TOO YOUNG FOR SCHOOL
TOO YOUNG FOR SCHOOL This article out of the UK examines whether they are forcing their kids to start school and start reading at too young an age. The official age is 5 though some kids apparently start a year younger.
Although we get our children off to an early start, we wallow at the bottom of league tables of international literacy and numeracy, below economic rivals such as Holland, Switzerland, Canada and the US, where children start school later. In fact, research continually shows that children whose formal education starts later soon catch up.
According to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), of 32 countries in which reading standards have been measured, the top 10 all have a later starting age. In countries where children are not taught reading, writing or written numbers until they are six or seven, they make very rapid progress once these disciplines are introduced, having developed attention span, listening and memory in the meantime.
Looks like HSers (particularly unschoolers) have been on the side of the angels on this issue all along. Compare the Europeans attitudes towards early schooling with this story from June. Think our fascination with starting them young would have any relationship to this quote from the UK article?
There is, of course, one very good reason for many people to be happy with the current school starting age – child care.