are late bloomers. And remember some kids ain't interested in sports per se or athletics......don't try to form them into something they are not; don't try to live out your life through them. Help them to be who they are and what they can be with the talents and abilities they naturally have. Get this correct in your mind, some children will grow up to be blue-collar workers (which covers many skills) and some white-collar workers (which cover many skills).
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