Redshirting

After reading this article in the New York Times The Littlest Redshirts I was more interested (as usual) in the reader comments that followed online. The social scientist in me loves reading all the varied opinions and "solutions" of  our citizens. I had to scroll pretty far down before I found one from a Montessori parent. I appreciated her sense of calm in respect to her child's age at entering school:



I think the cause of the redshirting problem is two-fold:

1. Kindergarten has become way too academic. Kids who are 5 should not be sitting at desks doing worksheets. They should be learning through exploration of the world around them.


2. The rigidity of the traditional public school system is ill suited to meeting children's unique needs because it places them in an artificial age-based box. My 3 year old son, for example, is very academically gifted and is far ahead of his chronological peers intellectually but his emotional and social skills age are at or below his chronological age. Because of that disparity we decided to place him a Montessori school where the class age levels overlap and where multiple ages are in the same classroom. He has really blossomed because he is able to play with children his own age while doing the more challenging work that he is ready to do.

I've found that the parents at his Montessori school aren't stressed about the redshirting problem at all because they know that the school will be able to place their children where they fit best.