Transitional Kindergarten: Delay School at Your Child's Peril?

I tend to agree with it. Children within a grade will fall along a continuum of development and ability no matter where you set the cut-off date. Shifting it, well, just shifts it. My younger son's birthday is the cut-off date, so he'll be, by definition, the youngest child in his kindergarten class, possibly a full year (or more) younger than the oldest child. I would never dream of holding him back. From my perspective, in fact, it's a huge advantage for him.

The New York Times article makes an athletic analogy—to redshirting. So, for purposes of explanation, I'll make an athletic analogy of my own:

For a long time, I played pickup basketball on Tuesday nights. The game was unusual in the world of open gyms in that it welcomed players of all ability levels. There were young former college and club players. There were middle-aged absolute beginners. And there was no groaning, eye-rolling, impatience, or irritation on the part of the former.

Now, I would describe myself as a very experienced but also a minimally talented player, and I can say with absolute certainty that playing amongst highly skilled players improved my game in a lasting way.

I can say that playing with the less experienced players, who worked so hard and so fearlessly to understand the rules and the roles in real time, taught me humility.

I can say that every player in every game found it challenging, even the very high-level players, who had plenty of opportunities to work on their fast-breaks and fakes and give-and-gos, but with the added challenge of finding meaningful and educational ways to include the less experienced players, all while keeping the overall quality of play high.

Most important, I can say that the subset of players who busted their rear ends to get down the court every single time, even in the most hopeless-seeming of fast break situations, and sometimes to great and surprising effect, cut across all ability levels.

Just think about that!

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