There’s a lot of debate about “redshirting” and whether to send your kid to kindergarten if they’re right on the cusp, or hold them back a year. Conventional wisdom says it’s better for your kid to be among the older ones in the class. Samm Davidson never worried much about it, until now. “It wasn’t until recently, when I signed my September-born daughter up for kindergarten, that I started to have some really passionate feelings about where my child falls on the age continuum of her class,” she writes. “While a lot of people feel good about having their child be old for their grade, I don’t. Despite the statistics that show that she could be at an advantage, after two ‘young’ boys, I am now raising an ‘older’ girl, and I am terrified.” She lays out why in her thought-provoking piece.

Kelly Faircloth, Executive Editor