Malcolm Gladwell Outliers

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Parents want their children to succeed, but what may seem beneficial can sometimes be a calamity. In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, he discusses the debate of redshirting. He uses Canadian hockey to emphasize the big impact that a decision to redshirt a child can have on their athletic and academic lives. Redshirting is the act of postponing a child’s entrance into kindergarten. The cutoff date to commence in education varies from state to state, but it is commonly August or September first. That cut-off date implies that the child must be at the age of five before beginning the academic school year. If a child is born around the months of July and August, parents have the ability to delay their child’s education and have …show more content…
The act of redshirting may not create a significant impact on a kid’s future because “elementary and middle schools could put the January through April-born students in one class, the May through August in another class, and those born in September through December in the third class” (Gladwell 33). Essentially, the negative effects that people think abstaining from redshirting will cause, can be easily fixed by one simple change. Before being too quick to release children into their academic lives, it is necessary to think of the simple ways that the small crisis can be averted. Many parents stress about the decision to redshirt their kids or not, but putting children of similar birth months in the same classes will prevent any havoc, stress, and create an end to the necessity of redshirting. Additionally, choosing not to redshirt children can provide them with better social and academic lives. Research about the benefits of redshirting was explored and “the study indicates that children learn more and are better prepared for academic success when they are provided with intellectually stimulating environments at young ages”