"Redshirting" is the sports practice of slowing down an athlete’s academic progress in college so that he can play an extra year. Perhaps one of the most destructive practices for gifted boys is kindergarten redshirting, in which parents delay a child’s entrance into kindergarten by a year to give him extra time to mature. Kindergarten redshirting is quite common, especially in communities where sports achievement is highly valued, and the practice has grown in recent years (Brent, May, & Kundert, 1996). This practice can be harmful to a gifted boy’s educational, emotional, and social development.
Teachers and administrators also tend to be biased in favor of holding boys back from school entrance, particularly when their birth dates fall near the cutoff, but they are thinking of the average boy, who is slower to learn to read, slower to mature socially and emotionally, and more physically active than girls. Boys who are gifted tend to read earlier than average boys (although perhaps not earlier than gifted girls).
So, what are the facts about kindergarten redshirting? First of all, intelligence is an important factor in determining kindergarten readiness. Bright boys may be better off entering kindergarten at a younger age than average boys are, especially if they already have preschool experience (Gullo & Burton, 1992).
In school, the redshirted gifted boy may be miserably bored. If he is six or even seven in kindergarten, he may have been reading for three years. He may be initially excited to enter kindergarten only to learn that they are doing “little kids stuff”—learning colors, letters, and numbers (things he mastered at age two or three). He may try to amuse himself with physical activity, jumping up, raising his hand wildly, and shouting out, but those behaviors get him reprimanded. It doesn’t take long for him to learn to hate school and to dislike other kids. In a few years, he will be insufferable to the teachers, an obviously bright underachiever who seems to always be able to disrupt any teaching geared to the majority of the class.
Many gifted boys seem to suffer a kind of intellectual death in late elementary school, when they learn that it isn’t cool to be the best student in the class (Wolfle, 1991). These boys are usually friendly and mild mannered and seem to have no particular motivation for underachievement. Teachers like them and are mystified by their behavior. Parents are puzzled, frustrated, and angry.
What Is Happening Here?
There are several gender-related explanations.
First, gentle underachievement is an easy way for a boy to establish his independence and individuality. Second, by third grade, the boys who consistently get high grades begin to be teased by other boys. Third, in classrooms where girls are beginning to be more assertive and bolder in their performance, boys may engage in underachieving behaviors as a way of separating themselves from the girls. When boys have few opportunities for working together with girls and few role models for being comfortable with female leadership, they sometimes respond to girls’ leadership with passivity and withdrawal.
One subgroup of gifted boys at risk for underachievement is that of the highly creative, artistic, or musically gifted. They learn early on that they are very different from even many of their gifted counterparts. Their peers don’t really “get them” and they may isolate themselves from their peers.
Another subgroup of gifted boys that may also be at risk of depression and suicide is that of gay and bisexual boys. The extreme cruelty, taunting, bullying, and rejection experienced by these boys may make them give up on life. In addition, the confusion of identity that occurs for most adolescents is likely to be overwhelmingly greater for these gifted boys. There is evidence that among eminent men, those who committed suicide are more likely to have been gay or bisexual (Lester, 1999).
Another trait found disproportionately more often among boys, and which works against them, is their reluctance to seek help. The vast majority of the boys had sought no treatment for stress or depressive symptoms. The boys reported that they were more likely to exercise or use computers when they felt stressed than to talk to friends or family. In general, boys are much more likely than girls to believe that they have no one to turn to.
Given all of the above, it would seem best to direct prevention efforts toward those boys who are highly verbally, artistically, or musically gifted, those who are isolated by their giftedness and other factors, and those who are gay or bisexual. These boys need meaningful relationships with others in which they feel understood, accepted, and valued. Creative boys may need organizations or clubs that are devoted to their talent area or that otherwise provide emotional support, as well as intellectual nourishment. Gay and bisexual boys, in particular, may need support groups and organizations, as well as rules to protect them from abuse and harassment.