Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, joins CBS Mornings Plus to discuss his proposal for a "redshirt" year for boys before kindergarten, a concept outlined in his book "Of Boys and Men." He explains how starting school a year later could address differences in maturity and academic development between boys and girls.

Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men and author of 'Of Boys and Men,' advocates for boys to start kindergarten a year later than girls. He argues that this approach could help address the educational and maturity gap observed between boys and girls, as boys are often developmentally behind their female peers at the same age. Reeves cites data showing boys are generally a grade level behind in English by middle school, have lower high school GPAs, and are less likely to attend college. He references studies indicating that boys who are older for their grade tend to perform better academically, suggesting that delaying kindergarten entry could help level the educational playing field. Reeves also notes that such a policy should not impose extra childcare costs on families, recommending an additional year of pre-kindergarten education instead.

'Of Boys and Men' author suggests boys start kindergarten year later

If you're a college sports fan, you know the term red shirt. It is when an athlete sits out a year from competition. Well, our next guest thinks the same thing should happen for boys heading into kindergarten. Richard Reeves is a president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. In his book, Of Boys and Men, he writes that young boys should start school a year later than girls in an effort to close the education and maturity gap. So how would that work? Richard Reeves is here with more. Richard, hello. Hi. So we've been talking about this in the commercial breaks all throughout the morning, this concept of red shirting for kids going into kindergarten. Why do you think it should be the case? Well, we should start with the fact that there are huge gender gaps in education now, in college enrollment, certainly high school GPA, and in kindergarten. So we see that boys are about a grade level behind in English in the average school district by middle school, way behind in high school GPA, much less likely to go to college. So the question is why? Like, why have boys fallen so far behind in the school system? I think one reason is because boys are younger. So that sounds a bit weird, but you take a five-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl, on average, she's a little bit more mature. You take a 15-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, on average, she's still a little bit older. And there's nothing wrong with the boy. Mentally older. Just developmentally, yeah. So it's a weird thing to say, but I think as soon as you say that to a parent or a teacher and you say, do you find that like a 15 or a five-year-old girl is a little bit readier to learn than the average 15 or five-year-old boy, they're like, well, duh, I didn't need a book to tell me that. Like, that's just common sense. And so I think what we're seeing now is that's showing up. So one way to solve that is just give the boys a bit more time. And in a way, it's leveling the playing field. If you agree that there's this developmental gap, then what this does is it levels the playing field by giving the boys a bit more time. But this developmental gap sounds like something that's been stable for decades, centuries even. Yeah, millennia, maybe. Millennia, yeah, right? It's a slow thing to change, yet we have seen a more pronounced change in the outcomes for boys and girls. Correct. What accounts for that? I think what we've seen is that we're revealing this natural advantage that girls have in the education system. Previously, girls were held back. Let's be honest, girls weren't encouraged to go to college in the 1950s, 1960s, 1920s. And so now that we've taken away the artificial barriers that we put in front of girls and young women, I think what we're seeing is the revealing of this developmental difference that was previously camouflaged by sexism, frankly. And so I think now we're coming to terms with this new gender gap, which is boys being behind girls and figuring out what to do about that. How do we know? Like, have scientists isolated that it is this kind of maturity difference that is a driver of the education inequality and outcomes? Like, how do you know that this is the right fix for the inequality? Well, I want to be clear. I think there are lots of fixes needed. This is not the only thing we should be thinking about. It is beyond dispute that there is a developmental gap on average between boys and girls, especially in adolescence, actually. So although we're focusing here on what to do in kindergarten, the main reason to start boys later in kindergarten is not just because of that kindergarten year, or it's what happens in high school. And there, there's no... I mean, girls hit puberty a year earlier than boys, which triggers this development. Have scientists looked at what happens when boys are held back, or red-shirted? What happens then? So it only happens accidentally right now, where you've got a change in policy, which means that by chance, some boys end up being a little bit older for their year. And it does show that they do better. They're more likely to graduate high school. They've got better test scores, et cetera. And so, and it seems to be much bigger effect for boys than for girls. And so there's at least some evidence that suggests that some of this education gap we're seeing is the result of the developmental gap that we know exists between boys and girls. We could talk about this all day. All day, yeah. One of the things, one of the considerations, if you hold your kid out of kindergarten, that's more money for childcare that you have to spend. It's very important that we don't ask parents to pay for that extra year. It should be an extra year of pre-K and education. Okay, Richard Reeves, thank you so much. Of Boys and Men is available in your favorite bookstore. It's a really great book. You'll love it.

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