Written by Many parents often start their kids in school a year later than they are actually eligible. There are often many reasons for this: size, social development, signs of delayed learning, etc. A common one, is often so their child can be bigger for sports in the future. A concept I often find puzzling, deciding at age 5 or 6 what your child will like or even be good at in 10 or so years. Why do we put so much emphasis on sports instead of if they are actually ready for school?
What about on the cusp of entering high school, should we think about holding them back then? For the sole purpose of them having a little more size to play sports, but under the guise that we don’t think they are ready for high school yet (but are we ever really ready for high school)? This topic also falls in line with sport specialization at a young age and it does not always work out for everyone due to burn out or even injury. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a high school coach and he shared with me that many kids who specialize so young, stop competing by the time they get to high school because they cannot handle the pressure or consequences, they have put on themselves if they lose.
We preach and seek improvement and development, but why is it at the cost of academic development. Kids who are in fact ready for the next grade but get held back, may fall victim to “I know this, I already did it last year” which can result in grades slipping. As Lucas Rudy quoted in his article about kids needing to play for the fun of the sport, that about 1 in 5,000 high school athletes, will actually play at the professional level. In a lot of sports, if your kid is that good, they may be pulled from school to focus on training full time, think elite gymnastics and soccer academies to name a few. Many students need athletics to get into college, or even pay for it. There is great impact and benefit to so many athletes that have been able to attend a top tier school because of an athletic scholarship. What happens though when these athletes can not maintain the minimum GPA to stay on the team and keep their scholarship? We cannot focus solely on one, and expect the other to follow suit.
Now, I am not a parent, nor was I a super star athlete that had the upper hand because I was slightly older, in fact I was always the youngest, so I cannot say that this tactic is right or wrong, as I am sure there will be amazing examples of both sides of the argument. What I can say, is I echo Lucas Rudy’s argument, and that we should focus on the fun aspects of the game and allow our children to develop athletically hand in hand with academically. Like many things, a specialization in one specific area, will cause other areas to falter. In the long run, we must ask ourselves where our priorities lie?