![]() ![]() The maturity gap is now demonstrated conclusively by neuroscience: Brain development follows a different trajectory for boys than it does for girls. According to a Rand survey, teachers are three times more likely to delay entry for their own sons than their own daughters. The reason little boys wear almost all of the red shirts is not mysterious the fact that boys mature later than girls is one known to every parent, and certainly to every teacher. Among summer-born boys whose parents have bachelor’s degrees, the rate was 20 percent in 2010. But here, too, some children were much more likely to be held back than others: specifically, those with affluent or well-educated parents, and who were white, young for their year, and male. Before the pandemic (which seems to have caused a surge in the practice), about 6 percent of children waited an extra year before beginning kindergarten. One former head of an elite private school who now consults with parents on school choice and admissions told me, “There are effectively two different cutoff dates for school entry: one for boys and one for girls.” I learned that a delayed school entry is now close to the norm for boys who would otherwise be on the young side. In the past few months, I’ve interviewed dozens of private-school teachers, parents, educational consultants, and admissions officers, largely in the D.C. ![]() And it’s a gift overwhelmingly given to boys. The value of a later start, which many teachers and administrators call “the gift of time,” is an open secret in elite circles. The idea of a delayed school start-often referred to as “redshirting,” a term borrowed from athletics-got a burst of popular attention in 2008, when Malcolm Gladwell presented evidence in his book Outliers that children older than their classmates do better on academic tests and in life generally. “By then we were thinking, Why not? ” Schroeder said. When it was time for Jack’s younger brother, Ben, to attend the school, he also started a year later-at his parents’ insistence. ![]() Jack started at the school a year later and ended up flourishing, largely, his father thinks, because of the decision not to rush him. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. ![]()
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