redshirt

v. to hold a child back for an extra year before admittance into kindergarten. Subjects: English, Education, Slang

Etymological Note: From sports, where “red-shirting” is holding a player back for an extra season or semester in order to maximize his or her total years of eligibility, to increase skills or maturity, or to otherwise improve suitability for a team or roster. In that context, the term dates to at least as early as 1950.

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Citations: 1985 Omaha World-Herald (Mar. 1) “Guidelines Developed Some Educators Oppose ‘Redshirting’ 5-Year-Olds”: Parents who “redshirt” their 5-year-olds instead of enrolling them in kindergarten are a concern to some Nebraska educators who are trying to reverse the trend of holding children back until age 6 to start school. 1985 Wilbur B. Brookover Journal of Negro Education (Summer) “Can We Make Schools Effective for Minority Students?” vol. 54, no. 3, p. 261: Under the guise of individual differences, meeting individual needs, continuous progress, humanistic education, and now kindergarten redshirting, we have sought to justify shortchanging the children of poor and minorities in American schools. 2007 Elizabeth Weil New York Times (June 3) “When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?”: After the morning announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance, Andersen’s kindergartners sat down on a blue rug. Two, one boy and one girl, had been redshirted—the term, borrowed from sports, describes students held out for a year by their parents so that they will be older, or larger, or more mature, and thus better prepared to handle the increased pressures of kindergarten today.

Posted 4 Jun 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

Not being a sports fan, I’d never heard of this one. I am familiar with the Star Trek derived Red Shirt…otherwise known as the Expendable Crewmember who gets killed early in the episode.

by Kevin Liske 05 Jun 07, 0508 GMT

The Star Trek “red-shirt” is completely unrelated.

by Grant Barrett 05 Jun 07, 0514 GMT