Kindergarten Debate

The New York Times piece by Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, "Delay Kindergarten at your Child's Peril," was much in contrast with the first chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. They both spoke of how a child who starts later then their peers, and the effects from it. This delay is also known as redshirting.
In Outliers, Gladwell speaks of how being older brings a "accumulative advantage." I agree with this statement, and I have seen it applied in real life. Like how the book mentions, athletes who are born earlier in the year have had more time to practice, and are at a physical advantage to those who's birth dates are towards the end of the year. Also in many circumstances, this applies to school. Those who are born within the first few months of the year have an advantage to others. They have had more time learning math, and reading.
Nevertheless, I disagree with Wang and Aamodt. They claim that redshirting affects a child's learning in a negative way. I have seen myself that holding a child back doesn't leave them behind. My cousin has a learning disability in which he does not hear, and understand as well as other children. He is also unable to process multiple requests at the same time. Since the problem was noticed before he began schooling, my aunt held him back a year. Then, she placed him in a special needs school. There my cousin excelled, and did extremely well in school. He caught up, and is at the level of most children his age. All because he waited a year. This year, he was placed into the regular public school, and he is doing very well.

Introductory Blog Post

-First name: emily (:
-Grade: Freshmen
-Favorite subjects in school: Does lunch count? Lunch,
Geometry, Gifted and Talented, and English.
-Favorite topics to learn about: Mythology
-Hobbies/Interests/What you do in your free time: Play lots of soccer, play piano, and read.
-Potential career goal: Something with computers..
-What makes you happy: Soccer, piano, reading, spending time with my friends, eating......(: