Know Everything About Redshirting

“My kids can learn better if they are a bit older than the recommended age in the school”- Many parents think like this. Especially, moms and dads are of the opinion that older kindergartners can enjoy a more relaxed time on the school premises than the younger ones.

That is how “Redshirting” came into being. The parents postpone their wards’ admission to school and college for providing them the developmental advantage over their contemporary students.

Let’s take our journey from the threshold of “Redshirting.”

The 1970s and 1980s are the most prominent decades where the notion of redshirting is traced prominently. At that specific period, the school districts inaugurated new kindergarten programs. The extension of the half-to-full day has been incorporated in the decorum. The learning proforma achieved the height of popularity due to the structured learning patterns. Due to redshirting the earlier play oriented classrooms have emerged into the academic inclination.

Viewing the prospects of redshirting several schools embraced the similar thinking by cutting of strict age criteria leading to the older pool of learners that also assist the teachers to expect more positive behavioral patterns and good learning skills.

Now the next big question is:

Who can get redshirted?

Researches have shown that children from the higher economic background are more redshirted than the kids of lower income group. The later cannot afford an extra year of childcare with compromization of the academy part.

• Many college students take a year’s gap before getting admission due to specific factors.

Some of them wish to explore the foreign countries and hence go for a long tour of nearly a year visiting different places and updating their traditions, cultures, and specialties. Some of them engage themselves in other activities like sports, professional crash course, vocational studies, etc. Others just want to relax for a year after the consecutive studies of 13-14 years in school. Studies have found out that these reasons pay good returns as the students prepare their mindsets entirely to dedicate the next few years to the college studies.

Are you curious about the work culture of redshirting?

If we behold the land of the U.S, we will find that most of the kids are appropriate age wise to step into the kindergarten, but the parents think that they are not mentally, physically and emotionally fit for the academic environment. Hence, they tend to keep the children in reputed childcare centers or preschools for another year. As per the survey report, around 3.5 to 5.5 % of the little kids are redshirted each year in the States.

Is redshirting fruitful?

Some studies have shown that the older students perform better in the academic aspects than the younger ones. The more aged kids do better on the standardized exams and have more leadership qualities than the rest.

Contradictorily, another study revealed that students, particularly the collegiates get redshirted because they are less likely to grab a bachelor’s degree successfully. They have also earned less as in the sphere of workforce eligibility. But, the older students have finer aptness in the organized sports.

Is there any negativity of redshirting?

It is pointed that older students tend to be over-confident resulting in poor grades. They also possess lack of motivation in the classroom. In few cases, low IQ is the problem where the non-redshirted students outdo the redshirted ones.

Plus, children a year or two older than the peers find it annoying and sometimes shameful to sit with the younger ones. It leads to specific behavioral issues.

In the sphere of sports, we found out that many talented sportspersons are intentionally redshirted by the concerned authorities because the later wish to give them more time for the perfect preparation. It can make the athletes depressed as they are already formulated up to the mark but losing a year for nothing. It also hinders the continuing chapters of the entire sports life as the particular sportsman get a less year in the stipulated career path which indicates fewer matches, less awards, and late stardom. Starting late and resigning at the specified age lessen the professional years in between.

However, redshirting is an advantage for the specially-abled children as they find more time to prepare for the academic and other sessions. They can be trained in the home outside the recognized educational institutions to make their entry smooth in the schools and colleges and keep the same pace with the contemporary peers leading to equality. Hence, redshirting is good but with few limitations.